zyewdall

Well, subaru's are not set up like a front wheel drive car at all. Those are a complete pain in the neck to get out because you have to unbolt axles and pull engines and trannies together, plus the darn thing is installed sideways and you can't get to the back of it. The subaru is actually almost the same setup as a V8 chevy. The engine is longitudinally mounted, and you simply unbolt it from the tranny and motor mounts, and lift it out. But if it's just a broken timing belt, there's no reason to pull the engine at all. Just put in a new timing belt.

This happened to to my '85 GL too -- it overheated badly on a 0 degree day. I have no idea why. I thought perhaps I had actually frozen the antifreeze in the radiator, but that doesn't make a whole lot of sense. I'm not sure what the logic is to taking the radiator cap off to let it cool -- unless he wanted to add more coolant. If it's using coolant, its probably blown a head gasket. Just having low coolant makes it overheat too. Having the heat shut off sounds like low coolant as well. But after you filled it up, it should've gone back to normal if that was the only problem, unless you had an air bubble. I don't know if maybe the thermostat on these cars gets messed up if the air temp is too cold. Seems like it should get hot just from the heat conducting up from the block even if cold air is around it. Especially if it's overheating. And then the heat should still work since it doesn't go through the thermostat right? Dunno....

Update: Turbone is right, but I took the easy way out and just swapped disty's. Fired right up. For more info, I was getting an 11 and 13 code when it wouldn't work.

Update: It appeared to be routed right. I replaced it with a new one, and it's good now. Maybe the silicon spray lubricant just wasn't compatible with whatever the factory lubricant was, or who knows. Squeaky wheel gets the grease (or in this case, gets replaced).

Update: I replaced the pump with the ones from the parts engine, and it's fine. But guess what was leaking (I found out after replacing it). The pressure line that screws into the body of the pump was loose. This short piece of line that screws into the pump body on the lower end, and to the hard line going off to the left side of the engine at the other end, was missing the tab that holds it to the resevoir on the PS pump assembly. When I reconnected the top connection after swapping the engines, I bumped it since it wasn't anchored, and unscrewed the connection down on the pump a little. Oooooooooppps.

Update: I replaced the clutch cable, and it feels fine now. Guess I just had an old stiff one.

Yeah. My '82 used to always not go into reverse if it was in four lo already. You had to put it in 4 hi, then reverse, then put it back into four lo, and it would work. It was the linkage just under the console causing that, not the shift levers though.

Hmmm. Maybe. My truck doesn't have any line up pins for the shifters (transmission from a '86 truck, when the line up pins were in the shift tower, and shift tower from a '84, when the line up pins were in the transmission). You can find all kinds of places in between actual gears that don't do anything. Fun one is right next to first, thats actually still in nuetral. I'm used to it now and don't even notice the absence of em but even when I was learning it, I never had it get stuck anywhere. It could happen though I guess if bushings were worn enough.... Also check the obvious -- my dad had a pair of sunglasses fall from the dash onto the shift lever area of his outback, and keep the lever from moving forward into 5th any more. He thought the tranny had suddenly lost 5th, till he turned the light on and saw the sunglasses sitting there.... Zeke

I have to take issue with the gas mileage comment on the VW turbodiesels. My friend has a 99 TDI jetta, and it gets 42mpg on road trips, cruising about 90mph. If we slow down to a more reasonable speed (hard because it has so much power on the highway), it gets closer to 50mpg. Given that it feels much more powerful than a civic which might get similar mileage, I think this mileage is very good. The engine is very well built mechanically and will probably last forever in this catagory. Electronically, it does leave something to be desired and seems to be the shop several times a year for bizzare electrical control problems and the rest of the car isn't built as well as the japanese ones though, so don't expect to get 400k miles without some maintenance expense. I heard rumors that honda was going to be importing the diesel civic to the US next year -- if that's true, it should get similar or better mileage to the VW jetta, with way better reliability.

Hmmm. I had my hill holder misadjusted, so it never released once after I pulled into a parking space. Locked the wheels so bad that it couldn't even budge in four low 1st gear. But that doesn't really address why it's stuck in reverse/4th. Dunno...

