Hondasucks

My car makes a whining noise that comes from under teh hood when I press teh gas pedal, especially after the little green light on the dash comes on

Here in Albany we have this Mexican guy that works at Scwabs, I DO NOT let him anywhere NEAR my car, he's one of those guys, that it's obvious he knows jack squat about cars, and is only there because of affirmative action. Not to slam anyone who is mexican or anything, but this is one of those guys who is not only a complete moron, but also speaks poor english as well. Last time I went in there was because oen of my snow tires wasn't holding air, he told me that "tires lose air over time" I told him the tires on my car had been on it for over a year, and I've never had to add air. Got a blank stare on that one. On top of that, he didn't mount the tire correctly so later in my friends driveway it came off the bead. And I took my parents' Sable wagon in there for a flat repair, and when they put it up on the lift they crushed a fuel line, and got grease all over the interior. I was at my friends house when I noticed that there was fuel everywhere, so I called them up, they came out and patched it, and then I drove it back there where they took about 4 hours to fix it, all the while teling me it was "my fault" because I had been out "4 wheeling" in the car.. It had been wrecked before, and the undercarriage was a little bangtified, but nothing near where the fuel lines were that got damaged. (Leave it to Ford to run the lines underneath where they can get damaged, rather than inside like Subaru does.)

I can make it on Monday, I'll bring the Pink Martini too if she wants to come, I'm sure she'll wanna see the Rubicon tape too :-P

Dude, that's friggin cool!!!!! I'd pimp that around, would make my friend's Toyota look like a full size :-P

RUSSELL you better not let Ahna see that or we are both going to get it :-P As for the battery thing, make sure that lawnmower battery is a 12 volt battery, some lawnmowers use 6 volt batteries. AS for it not starting, make sure there isn't a kill switch somewhere that is on, and there also might be a fuel shut-off switch, our lawnmower has one, it's down next to the carburetor, has a little picture of a gas pump next to it. If you can't get it started, just let it grow, and Tim will have to mow it when he gets back, his punishment for not showing you how to work the mower :-P

even WITH proper maintenance (Fluid and filter change every 30,000 miles -- none of this 100,000 mile crap the manufacturer says! Yes I know that external filter is 35 bucks, but what's cheaper -- 35 bucks or 4 grand for a transmission?) the most I've seen an automatic go is 200 to 250,000 miles, but since most people never change their fluid and filter, most automatics only last 150,000 or so. Manuals, on the other hand, will go for 3-400,000. The one drawback, is an automatic is, for the most part, cheaper and easier to rebuild than a manual.

CalebZ, he has an automatic, the 4WD is not vacuum actuated on the automatic. There is an electric solenoid on the rear of teh transmission, mounted to the side, in the rear housing. There is one on either side of the transmission, one is the 4WD solenoid, and the other I think is the switch for the light. The 4WD solenoid on the automatic I rebuilt was larger than the switch, and when you unscrew it, it has a little brass plunger on the end of it. Not sure how hard it is to get out with the tranny in the car though. Also, when you hit the 4WD button with the engine off, but the key on, you should be able to hear the solenoid clicking. If the solenoid doesn't click, check the wiring and the 4WD switch, something may have come unplugged, otherwise, the coil in the solenoid is open, and the solenoid needs to be replaced. If it does click, take the solenoid out and make sure the plunger isn't broken. The 4WD light on the dash isn't supposed to come on unless the 4WD engages, so the fact that it does not come on indicates a problem.

Actually, Brian, those automatics were not entirely built by Subaru. I am not quite sure, but I do belive the older 3-speeds and whatnot were Jatco trannies. The one I rebuilt said "L3N71B" on the valve body, just like the valve body I have that is out of an L3N71B, which was used in several vehicles (Mazda RX7, Ford Courier, Datsun pickups, etc..) and it was built by Jatco. The Subaru tranny is a very interesing transmission, 3 speed Ravigneaux gear set, power comes in from the front, through the center on the mainshaft, the oil pump is in the rear of the transmission case, and from there power flows back forward to the front differential, also from there is where the transfer shaft is connected, to transfer power to the transfer clutch and rear output shaft. Fairly decent transmission design wise, but like most automatics, sluggish. And most automatics lose 30-40% through the transmission, the newer ones are better, but manuals still get more power to the ground. For example, our 91 Firechicken we have at school, Tuned Port 350 pushing 270 HP or so, has ~180HP at the rear wheels.

Check your coolant temperature sensor. If the computer thinks the engine is cold, when in fact it is warm, it will dump extra fuel into the engine (cold engines require more fuel), but since the engine is hot, it will flood the engine, causing the hard starting and black smoke. As for the transmission, does the 4WD light on the dash come on? If not, you might have a bad 4WD solenoid, which is not all that hard to replace. If the 4WD light does come on, and the rear wheels do not drive, then your transfer clutch is slipping, or the transfer clutch is not engaging properly. I would suggest replacing it with a 5 speed if that is the case, you will spend a little less + will get better economy and performance. How are you checking to see if the rear wheels drive or not?

