MilesFox

If you had been driving on a loose axle nut, bet on the wheel bearings have been compromised. the axle nut may have come loose if the flat washer was installed backwards (spring washer with a concave side towards the hub, convex toward the nut. Failed wheel bearings can be vage if you try traditional methods for diagnosing it (wiggling the wheel, etc) Replacing the bearings is not much more work than replacing the axle itself.

^^ haynes manual subaru 1600&1800

Do you have the old door to salvage the parts from?

You can also swap in the whole manual window track into the power door. if you had all 4 power doors, the body of the car has the main harness already build in; plug and play.

If you have oil in the intake, replace the PCV valve. on later models it is molded inside of the rubber hose, but otherwise should be on the back of the manifold near the throttle body. Ypu may have poor fitment withthe spark plug wires, i was fooled by thm once with similar symptoms. You did right by using NGK wires and plugs. for auto zone and chain stores that show 'listed, but not available', forget them and try ordering thru napa if you have one local. don't trust the economy brand parts at chain stores, and places like that who have a premium brand will be available as the middle brand at napa, for less cost, usually.

you may have the plug wires crossed on the 1.3 side. firing order is 1-3-2-4. Rotation is counter clockwise. #1 on the cap is just to the right of the clip/screw on the rear of the cap. Cylinder arrangement is: 3 4 1 2 as long as you had not removed the disty, the disty timing should still be correct. An aftermarket cap may have mis marked positions as some cross reference with weird isuzu makes. Please see the you tube videos if that will help clarify. (any 'milesfox', 'ea82' or 'subaru timing belt' search should find them. There will be some slack in the cam belt that may make the notch on the cam be off by half a mark. be sure that the taught side of the belt is true withthe cam, and when you take the slack out and tighten the tensioner, it is ok if the cam moves to the left of the mark, as long as the belt does not skip. Double check your plug wires order, especially if you get popping and backfires out of the throttle body.

Driving around on a failed duty c (like in-town driving) can cause the rear clutch basket to shear off the driven shaft, therefore breaking the 4wd, although this would make it a FWD funtioning trans.

"I believe" and "i am certain" mean 2 different things. If you do have odd size or unevenly worn tires, mount the 2 best matching diagonal from eachother.

When adding fluid, it is best to put the car in gear to take it on. Also, it is best to cycle through the gears between each drain and fill to clean out all the valving. Try this if you haven't. hold the trans in each gear while idling for about 15 second each. This is how we do at an oil change shop when servicing customer vehicles. Later generation fluids *should* be backward compatible, at least a synthetic trans fluid that works with type 6, 5 and 5, also with type 2 and 3 such as regular ATF (dextron/mercon) Good luck

MAintenance records are key. 200,000 miles doesn't mean the car is used up. likely with high enough miles, it already has lots of new wear items like struts, brakes, timing belts, wheel bearing, etc. The car is wonderfully easy to service for the mechanically inclined. Regular fluid change, and driving habits by previous owners have more to do with it than how many miles. I once saw a clean looking legay in a junkyard, and was wondering why it was there. Upon closer inspection, it had 350,000 mi on it. I had a 94 lgacy with a slow to engage stmptom with 105,ooo mi. old car plus low miles equals sitting and or not having been serviced yet. Hogher miles reflect the level of maintence to achieve those iles, and actively driving keeps wear even and prevents dry rot and corrosion. my 98 forester trans mission works great, with 250,000 mi. the folks' 98 forester just rolled 200,000 mi since they had it from 175,000 no problem. I would think your 95-98 trans would be more reliable, as my experience with a failed duty and slow to engage(internal seal) were with first gen legacy. Ideal year to have is 95-96, which is a 2nd gen legacy, but still not interference and backward compatible with 90-94 first gen legacy engine. The 97 and up are interference designs that can damage the engine from timing belt failure, versus just replace the belt with a non-interference.

I could see painting the reflector if projectors are used. I could go ghetto-gold for the effect, but that would be too ghetto for this car. Blackout could be a consideration with a projector beam, and perhaps eyelids as well if the reflector is not necessary for the projector. maybe some kind of gold foil like you see on intercooler wraps and such.

Replacing the radiator is a good idea. One could be had at napa for about 125-175 bucks. IT is good insurance along with the timing belt, not as if it were a shotgun approach to troubleshoot. Replacing the water pump would have been a good idea for all the labor involved with the timing belt. Perhaps you could go back in and do that along with the radiator, since you will be draining coolant. Use only an oem type thermostat with the little jangly ball and the fattie brass thermocouple. It would be possible to re-torque the heads as the bolts are exposed; six of them on each side. Be sure to find a proper procedure and torque values. Likely you have an air pocket in the cooling system. One way to tell and if the coolant is low is the heater goes lukewarm and cold before the coolant is low enough to overheat. It's possible the water pump is inefficient. Perhaps the pulley is dragging on the belt, or the impeller is worn. You did mention squeaky sounds near the water pump before the timing belt job. If you smell burning rubber at anytime, this is your culprit. To burp the air pocket, you must ensure the thermostat is open. There is a vent cap on the side opposite of the radiator fill cap to let air out of the ratiator tank as you add. Often times it is more successful to add coolant to the vent hole. If you had disconnected the hoses or drained the coolant, it is best to fill the block via the upper radiator hose. What happens is the coolant comes out while adding, while the air pocket is behind it in the engine. once the radiator tops off, it backs into the air pocket, and the air pocket pushes the coolant back out, although the air pocket itself does not come with it. This is why the vent hole works for filling coolant.

