delli50

smaked it good with a sledge hammer and a block of hardwood flooring. it's not moving. got creative.... took the inner boot and joint off and slid the outer boot from that end. a little more work. i'll have to repack the inner boot and reband it. too late tonight. will try again tomorrow. this ended up being a big job. with rebooting a joint that wouldn't come off and breaking the ball joint pinch bolt off. heated it first and hit it with pb blaster and it still broke. had to take that to a machine shop for removal. crazy job. didn't learn anything from this.

the boot is off and i wiped a lot of the grease away so that i could inspect the cv joint. there is no clip visible and no room for a clip. there is no area where the cv joint meets the shaft where you could access a clip. it looks like you need to beat on it to get it off but i gave it a couple of good ones with an oversize hammer. it never moved. i'll look for some hardwood to try again.

had a look and can't see any clip. the cv joint is tight to the shaft. looks to me like you would just pound it off. i tried that and it hasn't moved. marco

i am replacing a right ball joint on my 05 outback. not a lot of fun on a car from the rust belt. in the process. i used heat on the ball joint pinch bolt and melted a hole in the outer cv boot. i pulled the axle out and it is in the vice on my bench but i can't figure out how to get the cv joint off of the axle. i have looked for a snap ring and have beat on it with a hammer...... i really beat on it it hasn't moved. i have searched google and this board but have come up empty. anyone out there have done this and can help? marco

some more information... i torque the wheel nuts at 100 foot pounds. the car is not rallied or driven hard. it is my daily driver and driven responsibly. i am the second owner. i bought it at about 190,000 kilometres. i have had 2 new sets of tires in it since. the tires wear very rapidly. the wheel stud issue is separate from the tire issue, i think. also, i am only breaking wheel studs in the rear. mark

i have an 05 outback - 4cyl, auto, 250,000 kms. It's been a great vehicle but there are 2 issues that i have noticed recently. i don't think they are related but i would like to hear about other members experiences and thoughts on my issues with the rear wheels. first issue is that this wagon wears out tires fast. probably in under 30,000 kms - that's under 20,000 miles. the wear is very even and i first notice it on the middle rib of the tire. the car has never been hit and has had recent alignments. the rear tires wear much faster than the front ones. i also have an 06 forester and i dont see tire wear on that vehicle like i do on the outback. second issue is that i have had to replace numerous wheel studs on the rear wheels. this has happenend a number of times. this week there were 2 broken studs on the left rear. also when i went to remove the right rear wheel the acorn lug nut cam off and when i removed the wheel a piece of one of the studs fell off. i replace them with parts from a local supplier who seels dorman wheel studs to me. they are american made and dorman is supposed to be a good maker. both of these issues puzzle me. anyone else ever experience this? any thoughts? no sense in me asking the dealer as they are always less than helpful. regards, mark

years ago, i had a similar problem - stripped the threads for a head bolt in a ford 292 cid engine. (i guess i'm giving my age away here, although i was in my late teens). anyway, i used a helicoil but in the back of my mind i was never satisfied that it would hold! i ended up tapping out the hole to accept a bigger diameter head bolt from another, later model ford engine. i think that i also had to make the bolt passage through the head wider to accept the beefier head bold. worked great in the end....but i wasn't working with aluminum in the head or the block. a beefier bolt, if you can find one, might be a way to go. you are already tapping out the head to accept the helicoil. mark

mdjdc, thanks for the reply. lok for a message on your usmb account.

been to the dealer. they said that the recall was only for outback! so my original question... will the front coils from a '91 legacy front wheel drive sedan fit on my '96 awd legacy wagon?

Thanks for the tip. I'll give that a check but think that the dealer may laugh at me..... it's a 13 year old car with 310,000 kilometres on it. back to my first question if the recall tip doesn't work. anyone know about the interchangability of the springs? mark

i have a '96 legacy awd wagon, brighton edition with a 2.2 and automatic. the roads in my city are awful and while replacing a ball joint, tie rod end and wheel bearing on the left side, i remove a broken part of the coil spring. i also noticed that both ends of the removed part were jagged, so it's been broken before. the wrecking yards want to sell a complete strut to me and there don't seem to be any available aftermarket. the dealer is not an option as dealer parts here in Canada are a lot more than in the U.S. there is one wrecker here that i might be able to talk into selling just the spring to me. unfortunately, the subaru he has is a '91 legacy sedan. does anyone know if this will fit? i don't want to put a lot of money into this car as i want to sell it and upgrade to another subaru. any help is appreciated. mark

my manual said NOT to compress the tensioner in a vice and that it should be done in the verticle position. as i didn't have a verticle press, i used my floor jack and the lower control arm with the tensioner in between. i may have used some wood shims on each end to protect the tensioner too. went very slowly and it workek slick. easiest part of the whole timing belt job! regards, mark

just had to share this with other subaru enthusiasts. unbelievable as to what this driver can do with this car. http://video.kenblockracing.com/flash/small_player/preloader.swf?vendor_id=2 04&media_id=9183&bgcolor=FFFFFF&autoplay=0 sure makes my 96 legacy brighton wagon look benign. mark

this was a newly rebuilt caliper. when i got the car about a year and a haly ago, i flushed the hydraulic brake system when i did the front brakes, so the fluid was fairly clean. when i disconnected the hose from the old caliper, some of the fluid dripped from gravity. it looked clean and clear.... not stained dark like old fluid. i think that i just got a poor rebuild. new one arrives monday, but it won't be till wednesday till i get the chance to install it. regards, mark

here's an update....got a rebuilt caliper, put it on and bled the system. so, new brakes in the front with the passenger's side having a new rotor, pads and a caliper. a day later i had occassion to take the car on about a 30 km. ride to the golf course for some late season golf. at about 3/4 of the way i got that awful smell of a burning brake pad. once i got to the course and parked, the right front whell area was smoking. you could feel the heat and the smell was awful. so, i guess i got a poor rebuild. i've never seen this happen before but i'm told that it does happen. the piston is not fully releasing when i take my foot off the brake. had to drive it home like that after golf when it was cooled down. expected to find the same when i got home. big surprise... it wasn't hot. took it out again later that evening and found that when i arrived back home it was a little warm compared to the driver's side. called the parts store and they ordered another. also said that they would warrant the pads and rotor if any damage was done. i haven't had it appart yet but am getting frustrated over what was to be a simple job.