daeron

jack the car up and try it. its not hard. worst case scenario, you waste at MOST an hour. just be careful not to round any nuts or bolts, that stuff gets rusty down there. and dont run the car too long if you think you want to put it back together quickly.. the exhaust is obviously the first thing that gets too hot to touch. it does cool off fairly quickly though...but be careful.

jack it up and check it out. exhaust repair is frequently easy, and if its not, its rather apprently so... at first, i thought the little holes and the weld line in my cat were pointing me towards needing a new one of those, too... until i looked back towards the dangling muffler.... :- ) i thought the sound was coming from further towards the front, too... and ive broken exhausts in all sorts of places, so i have developed a bit of a sense for it too.... anyhow, my repair required more time sawing the end of the pipe sticking out of the muffler off (to make it a good round, flush mating surface to go with my uneven, bent in, and in-the-middle-of-a-bend exhaust pipe side mating surface...) and more time in the store looking for the requisite adapter pipes and clamps than it did to actually repair.

you *have* checked the little parking light switch on top of the steering column, right? if thats turned on, then the battery will naturally drain..... i know, i know, but if its on, its hard to notice sometimes....

I like number 4, but with the mountains... that way, the trim divides the mountains and the lower section.. and couldn't you make the mountains another color? i think that might look even better than the rest. but, emphatically, number 4, plus the mountains. if you eliminate dividing it at the trim, then go with 5 plus mountains. the car has that character already, doesn't it? that character should be shown on its face, obvious for the world to see. not to thread-jack, but "mountain" sure is a funny looking word, once you see it spelled out over and over.. same goes for saying it, for that matter...

yah!! datsun, lsd, good! what is it, an r200? theyll buy it right up, i know, i am a datsun guy cheating on my 280Z with a GL-10... (shh.. the datsuns outside my window underneath a car-cover) I, however, have not the buxx0rs to spend on LSD. my dad might be interested.. but i dont wanna get any hopes up. just edit your auction, and throw the words datsun, 240, 260, 280, and Z in there, somewhere.. and itll get snapped up. thats about the only reasonable way to get a good search for datsun gear on ebay.. maximize yield, minimize irrelevance.

nah, it was a simple problem.. i just have no floor jack, only a scissor jack, so i didnt bother jacking the front up until today.. only to look back at the muffler and see it staring straight back at me. the pipe had been "kustomized" in the past with a repair consisting of a couple sheets of sheet metal about 4" square, and two large hose clamps.. However, before noticing that i thoroughly investigated the rest of the exhaust, and dfound a few small rust holes in the bottom of the cat.. then realized they were all along this odd line drawing 3 lines of a rectangle over the entire body of the cat... then realized it was a WELD.. and so i figure that someone, somewhere, cut open this cat and gutted it for me.... :- ) thanks a bunch, whoever! (i have no emissions standards to pass here in south florida, and as long as the cat looks like its there, the cops would have to want to tear my car down for some reason to discover its not legit... which is a virtually zero chance) Well, i wound up getting a piece of exhaust adapter from discount (advance, whatever) and rigged it back together, purring like she was before.. except now i know that there ARE a couple pinhole leaks, and i COULD get it to run quieter. My uncle may have some OEM subaru mufflers around, i think they were to an early 80s model tho... any clue how universal the mufflers were? i just might want to go ahead and stick one on, they were kinda windfall... He actually has some radiators, and other things too... NOS units, OEM and everything.. some were still in box, some werent.. but theyre all in good shape... unfortunately theyre buried in a closet behind a pile of other stuff, so i cant really catalogue it now. In due time.... shawn

I dont know how, it was quiet when i left one person's house, and then all of a sudden on the road, my cruising engine sound suddenly got alot deeper, and yes, as soon as i let off the throttle or pushed it in a little bit, i heard a major exhaust leak.. i still havent jacked the car up to localize and identify the issue, but im not too concerned about it. my big point was that this is the first time ive heard the ea-82's exhaust note unadulterated...... and great scott, this little motor sounds dead sexy!! i have NEVER met any inline four that didnt sound like crap un-muffled..... and it doesnt sound that much like a volkswagen motor either! why is that? what makes the VW exhaust note so much sharper than the soob?? now im actually thinking about putting some sort of exhaust system in, for more than just repair purposes... more to get a nice-sounding exhaust out of her.. well, i was thinking hard about tearing into the exhaust on the car soon anyhow..

