zyewdall

Is it the hill holder in the brake system maybe?

I have a stock SPFI EA82, and it takes lowest grade of gas (85 octane here in colorado) if I'm driving it around on the flatland. If I head into the mountain, it pings on low grade going up hills (especially in hot weather) so I have to switch to mid grade (87 octane). My method of increasing the gas mileage for my subaru is going to be putting a VW diesel engine in it -- it seems you just can't get much better than mid 30's with a gas engine in a subaru, but a diesel should have no trouble getting high 40's.

I doubt it's tranny fluid. Bad fluid could cause the syncros to not work quite properly, and grind a little going into each gear, but I don't think it could cause it to not actually go into gear. I use 80W90 gear oil in mine. On these cars the inner CV joints slide over a splined shaft that sticks out of the side of the transmission, so you can take them off without affecting the tranny at all. Just drive out the little pin that keeps it on the shaft, and it will slide off -- on mine it won't quite come all the way off unless I loosen all the transmission and motor mounts to shift the tranny over a little though. There's got to be a better way to do that.... The inner right front CV boot always seems to go -- I think because the cat is right under it and overheats it. I'm going to put an aluminum heat shield on mine that I just replaced.

I've never had this particular problem. Unfortunately, it does sound internal. but before you start tearing trannies apart or anything, I would check to make sure there's nothing binding up on the linkage. I have had 5th gear act like that once because something fell into in the shift linkage and kept it from going forward to the right. If you take off the rubber boot on the shift lever, you can look at the shift linkage from the top and see if anything is amiss there. Also, does it shift into 2nd easily when the engine is off, or does it act the same. Nice snow tires BTW. Should be fun to drive around in the snow.

Yeah, ideally. But I figured that what was important was the temperature of the engine block, because that is what has problems and blows out head gaskets when it gets too hot. By gluing it on with JB weld it should give a pretty accurate picture of the temperature of the block. And it is supposed to withstand up to 400F itself. I usually measured between 190 and 220 for block temperature when it was running properly. Of course, you could also figure out how to put the mechanical gauge in the port where the old temperature sending unit was. I was just too lazy to do this....

I don't know if someone already suggested this, but I would buy a mechanical temperature gauge, and JB weld the sensor to the top of the engine block. Then at least you know if the engine is getting too hot or not. I did this after my gauge went bad, followed by the thermostat, causing me to overheat the engine to the point of dripping oil out of seals and blowing the head gasket by the time I knew it.

I second that. After you get it fixed, you should also check the battery fluid level -- if it's one you can get into. Voltage anything over about 15 will cause increased water loss, and can boil batteries dry eventually. You see this alot more on poorly adjusted PV systems than automobiles, but it can happen if you car regulator is set too high as well.

I've got an extra one, but shipping it from Colorado to Indiana won't be cheap... Let me know if you don't find one closer.

Uh, don't you have to wire it in the nuetral position to let the car start? I thought that that was what the nuetral safety was for... I still don't know why they thought it was necessary to put it on there at all. I've already got my foot on the clutch and the parking brake on.... Now automatic transmissions, those ARE dangerous -- everytime I drive one I end up jamming my left foot on the brake and locking the tires up.

Wow! It took me about 7 hours to swap a SPFI EA82... Still loads better than anything else on the road. Geez, I hate transverse engines....

My '82 GL wagon was only with the highbeams. And only if you held the switch in, since the catch was broken:brow:.

Ha ha My old '85 wagon the whole dash lights (for the digital dash) would randomly flash on and off with the turn signals.... the old subaru's were pretty notorious for having electrical gremlins, although I had an '84 wagon without any problems at all... Zeke

Here's a way to do it. Tap into the parking light wire right next to the radiator. If you've got an '84 or newer car, it automatically turns on when the ignition is on, and off when the ignition is off (if you keep the headligh switch permanently on like I do). Zeke

I think it should come on when the engine is hot, and the ignition is on. Does anyone remember whether it stays on after you shut the ignition off on subarus?

Maybe, but it could be that the alternator just cuts out as the engine rpm gets too low. A symtom rather than a cause. What year is the car? SPFI or carbed?