Mice aren't all that bad. Pack rats are what I hate. I've had them bring in a good 2 gallon bucket of grass/bark/fungi, etc to the engine comparment in a day or two, and also tend to bite through anything in their way -- like spark plug wires or fan belts....

Sooo. I was looking at buying tire chains, and found that there more out there than the old ladder type twist link chains that I was used to growing up. Has anyone used the " WHITESTAR™ DIAMOND-PATTERN TIRE CHAINS " http://www.jcwhitney.com/autoparts/Product/showCustom-0/Pr-p_Product.CATENTRY_ID:2009532/c-10101/Nty-1/p-2009532/Ntx-mode+matchallpartial/N-10101/tf-Browse/s-10101/Ntk-AllTextSearchGroup?Ntt=tire%20chains I am getting them primarily for deep snow, not on road or mud use. Regular 4wd and good tires works fine most the time, but when churning through snow, I could use more. To be honest, these are for my truck, not my suby, because it doesn't do as well as the suby in 4wd until I get in stuff deep enough that the suby would be high centering. But I might get some for the suby too if I like them. Are the diamond pattern ones really better than the ladder type chains? Or easier to get on? Why should I pay $178 for a set of four instead of $72 for a set of four ladder type chains. Thanks Zeke

Nice area. I drove through there last wednesday on my trip down to the reservation. Didn't get a chance to get off the paved road in Utah though.

Well, different cars do have different feel to the clutch, but I'd think about replacing the clutch cable (does the '96 still use a cable, or were they all hydraulic by then?). I did that on my '87 GL, and it made a world of difference.

If the owners manual says that the tires must be replaced in sets of four, then you might be able to convince insurance to pay for it. If there is not visible damage to the tire or rim, I wouldn't hold out hopes of getting anything for it though. I would get the alignment checked for sure.

Can you get aftermarket fuel pumps for 60psi? I've always used the generic aftermarket fuel pumps for carbureated and diesel engines, but I can't remember if I've seen any that are high pressure ones.

Most of this has already been said, but to recap: 1) Get good snow tires. They are what holds you to the road. 2) practice loosing control in a snow covered parking lot if you've never driven on snow before. 3) make sure you have weight over the rear wheels, and learn to use engine braking 4) test the road. The first thing I do after leaving my house in the winter and pulling out onto the road is get to what I think is a safe speed, then jam on the brakes to see exactly how much traction I really have (obviously with no other cars around, and somewhere safe to slide a bit). Often I decide to slow down a bit more. 5) watch out for other lunatics driving around and sliding into you in big SUV's with bald tires and too much horsepower. 6) don't be over confident, but don't panic either. 7) try to keep it in 2wd as long as possible. Then you always know you can put it in 4wd and get out when you get stuck. I don't always stick to this rule myself, but it's a good one. 8) Chains are more for low speed trudging through unplowed snow. Probably not needed if you are on plowed roads/highways. Subaru has a good 4wd system that usually doesn't let you down till you loose ground clearance. However --- practice putting chains on, and driving in some snow with them. That way if you do get stuck in a drift and need them, you aren't seeing them for the first time. 9) carry a small shovel. It sucks to use your hands to try to dig out.

Actually all of them are silicon except for a few exceptions -- mostly calculators and such -- which are cadmium telluride, or copper indium disulfide. The amorphous silicon is not as efficient (3-6%) compared to the crystalline silicon (up to 20% for the high end stuff), but it's flexible (unisolar brand is at least, because they don't use glass). We use it for roofing membrane or laminate onto steel roofing. It's not actually any cheaper for large areas, although the little car chargers seem to be cheaper for the amorphous ones. I work designing 20,000 sq ft PV arrays for commercial buildings, so I look at all the different types all the time. I put these little modules (between 5 and 20 watts) on all of my cars -- mostly just to maintain the battery if I let it sit for a long time, although I also run lights, radio, and inverter from them sometimes. My work truck is getting a 80 watt panel soon. Be aware that the little car charger ones are often not water proof, whereas you can do just about anything to the bigger ones without hurting them. (I've seen the the unisolar modules with large dents from blowing off roofs, and they still work fine) The desulfators deliver a very high current pulse of energy to the battery to knock sulfate crystals off of the plates. This pulse can either be from a solar panel, or from energy taken from the battery itself (in which case you need an auxiliary charger to make up for the small draw of the desulfator). I've had good luck with the second type, but never tried the first, since I always had a much larger PV array charging the battery anyway. backwoodssolar.com has a little cheaper prices than real goods, and there are hundreds of other internet stores out there selling solar panels too. A far cry from 1985 when I got my first one and there were only two retailers in the entire US.