hey all.. 87 gl-10 A/t.. i just checked under the hood and the rear bolt that secures the A/C compressor and alternator bracket to the block is MISSING! i am going in to work a busy friday night in hot south florida, if ANYONE can reply to this thread with specific bolt and thread dimensions i can stop at a store and buy a new one to put in, but i need this ASAP so my roomate can check the thread and update me..... thanks in advance for the answer, im sure someone here can tell me... peace, shawn

R-12 is still legal to own, purchase, sell, use, or trade for chocolate milk at lunchtime... it is illegal to manufacture it. any still existing in cans is like gold, at about 30-50 dollars for a standard sized, 12 oz can. i found a can in a junkyard car once, along with an R12 oil charge... my eyes popped outta my head, and i grabbed 'em.. just kinda flashed them at the guy when i was walking out thinking he would just wave me thru.. he says "gimme that, lemme see that.." and i (idiotically) handed it to him.. the oil too.. then he laughed at me and says "what are you, kidding me?! this (stuff) is like gold!!" stupid jerk.

LOL.. i never pass by a vacuum cleaner on the road without nabbing the cord off of it, usually for speaker wire :- )

hey.. ive been having some difficulties with the sliding cover foor the sunroof on my 87 GL-10. The thing has completely come off its tracks, and i cant seem to wedge the tabs back into place... its become extremely difficult to manipulate while driving, and i am wondering if there is any way to fix this without removing the entire sunroof.... the thing doesnt leak at all, never has, and the last thing i wanna doo is take it apart after 20 years of UV exposure, and then try putting it back together again only to discover that it leaks like a sieve.. that would be counter-productive in my mind... soi if anyone else has ever had a similar problem, i would be interested to know what it took to solve it.... thanks.

i built a speaker box for the back seat.. ive got two 6 1/2" woofers, with two 2 1/2" tweeters in it, and thats the big reason im re wiring the back.. i have that set up on a long pigtail so i can pull it out of the car if ever needs be, and use it for external sound :- ) I also have some two way EMIT/silk dome tweeters off of a pair of infinity kappa 6x9s that i am using as front channels.. im not sure how im going to mount them but im thinking on the pillars, or maybe somehow onto the dashboard.. i dont think any speaker is going to fit in the door that wont be utterly blocked out by my leg :- ) my big difficulty lies in installing the stereo without relocating my computer controls... i dont know how im going to do it. i havent contacted anyone about an install kit specific for this model, but im dubious that one might exist the more i look at it. I took some photos of the car today with a borrowed digital camera, and when my friend downloads them to her machine tonight i should get them from her... so i can show you what im dealing with.. and also the rust-holes that exposed my gas door latch problem anyhow, thats where i stand now.. i have a new battery to put in the car, but i dont want to disconnect because i need to swap the pos. and neg. cables (replaced them one at a time, and theyre both semi-generics.. but the bigger terminal is on the smaller battery lug, and vice versa, so i wanna swap them) and when i unhook the battery i lose all the stereo presets... and the tuning buttons on the stereo work once in a blue moon, so whenever the battery dies, its about a week or two before i get radio stations tuned in again.... so i am waiting until i get the new tunes in to change the battery.

hey folks.. I am about to embark upon a stereo installation adventure (!) and i am contemplating replacing the stock speaker wire.. i was anticipating possibly running the rear channel wires back along either side up along the ceiling molding... but i was wondering where they ran the stock wiring?? is is tucked inside the chassis, or what? I'm also thinking about leaving the entire stock stereo system intact, and just wiring this one totally by hand.. (i am well versed in the do's and dont's of such an adventure, worry not..) My big problem is that this is a GL-10, with a trip computer.. so instead of just a stereo and a little cargo bay like the rest of you have, my stereo is offset to the side of that pod and the computer controls are on the side.. so i really am stymied by the prospect of installing a "kit" as ive seen some in the junkyard. They seem to completely take over that bay, thus forcing me to re-locate the computer controls... a recreational impossibilty... so im wondering what might be done. it doesnt look to me like i can manage to wedge it into the superstructure, but im going to investigate in full tomorrow... and at the very least its going to take a customized escutcheon plate.. or whatever you wanna call that trim ring thingy that covers that stuff up.... i may try to get ahold of a digital camera and take some photos.. it seems like someone else must have dealt with the installation of a stereo and retained the trip computer.. do kits exist to install a stereo in my car, without moving that? Im also planning on calling some stores and investigating retail availability of install kits, but im dubious that ciruit city stocks this particular install kit for a top-end '87 subaru..... but who knows? im gonna give it a shot.. my other big thought is that my console has been cut, where it joins up underneath the stereo pod.. so i might end up mounting it there somehow... but it certainly wouldnt be tidy, nor theft-proof... any thoughts are appreciated shawn c

