robertwheeler

I am monitoring this situation very closely.... The words flat out broke really come into this. I'm not sure if the noise is from the frame. The CV shaft on the drivers side is so shot it just might be that the CV is thunking into its resting position when i hit the brakes. If the frame was as bad As I thought the floor board should have shown some cracking too. It isn't that i don't believe you or I'm not grateful for your help here.... Its back to the wall time and I just don't have any money right now... if the car was a bad as I thought it was at first i would have that puppy off the road and id be calling in favors... Robert

My lashup is holding pretty well.... another hose is giving out.... the one that is directly behind the thermostat housing... going up and down... A fairly easy fix if I pop the top off the turbo... I might even to be able to just cut the end for now. What a mess of hoses. Robert

Unibody I guess. There are 2 bars that run fore and aft... or either side... these terminate a bit forward of the front seats. The one on the drivers side is bent... flattened and somewhat cracked... I think if I baby it , it will last a few more weeks. This car has so many other issues... the wheel problems could be agravated by the severly destroyed cv-shafts. The rod that holds the wheel steady dosent look to bad... I think sometimes I can feel the frame shifting. Robert

Its the front im sure of right now..... but when I push the rear down I get noises from both struts, my first guess was wheel bearings.... but they are tight... What small bit I could see of the rear chassis looks ok. The wheels dont look too good.... the top part of the front wheel's is pushing out from the side of the car.... something is throwing them severely out of alignment. As for not driving it.... there is the rub... only car we have and no money... have to hope for the best.

For my 87 Subaru GL Wagon. I have been monitoring a load thunking noice from my left front wheel. It seemed to get worse over time and then you here it when you brake. I took a look under a few mins ago.... My marginal chassis has started to flatten and bend and mostly on the driver side... there is a rod that goes from the chassis to the frame by the ball joint.... where this attachs to the chassis is just forward of the break/bend/tear. This is the issue to end all issues. Robert

It isnt the tool's thats the problem.... its the money As much as I would love to get the helicoils or a full set of tap's and bits... I have to save a dollar or 2 incase the motor falls out next week. What I really need is a suggested size of tap and matching bit.. to minimize the outflow of money I dont have.

This might sound a bit silly but I don't have a set of taps or bits. I think that the size might be 5/16 and thread up to me.... Does anyone who has done this know what size bit and tap to use? As for the job itself... its in an almost ridiculously easy place to tap.. long as I can figure what tools I need Thanks Robert

Catastrophic alternator belt failure last night and why does it always happen when you out in the deep of night and on a lonely road? Looking at the belt I think it was just a really cheap one. The one I got from napa seems thicker. I noticed that the inner edge of the belt is brushing the idler for the inner belt... but I dont think was the cause and I think that when the new belt wears in a bit it wont brush anymore. Last night was unreal.... I and some other people tryed to rig something so we would charge at least part of the drive home... Gotta give Milton and Vinny a lot of credit... they found no less then 4 belts... was a good try even if they were all a bit too big. I had to drive down the country roads with only parking lights... and I put on the heads when we saw another car... Somehow or another we made it.. the batt was so low even the ignition was breaking up and I had to undershift to keep running. 15 miles with no alt.... and it started this am too. And the belt is 2 inchs larger then that listed at napa.... and Im gonna carry a spare.

There is something to be said for both options. Helicoils cost more but work great and on the other hand... I have never tapped aluminum before.. can it be tricky? This car has a lot wrong with it.. i mainly got it cause my brother was going to junk it anyway... Cv Shafts front (both) , brakes , 2 tires , at least one ball joint... lots of small things... but I dont like the way the chassis looks in the front... But Im grateful for the comment's Robert

