zyewdall

Wow. yeah. We need pics

Well, as long as it's frozen, that snow isn't doing any harm. It's when it starts melting..... you want it to get out of there as soon as you can. But, engines are fairly waterproof, it probably won't hurt it. Z

Come on... you have to post pics and tell us how it got stuck. Does it still run? Can you get another suby to it? How about a Sami or yota -- those are alot smaller than most jeeps and chevys for fitting down tiny trails after subarus. If there is even a way of getting a battery and winch in there (on the back of the ATV), you should be able to winch it out even if it fell off a cliff -- there's trees in WA to anchor to, so worst case, you have to just winch it back up the cliff, I would think. Now, with the snow right now, it might be spring before it could be recovered, but it's not impossible.

So... my Justy officially has not enough torque. In wind drifted snow, the engine just slows down, and finally stalls, and it's really not good for the clutch to drop it at 3k to get out of drifts. Kind of like my friend's Legacy, actually, only a little worse. My old GL wagon didn't feel as powerful as the Justy on the road, but with the low range and the torquier EA engine, it would not stop as long as the wheels were touching the ground (once you high centered it.... that was a different matter ) I want low range on the Justy :-\ or... maybe it's an excuse to stick an EJ22 and the 5 speed dual range and the pugs on my '82 wagon sitting in my yard finally.

GRRRR. How come it's not snowing in Colorado? I grew up in north eastern WA, and it was usualy way snowier there than it is in Colorado. I even moved up to 9,300 feet elevation, and it isn't helping. We have maybe 8" on the ground here now (not very uniform because of the wind). If the weather doesn't improve here, I'm going to have to move back to washington or idaho.

yeah.... ___t happens. Two years ago here, a county dumptruck plow (yes, the big orange 40,000lb ones) got stuck on a big drift and they had to bring the big grader to get it out. And, I don't know how many times I've gone over to houses and found cars stuck in driveways -- my friend's FJ40 completely embedded in a drift almost to his house, a client's F250 plow truck buried level with the hood in a wind drift... We're getting 50mph gusts and it's 5 degrees at my house tonight. Not much snow though so the drifts are staying pretty tame compared to normal. Hope you can get it out tomorrow.

What car and year? pics?

Not to hijack your thread... but instead of starting an identical one.... I'm trying to fix a friend's 1990 Legacy, with the 4EAT. It's lost rear wheel drive altogether (I was driving beside him on some icy roads, and watching the wheels, and it's only getting power to the front wheels). Just over 100k miles, all original. I'll go through and check the TCU codes like you said. But my other question is if it's something with the Vss or the control circuit that's causing it to not send power to the rear wheels, could I just wire in a duty C solenoid bypass -- then he'd have 2wd and 4wd option, and no more all wheel drive. But that would be fine, I think. Obviously, if it's something wrong with the clutch pack itself, that's not going to work.

I second the el-wire suggestion. I go to burningman too.

Updated some pics:

Mine has been running on 3 cylinders for the past 6 months and runs great -- though being a Justy, it's not quite fair -- it only has three to begin with. My '89 GL is also a three cylinder now -- burned out exhaust valve I think. I did drive it about 50 miles after it happened, including up the hill to Ward from Boulder -- 4,000 feet elevation. It actually ran find at speed, just not much power, but vibrated a little oddly at idle. I need to drive it back to Boulder to a warm garage to swap the engine out, actually...

Here's mine -- Newfoundland Malamute mix, about a year old. Aurora Borealis, or Bory for short. About 130lbs. Yes, he does fit in the Justy (the entire back seat is set up as his place). He's the one on the right, playing with his sister He's the rightmost one, again, with his brother and another sister, and a friend's dog (the brown one is a 40 lb lab mix...., to give you an idea of the size...) Looking out over the view.

Nothing in the forward position either? I had that happen once, where the low-beam relay went out, but the hi-beam relay was still working, so forward and pulled back, the hi-beams worked, but no lo beams in the normal position. But if the hi-beams don't work in the forwards position, then it sounds like the switch itself died somehow, not the relay. Z

My browser says the Hi-jumper website is out of compliance... anyone else have that? Z

My snow tires don't handle significantly differently than the all-season's I run in the summer. Gas mileage goes down a little, and they are noisier, but other than that, not a whole lot of difference. You sure can tell the difference in snow though -- the all seasons are useable, but pretty easy to put the car into a slide. The studded snows you have to try to put the car into a slide (it's still possible, but you have to try). My commute usually has portions that are packed snow and ice (with no guard rails on the cliffs... gotta love Colorado's guard rail theory) for at least four or five months a year, too.... down in Denver I probably wouldn't care quite as much because snow melts in a day or two and it's flat.