Check your transmission fluid level. There is a seal between the front diff and the transmission, and when that seal goes bad, the fluids swap places, and the ATF can't lubricate the hypoid gears well enough and it will eat the front diff. So, if your tranny is way full, and smells like 90W gear oil, you have a bad seal, and it would be cheaper to replace that seal now, than replace the seal and the front diff later.

if you are gonna get a japanese tranny, try to get one of the part-time dual range boxes, that would be sweet!

Well, looked at it with the flashlight today, anyone got a skinny MIG welder? The picklefork is broken right around where the ball stud is :-( So Thursday in goes the RX tranny :-)

Dammit I better not have to put my 4x4 on the insurance while this thing gets fixed :madder: :madder: :madder: :madder: I know it wasn't your guys' fault, I'm just pissed my car's broke :-(

if you look in Andrew's Album on the USMB photos site, the blue 84 GL wagon is a rattle-can job. I painted it with this really cheap (1.50 a can) Royal Blue spraypaint, and the bottom part of the doors (below where teh thick black trim was before I removed it) I painted with some rubberized under-coating stuff. It started to oxidize and look like crap after a year or so, but it looked good for a while :-P

Heard about a company who did a dyno test on one of those with a Chevy 350. Worked pretty good at like, 2,000 RPM.. But they hit about 4500 RPM or something, and the fan blew apart, was sucked into the motor, and destroyed the motor. Not something I'd want to happen on my soob!

See what I get? I go to Utah for 6 days and you guys break my car :madder: :madder: :madder: but oh well, you get to fix it :-) On a good note, I saw a EA82 Turbowagon on 6200 south in Salt Lake, had a messed up door, but looked good other than that. And last time I was here back in March, I saw a camoflage EA81 hatchback in the Jordan's Landing shopping center, next to Wal Mart... I dunno who's it was, but they took off before I could evangelize teh board :-P Oh well, they should have it fixed by the time I get back... which will be soon cuz I've had about enough Mormonism to last me for the rest of the year :-P

Caboobaroo's 79 DL wagon has height adjustments on the front struts, much the same as my 84 GL wagon. I was never aware of the 70's style having the height-adjustable front struts, so does he have EA81 struts up front??

My understanding is that it cools down the combustion temperature, helping prevent knock. I've also heard that it helps the fuel burn better, but I forgot why, read a big paper on it a while ago, talking about Pogue Carburetors and such.

Are you sure you aren't talking about a Legacy? I've never seen a Loyale with power belts. On my 91 legacy, under the center console lid was a allen wrench, if you pulled a plug out of the B pillar, (you have to slide the seat around to access it) and stuck the wrench in and cranked it, it would move the belt back to where it should be.

Dagnabbit Jon, like, hit Logout before ya post when yer at my house :-P:moon: :moon:

See if you have forward gears in manual low ("1" on the gear selector) if so your one-way clutch is shot. If you have NO forward gears, than I would suspect your one-way clutch is bad. I don't know where those gear teeth came from, it's weird that one grenaded gear would cause no forward function.. yet still allow it to move in reverse.... Usually when a gear grenades you lose EVERTHING... Either way, I'd get a new tranny, but I'd like to take the old one apart and figure out what caused it to fail.

[Jon] Well, my average before timing was 35mpg. So I think a change of that much is waay too dramatic. But it is advanced to 12 now, and I'm getting some clutch slipping when I try to spin my tires (hehe) So to really take effect, I think i need to do some work past the engine aspect of my car. So far now: coil, plugs, wires, rotor, cap, 2" ID Turbo Muffler, 9" chrome air filter assembly, Valve cover breather mods, PCV valve change, O2 Sensor change, timing at ~12. I now need to get a new clutch (but not as bad as Andrew's sold XT!) and find out if my passenger side exhaust flange is warped or not. So that's the plans for the future (beyond new axles, and buying Caboobaroo's calmaster wheels of course)

Hmm, I should convert the 4x4 over to Propane.... I suppose with a different orofice in the mixer you could run CNG

510 stubs are part of the axle kinda, they are the same as an EA71 U-Joint axle, there is one bolt in the center of the U joint that holds the axle into the diff, and then right next to the U joint there is a flange that the axle bolts to, but it is a lot easier to take the one bolt out, than to unbolt all 4 bolts holding the axle to the flange. The 510 axle wouldn't work on a newer car though, due to the way it attaches to the outer axle stub. Like the older soob, it has a 4 bolt flange, rather than the splined stub and spring pin. Perhaps someone with access to a machine shop could make some like, Chromoly axle stubs or something?

Zap, if you go to http://www.enuinc.com/ they have some good deals on computers. I can get a bare-bones box with a P4 3GHz, and some other goodies (no hard drive or RAM, but that's cheap) for like 250 bucks. They have DVD/CD burners for pretty cheap too. They're out of Portland, but they do ship.