I noticed I was losing a lot of coolant and it seemed to be coming from the general direction of the rear part of the thermostat housing. I didnt realize until After the damage was done that it was the hose in the back that goes up to the turbo thing on the top of the engine that was dry rotted and cracked. The front most bolt snapped off hard.... normally this is a non issue with me and not a problem. There was a good 1/8 of an inch on top and I tried to turn it with the vise grips.... no good... I tried an easy out but i think I picked one too small and it shattered in the hole i had drilled. At the moment I have it sorta glued together with gasket sealer and it has the barest seep... its night time... cant do much in the dark and we do need to get around. There are several options.. but i'm too aggravated to do much of anything now anyway. This bolt is in major tight.. even heating it with propane didnt loose it... and the part on top is getting smaller.... I think my best bet would be to take a cold chisel to it and cut it down flush and then I have two or 3 things that could work.... If the busted part of the easy out comes out I can re drill for a larger easy out and try that again... I don't think I drilled far enough anyway. Looking at the housing I don't think i have to over worry about drilling too far,, as the hole is isolated from coolant anyway.... and that brings me to option 2 .. drill as much of the bolt out as I can... try to salvage the original threads or Option 3 drill it all the way.. but not through the timing cover... and then get a longer bolt from the top and a nut over the timing cover.... a bit of care with washers up top should make this workable without doing a job on the timing cover. This has to have happened before.. bi metal corrosion... how did you deal with it? Robert

I could use some more comments here.... I sat in my car and revved the engine a bit and the driver side of the engine did rise some. It may well have been this that worked off the hose. This might have a case of extreme bad timing and not sabotage after all. Robert

That's Great My gl looks a lot like yours.... But mine has a lot of issues. Starting with the rear tires. I went into a gentle right curve at about 60.... and the car tryed to do a back flip.... I only just got it back. It cant just be the tires. At anyrate seeing your gl gives an idea of what I should be getting Robert

The clamp wasnt stripped.... and the hose is in great shape... I was able to slide it right back on and tighen.. thing is a knuckle knocker. My brother owned this car for 3 years before i got it... niether of us ever changed the lower hose. Thanks for your replys Robert

I noticed last night I seemed to be losing a bit of antifreeze... I know I have a leaky thermostat gasket So i just figured it had to be that and Id fix it tomorrow. I got to work (I'm a delivery driver) and I found a major puddle under the front of the car and it looked as if the radiator had been holed in a bad way. I filled it up and went home to try and figure it out.... I checked the hoses and the bottom part of the lower hose came off in my hand... the clamp seemed a bit loose. I got it back on... lost a nights work and I'm covered in grease head to toe... The hose shows the normal wear and tear..... and otherwise is intact... but really need to know if this can happen. I am having problems with a neighbor and I think this might be the latest in a string of harassments which caused me to make him even more angry. This could have been much more serious and this clamp is very easy to reach from the bottom.

I did some follow up reading on this. If I understand correctly most of the car's that we have in this forum.... older generation are part time 4wd. And by design or lack there of.... 4wd on dry pavement isn't a great idea.... Since the wheel's theoreticly start at the same speed... but this changes dynamically as you turn.... or even just driving. I suspect that my binding problem will be less of an issue in the snow... as the snow would allow the wheels to equalize a bit more.... But I definitely need to get some decent rubber on this Subaru..... not all the 4wd in the world is going to help me with these tires. Robert

Tire size's... that I will found out about.... As I need 3 of these. My Brother had this car for over 3 years and about 33k miles.... None of these parts where ever changed... and it seemed to work ok for the first 2 years. Thanks Robert