you will need the ea81 trans crossmember on the ea82 trans. you wil also have to swap over the pitch bar mont form the ea81 onto the ea82 bellhousing. It is possible to use the ea81 intake and carb on the ea82 block, unless the ea82 is already a carb unit. The leads to the disty will have to be lengthened to attach to the coil you can use an ea82 radiator. otherwise, you will need a flexo hose for the lower. the timing belt covers may be close if your rig is lifted. You may have to install the engine first, and then the disty to clear the brake master cylinder. You may have to relocate the ill holder by undoing its mount and flxing it out of the way. You may have to cut a mounting tab off the disty and clock it something crazy, and rearrange the plug wires to compensate.

the idle air control valve may be stuck, gummed up, or slow to respond. treat it with sea- foam. Interesting trans sound analogous to sheep. make sure the axles are not bad or clicking

The trans may be buggy frpom sticy or slow solenoids, and the trans is electronically operated. Inspwct the duty c slenoid and the clutch packs at the rear of the trans for wear. The clutch bsket can wear grooves, causing the 4wd to stick. The clutch pack is much like a motorcycle. Aside from lackof routine maintenance or fluid changes, how a trans is driven can affect its performance. It should be brought up to temp often enough if seeing mainly short drives, and it should get a good romp now and again so that all the parts can wear evenly, pressures build up, and everything gets flexed. I would suggest in your case, run a trans cleaner through it, gor for some spirited driving, and then change the fluids. Don't bother with dropping the pan if it is not leaking, as the 'filter' is just a screen, unless you need to get at the solenoids if they are your prrroblem based on troubleshooting. Also, chenk the front diff oil which is the short dipstick on top of the trnas. many a trans failure can be attributed to neglect of the front diff by simply not knowing it is ther eto check and service. some of the older trans could have a internal sela failure causing a slow to engage forward or reverse from park.

you can jump a wire from thebattery to the small tab on the starter to work around the ign switch and circuitry.

Runnint the duty c solenoid 100% (with the fwd fuse) can cause it to burn out, ans it does not normally operate at 100% duty. All of the running gear to the rear end is still the same amount of drag wheter or not there is power there, so there is no efficiency to gain by inserting the FWD fuse, but you may comprmise the duty C solenoid by doing so.

Perhaps the battery cable was loose, or the alternator output wire is going bad. doule check the output wire, and also the skinny withe on the positive battery where it goes to the fuse panel under the dash. Perhaps the alternator failed temporarilt. maybe it overheated. IF the alternator is unusually warm, replace it.

Tou must be confused about the timing marks, as you align the crankshaft (flywheel) to the III mark and not the 0 deg mark. when the crank is at the III mark, all of the pistons are at the center of their stroke, allowing you to turn the cams without valve interference. You should turn the cams clock wise with engine rotoation tpo set your mark. avoid turning them backwards. And never turn the crank backwards as it can cavitate the oil pump seals. and do not use any arrows for timing belt alignment. use only the hash marks

A build date of 6/97 or later would make it a 98 model year. junk yard officials should know this

Make sure the gearing is the same, otherwise swap the diff original to the donor trans. The forester may have a lower gear, search the charts. otherwise it will swap and plug in the same as do 2.2's and 2'5's between 95-98 legacy, 95-98 impreza, and 98 forester, give or take an egr valve.

Give the girl props for at least considering the car should have oil in it. the over filled oil and the timing is likely a coincidence.

I forgot to mention that for the starter you will have to jumo t he pins in the shifter harness, or install a pushbutton. You will have to hack in the reverse with varipus harness bits or splice. The solenoids you will have to mount, and just make a dpdt switch for it to operate them. The on-demand 4wd system between AT and MT, are different in operation. The AT is just an on-off switch to the TCU, whereas the pusbutton 5mt is a DP/DT switch and an alternate ganged pair of solenoids, where one is open, one is closed, alternately, to move the diaphragm for the 4wd. The 4wd can be engaged or disengaged activated by physically moving the actuator cable. A lever or vacuum is preferred, as the engagement is easiest whenthe wheels are rolling, and steered straight.

Make sure the tensioner is tight on the belt as it shouldn't skip. You would only have to remove this if you are changing the shaft seal. There are undersize seals for worn shafts, so measure it if you do, but otherwise leave it alone if it looks good. Otherwise, you can remove the whole pump, and take the pump to the bench and clamp it doen ain a vise with a rag or blocks of wood to protect the rotor, and take it off that way. You can take the cam seal reatiners off the motor and to the bench to change the seals if you want to since the belts are off anyway.

You could probably invent a vin number based on the vin number chart, and make it match your year, body, engine, driveline, and trim, and add to the remainder serial to make it a 17 digit vin. Likely the software thinks it;'s an incomplete entry. This is just an idea. I am only speculating.