Yeah -- the reason the radiator and heater core were cold was that the coolant was low, from being slowly burned. Sounds like the classic head gasket to me. When I blew mine I got a cloud of white smoke for a minute or so, then nothing till two weeks later it overheated bad, and when I checked, it was about a gallon low on coolant. Never did see any smoke past the first burst, and I never got oil in the coolant or vice versa either. Just used alot of coolant. I've heard estimates from $1200 to $2800 on this forum for fixing it. If you don't have a cracked block. If you are mechanically inclined and have a warm garage, you could do it yourself, for about $400 in parts. I'd allow two full weekends, based on my experience.

Well, on old loyales, you need to add a quart every 1200 miles, so it gives you a chance to check even more frequently for anything falling off....

Hmmm. I've never paid that much for a car period....

Yeah. I've actually calculated that running with the headlights on will drop about 1 or 1.5mpg off your mileage. But I've seen enough people hesitate and not pull out in front of me because I had my headlights on that I will accept the mileage decrease. The other alternative is to get a big enough truck (like a duece and a half army truck) that I don't care if I run headlong into another car. Which I don't consider a very ethical solution to the problem. I am considering rewiring the circuit so I can always run with the headlights on, but turn the parking lights on separately since I don't need them all on during the day and all combined the parking lights take about as much as the two headlights.

I've never put a capacitor on a car amp, but I did get a EE degree, so we dealt with plenty of capacitors. You'd want to hook it the negative terminal of the capacitor to the negative or ground of the amp, and the positive terminal to the power terminal of the amp. Don't hook it up backwards. Electrolytic capacitors explode if you hook them up backwards because they generate gas inside of them till they explode. One the size of a pencil eraser will make a good firecracker pop if reverse connected to about 20 volts. Out of concern for my own safety I've never tried a bigger one. Most big capacitors will be electrolytic, but they might not be. I'm imagining one the size of a can of beans to get any where near 1 farad at 16 or 25 volt rating. Also, put a resistor with a 60 second RC constant or so across the terminals of the capacitor. Otherwise the big ones can stay charged for a long time, and can produce a significant arc if accidentally shorted after being charged up to even 14 volts. These are just my thinking if you go out and buy a generic capacitor at the electronics store. If you buy one designed for an amp, it probably comes with instructions and the discharge resistor and such, like DrKrazy said. I like the part about being able to crank the starter motor with it.

Yeah, on VW's reverse and 1st are right next to each other and people occasionally interchange them Glad he didn't get to much of a running start.

Yeah, I know who owns it (or at least the family who lives in the camp right next to it, so I presume it was theirs). We delivered a semi truck full of donated food to the reservation, and this family's place was the staging center. I've got too many projects carwise right now to think about taking this on, but I thought someone else might be interested. Love to see it back on the road instead of composting. What would something like this be worth? I suspect it doesn't run, or they'd still be using it, but the body was in great condition. Oh, one thing you can't see in the picture is I think that the windshield is missing, so the inside's been a little exposed to elements. Actually, we had a tandem axle trailer and a dodge cummins truck down there, so we could've brought it back to Colorado yesterday with us. Didn't think of that. We're going down there again next spring, so maybe we can grab it then. And I'll keep an eye out for any other old suby's there -- every camp on the reservation has about 10-20 old cars behind it. Mostly pickups, but if anyone needs mostly rust free parts from 70's and earlier vehicles, the reservation is the place to get em.