I hooked mine up to a toggle switch on the dash. If you were inventive, you could probably splice it into a wire that only has power with the ignition on, to make it run whenever the ignition was on, and turn off when you turned it off to avoid accidentally draining the battery. But what I've found, is that if it chronically overheats (and the second fan works properly with the thermostat), that it probably needs a new radiator... Just keeping the fan on isn't going to do it.

I was referring to the GL being hi/lo range 4wd, and the Loyale being pushbutton 4wd. Physically they are interchangeable, as far as connecting to engine, axles, driveshaft, mounts, etc.

Is the ECU giving any codes to narrow down which part it doesn't like? Only suggestion I have is to replace new components with old ones one at a time (if it ran with the old ones). Every once in a while, you buy a new part thats DOA.

I just reassembled my '87 GL wagon with its new engine and clutch, and it runs good now. However, the clutch feels really weird -- it engages at the very top (which I assume is an adjustment issue), but there is very little feedback compared to what I am used to in my '89 GL. Sort of feels like I'm putting my foot through molasses or something -- like it's got a damper instead of a spring on there... I'm wondering if this could be because I don't have the hillholder hooked up, and maybe it provides the spring to return the pedal? Or maybe the clutch cable is just needs lubrication? Anyone else ever experience this? Zeke

The GL wagon is the same as the Loyale, except for the transmission. They were both called the Leone in non-US countries and didn't get the name shift in 1990 like we did here. I just got done putting the engine from a '91 Loyale into a '87 GL (SPFI-California car). It was a direct replacement except for two things. 1) The plugs for the engine harness are different shapes, so I had to cut the plugs off the '91 chassis and solder the wires onto the wires coming out of the '87 chassis so it would plug into the '91 engine harness. Luckily all the wire colors matched up. 2) The distributor uses different colored wires. I just pulled the distributor from the '87 engine and dropped it in the '91 and it fired right up. Now I just have to figure out why the clutch feels so weird..... Seriously wondering if I had forgotten how to drive a stick when I first took it out yesterday.

I just did this on my '87 GL. Just jack it up, set the parking brake, take the big axle nut off, and pound on the end of the axle (with a block of wood between the hammer and the axle). You have to disconnect the inside from the tranny first so it has room to go back. What I haven't figured out yet is how to get the axle reconnected to the tranny (the engine was out when I took it off so the tranny would shift from side to side). It won't quite clear the splined transaxle shaft to go back on now that I've put the engine back in. So I've either got to take the hub off the front control arm, or loosen the engine and tranny mounts to shift it a quarter inch over. Zeke

Agreed. Last time I got stuck in the suby was crossing a not-frozen-enough snowdrift in May. About 50 feet in I slide off the packed tracks and sat on the frame...,:banghead: with 75 feet to go to the other side. If I'd had a rear winch, I could have just pulled myself out. A front winch, I don't know... Turned out we got a dodge 4x4 hemi stuck trying to pull me out (I told him, don't get on the slanted part of the drift... he had highway tires on too) Three ATV's. each with 2,500lb winches, eventually pulled us both out. Just in time for a Toyota Tacoma to try it, get stuck, and finally slog through to the other side with four wheel chains.

On my '89 wagon it makes big icicle creations on the mudflaps when driving on the highway slush, but I've never had the wheel well totally filled up. My dad's 96 OBW does do the wheel well thing sometimes...The deepest I've driven in was 19". It probably helps that it's almost always really powdery snow here, so it doesn't stick and pack much in the morning, and when I come back in the afternoon, it's usually melted off all the roads. (joys of living in Colorado -- you can experience 2 feet of snow, and 65 degrees within two days).

Well, this summer I took my stock '89 GL wagon up an overgrown dirt road. Not bad at all. Probably could have made it in FWD if I floored it, but I put it in 4WD lo just to crawl over some bumps slower. My friend was following in a '03 Ford Explorer. Still made it but she had alot harder time because even with about the same clearance, it's much wider and heavier, and couldn't dart between trees and bushes near as easily. And there was one section that she only had about 4" to spare before rolling off the edge, whereas I still had over a foot. A hummer would have been about a foot to wide to even fit on the road.... The forest service actually has difficulty with that when the national guard tried to help with forest fires -- the hummers don't fit up any of the overgrown 5' wide forest roads....

What do you mean by full power to the battery? Do you mean it has good voltage, and the 8-10 volts is measured somewhere else, or that you measured charging current at the battery, or what?