well, i probly wont bother with the hill holder.. incidentally, down here in south florida, hill-holders are kind of irrelevant.. as we have no hills not man-made, practically... but i get the gist :- ) anyhow, thats about what i figured.. unfortunately, all my junkyards are now staffed by semiliterate minimum wage labor, and as such must adhere to strict pre-set pricing policies... so the mere fact that there are about a dozen parts on the list makes me fear the dollar signs racking up.. i appreciate the tip on manipulating the folks at the desk.. it hadnt occurred to me, but that sort of thing hasnt been too successful around here lately.. i dunno. i need to walk into a place and try to talk to one or two of the guys who have been there forever, im pretty sure one of them knows me well enough to realize that he oughta lemme have the whole shebang for a reasonable price.. but thanks for the list and the link. ill bookmark em and keep them for future reference.

im thinking about this.. ive driven the car now for a year and a half, which was far longer than originally planned... im also driving pizzas for a living.. ive heard that the five speed is much better fuel economy.. and i have always hated automatic transmissions. especially three-speeds.... there is a 92 loyale in the boneyard with a radiator i was eyeing (even tho i need a trans cooler if i swap that one in).. and i was thinking.. what would i need to buy beyond the tranny/clutch/clutch cable&pedal setup to swap it out? would i need the flywheel off the other motor? the differential? both cars are front wheel drive... and how much time and effort is it?? it took me a little more than a day to put in a new clutch on my datsun, five or six years ago... rear wheel drive car, and since then my mechanical experience has grown greatly.. last time i swapped a trans in the same datsun 280Z (RWD) it took me about two hours soup to nuts, taking it easy... so given that info about me, the mechanic, how long would this job be likely to take? i have a project car that i cant find time to work on in the first place, but this is a money saving upgrade to a vehicle i spend a great deal of time in.. and its at least five to ten times a day (working, maybe three or four if im off) that i wish i had a five speed... so im REALLY on the fence about it... anyhow, im sure this is a totally typical post, but its four thirty and i dont have time to search a great deal... okay i guilt tripped myself into searching and found this.. trans clutch flywheel clutch cable pedal assembly crossmember shifter linkage* speedo cable* instrument cluster* starter* driveline* okay, the unstarred ones are no brainers... but the rest (except for the speedo cable) seem likely to be somewhat extraneous.. ive heard about starter interchangeability already... and about the only wiring i can think of would be the "Park" cutoff switch (probly plugs into where youd plug the clutch switch) and the backup lights... driveline, does this really apply to a 2wd-2wd swap? instrument cluster.. why would i need that?! and shifter linkage.. doesnt it just popup thru the floor? im sure if i do this, that question will answer itself easily enough.. but the junkyard boys are savages around here, they may well charge me over three hundred bucks for all that stuff..... this was a free car!! i wouldnt be too shocked to hear them tell me as much as five, to be honest. anyhow, thanks in advance for the help, and if i DO do this, i will make a detailed photographic survey and write up, if someone else can host it somewhere.

ive noticed that the same tires will be a bit shakier and noisier, and generally if its not a great tire will be more of a PITA on the back than on the front.. which seemed odd, until i considered the fact that the front axle is carrying probly 70% of the weight...

one thing to keep in mind.. the type of lock im talking about is gonna have a catch at right angles to the lock cylinder, to slide into a slot or groove in the jamb of the door, right?? so picture this.. to achieve a tight, snug fit, the slot in the doorjamb needs to be angled a bit so that as you rotate the lock, the catch pulls itslef tighter to the body of the car. the could also be achieved with a flat slot in the doorjamb, and a bent tab on the lock catch.. but you need to visualize the point im making to ensure that the thing doesnt flap in the wind, yanno? im trying to draw a picture with words.. the concept is simple, but i dont know if ive been abundantly clear in my description.