Well.. not sure about the whole spongy feeling part... but the symptom of not being able to get into 1st or reverse easily is a classic sign that the cable is too loose -- so even with the pedal fully depressed, it's not quite fully disengaging the clutch. I had one car that I had to retighten it once a month because the cable kept stretching. If you've already adjusted it till the clutch fork has no slack, that's kind of odd that it wouldn't disengage all the way -- have you checked exactly where it engages? If it engages right on the floor, it might be too loose like I said, but if it engages relatively high on the pedal stroke, it must be something else.... Z

I had something similar happen on my old '85 GL wagon once -- on a very cold day (-5F or so) it overheated badly, and started spurting coolant and dripping oil it got so hot. I don't know if it was a bad thermostat that stuck closed, or if the coolant started icing up and clogged the radiator or what... but that engine was HOT. The next day it was fine... but about 6 months later it developed head gasket trouble. Z

I've always had good luck with subaru's in the cold. The Justy started yeterday morning at -3F just fine. My '89GL wagon never had trouble with the cold, and even the older carbureated subaru's started in the cold fine (yes, one of them often refused to idle when warm, but it never failed to start in the cold.....). I run 5W50 synthetic in them -- gotta put synthetic in the Justy's transmission... it felt like molasses in the morning... I've never had a block heater on any of them. I could not for the life of me get my old tractor started yesterday though. Jumping another battery to the starter motor to crank it faster, starter fluid, everything.... not even a pop. Oh well.... Guess I need a block heater on it Z

That's pretty normal for the 5MT transmissions too. My '89GL would be doing about 3500rpm at 75mph on the highway. And oddly, keeping the engine at that rpm doesn't decrease the gas mileage... got 31mpg on a highway trip keeping it at 75ish on I70 most the time. Z

The '84 uses an EA81 engine, and the '87 wagon uses an EA82 engine -- which is actually a little larger, so the EA81 won't have any trouble fitting, however, the radiator hoses are on different places (I think), and the batteries are on opposet sides of the engine and such. You'd have to redo some wiring and hoses and such, I think, but the two engines do share the same mounting and such, so it can be done without any special adaptors mechanically... I've never done it, but there are people on here who have.

Huh? I just left the studs sticking out with no fan bolted to them on mine when I removed it (okay... just didn't feel like putting it back on after a side of the road timing belt change). I didn't put the electric fan back on either. It still only runs at half on the temp gauge at most (I don't have working A/C any more though, and I rarely sit in summer traffice -- usually moving along pretty well). Z

That's a nice looking old Ford. What year? I'm going to guess '71. I've done cars with a sprayer, and with rattle cans. Can't beat the quickness and cost of the rattle cans -- about $50 for the whole thing, using about 10 cans of the good industrial stuff IIRC. But, using real car paint and a sprayer (two part urethane) sure made a nicer finish that holds up under the sun and such better. If it's a nice car, buy car paint and spray it. If it's an old beater... spray paint it. Z

f Yup.... BTDT... I spread one out using too small a punch, and actually had to take the grinding wheel and grind the entire side of the axle off :banghead: I replaced them with bolts

If you are in a subaru-rich area, it seems to be a bit cheaper to just swap in another EA82... I just got a used one in good condition for $250. I would think that in Oregon it should be about as easy to find one. I doubt you could do an entire rebuild for that much. Of course, it won't be as good as an entire rebuild... but a used one with fewer miles would probably last another few years. Z

Is it a little click, or a loud click? I've had problems with EA81 and EA82 starters in that when they fail, the solinoid clicks loudly, but nothing else happens -- started doing it every 10th time, and finally got to the point where it did it 95% of the time, instead of starting. New starter fixed it in that case. If you jump 12volts directly to the solenoid (thus bypassing all the other stuff), and measure that it's still at least 12 volts or so, and it still won't spin, then it's probably the solenoid/starter assembly itself. Z