As you may have guessed from reading the topic line in this thread I am having problems with using 4wd on this car. I have a couple of Idea's based on past experience with other cars... I would like to understand exactly how this 4wd works so I can properly Diagnose it. First IL explain my problem briefly. I popped it into 4wd today and it was very difficult to get it moving... and after I got it moving.... it quickly dragged to a halt. I managed to get it parked and then it took several Min's to get the 4wd solenoid to disengage... I think it came out after I put the car into reverse... As I understand the way it works.... its not unlike the back part of an older rear wheel drive car.... you have a differential and in the case of this subu a long drive shaft coming from the rear of the trans-axle to the differential. What I'm really not sure of is where the solenoid that causes 4wd to select the other 2 wheels is actually located and functioning... My Guess is it's on the transaxle somewhere. If this is true then the rear differential and the drive shaft will spin when ever the car is in motion.... not be engaged to the trans-axle.... and if this is the case it leads to believe the problem is in the part of the trans-axle that serves as Rear Power take off for the car..... and just maybe if it is separate from what drives the front wheels.... Either lack of fluid (gear oil) or some related problem. Anything at all that would help me understand this functioning would be quite nice Thanks Robert

It dosent sound so good does it? But in reality you will pull the plug while the engine is cold and remove the wire off the cap..... its gonna be noisey.. very noisey but I cant think of another way to increase the odd's of the seal working. Not for the faint of heart Robert

Sorry I guess I could have been clearer. The bar seems to be secured to the chassis ok. The parts I'm referring to are at the end of the bar and connect then to the lower... if it was an American Car Id call it an A-frame... I suppose its more of the lower hub or strut assembly. It actually looks like two small I shaped brackets that go on either side of the end of the sway bar... with a piece of rubber in the center and then the same thing where it connect to the wheel hub assembly . I guess its really the rubber that needs changing... its not a great design as the rubber just seems to pass though and isn't well supported. Il look for a pic.. or maybe i can draw it an scan it. Thanks Robert

These bolts are proving to be hard to find... lots of m10's but only with coarser threads.... 1.50 , I may be forced to order these from my Local Subaru dealer... But I'm still looking. Robert

After reading this Ive had a thought. If the leak in the water jacket or in the cylinder wall is forcing exhaust into the coolant maybe you can just figure out what cyclinder is effected. Consider this the last resort... Take out the plug for the cyclinder that seems to be pushing exhaust into the cooling system.... be prepared for noise... and if this works... also be prepared to change the oil afterwards. Consider that if the plug is removed and the engine is running... a scarey and very noisy thought.... they might even be a chance that the block sealer might even work.... simply because you are blowing most of the compression out the hole where the plug should be. I would expect this to allow a bit of coolant and sealer into the crack or blown gasket better then fighting against compression. Your asking to get coolant in your oil and if it works that something you gotta fix right away.. Dont even consider doing this unless your ready to junk the car.... this is not something to try on a car that you plan to keep for years... and of course you do need to know what plug to remove. This is Dangerous and Noisy... but it might work. But only as a last , and I mean Final resort. Robert

Bar's is good stuff but isn't without its risks. A lot of how this works seem to be exactly how bad the gasket is blown and where. If your losing coolant and its not mixed with oil or Exhaust then this might work.... big might. But if your getting exhaust into the radiator then you are expecting the pressure in the cooling system to fight against the pressure of engine compression... Oddly enough if you have this problem and its also an external leak it might seal it... but otherwise it likely wont work... That stuff in Australia sound real good.... long as you don't plan on keeping your motor forever... of course it could make a nice paper weight for your desk at work. Robert

Hi Just a couple of quick ones here. Why does it seem that most Subaru's covered in the the years that this forum covers.... look like that have had their hood's sprayed with AV Gas? Uncertain whether its a stabilizer or a sway bar.. in the front. I know I need new links... 2 bolts and nuts per side and some really cheap little bracket affairs. If this is the stock part , its real bad.... does anyone know a good place to get these that goes beyond the original Spec's? Thanks Robert

Excuse for for jumping in here Just a question.... is it worth getting offroad tires and not getting the extra wide rims that would seem to make it look nicer anyway? Robert

Sweet looking car Except for the wheel's and the missing sun roof It look's almost exactly like my '87. Funny you should mention rim's Someone gave me a nice set of bridgestone tires... but they are 14's... I need 13's of course... not to say I wouldnt love to have some 14 inch rims. Robert