i have a gl-10 sedan, the magon might not have had a cockpit latch.. it wouldnt be the first vehicle made that way by any means... but the sedan has a trunk, and those usually do have latches... i hadnt thought of that possibility, honestly.. but before i fixed mine (remember its a coaxial cable, with a central wire opening the trunk and an outer sleeve opening the gas) i could simply grab the entire cable through the rust-hole and pull it to open the trunk.. because the retaining collar at the end of the sleeve (to hold it onto the gass door release lever) was split, it didnt open the fuel door, just the gas.. so its possible that our mechanics are reversed, and you have a similar problem... so does anyone know if the wagons had a latch to release the hatch or not?

awesome, awesome write-up man... after perusing this board so much, my regret over the driveline in my '87 gl-10 (2wd auto) has grown from a minor irritation over not having a five speed to raw envy and incredulity that i dont have a four wheel drive subaru... my friend and i had an 82 brat that we were playing with for a while, but he ripped all the ignition wiring out before i could tell him that we needed it... and the project stalled over that, the car went bye-bye about six months later.. with my uncle's weber on it, to boot. id sell my soul to have that thing back now.....

i would imagine it would be simpler to just buy a keylock, drill a hole in the subaru door, and put it on there.. it would require removing the stock latch mechanism to give the latch a place to latch, but to MY thinking that would be the simplest route. you should be able to find a cabinet-type lock that should work, i would think..

ya, i'll second the motion that the automatic trans is a snowjob.... its a functional little gearbox, but man.... its a three speed, and these cars dont even have 3 digits of horsepower!! its not worth playing with

never done it on a subaru, but it looks simple enough. ive done it in other cars though, and it really is one of the simplest procedures there is... i wouldnt be intimidated by all the other diagnostic information that people are putting out here if you really feel like the clutch may be slipping and worn out. your question stimulated discussion about what people have done when they experienced problems like yours, but 90% of the time it means you need a new clutch. its a good first project on a car, because in the end its mostly hard work in the sense of force and effort.. that transmissions not light weight.. but not hard in the sense of difficult. in the end, you get to smile at the job and be satisfied. just be glad its not a honda, or a mistubishi, even worse... most front wheel drive cars arent as mush fun to work on as a subbie.

you should push the latch to open the gas door, and pull to open the trunk. at least, thats how it is on my 87 gl-10. it WAS broken, and only the trunk pull worked.. because the fuel door cable had broken. to see this, you have to look up into that general area of the vehicle from inside the trunk.. there maybe some plastic panel to remove, but you should be able to see it eventually.. My car has a big rust hole on the outside, and i could reach right in and actuate the lever that opened the door, so i never had a problem opening it. I think thats funny. i need to get pics of the entire setup to show you, because i have a unique perspective...

okay, i went to the junkyard and got a fifth full size wheel, to keep under the hood because the tire on my space saver is shot. im sitting here looking at the silly thing, and i dont know if i should throw it out or not. the junkyard rim has been on my car for two months, front at first then on the back, and it seems reliable enough... plus, im pretty sure my uncle still has a pair plus a set of three 14 inch alloy rims that i can have for nothing.. oem condition :- ) so should i just pitch the spare wheel?? i dont really have alot of room to leave wheels around my house... especially if its gonna cost some ridiculous amount of money to put a new spare tire on it just to have a godawful donut instead of the fullsize i have now... right? if theres any good reason not to throw it out, someone please tell me.

thanks to all for the feedback, thats a great response.. sonicfrog, ive already had the unit in hand but the wire harness seemed too long to reach to unplug, i looked at those screws and wondered if it was plausible or not.. but i declined dissassembly until i could ask those who know better. :- ) obviously before i tear anything up, i will install new ignition bits all the way (already done plugs and wires, but no cap and rotor) and shoot the timing with a light.. also will do compression test. I had also figured i would be satisfied simply by having a five-speed instead of an auto.. my basic problem is i want to drop it down to third every once in a while, and then i realize that im in an auto and third is high gear..... :- ( SO.. i was just wondering if gutting the cat or installing a free-er flowing air filter, on this car, REALLY made much of a difference or not... again, consulting the wisdom of those who have modded before me. I already laid in a small supply of aforementioned bulbs (i thought they might come in handy) last time i was in a junkyard car... two other things i thought of.. one regards the door open switch.. the one that cuts the dome light on and off... i tried to remove the dead driver door switch and swap it out with another when i first got the car (1.5 years ago) and.. the wires on it werent long enough to even pull the switch an inch from the jamb..... does this sound typical to everone else?? i drive pizzas for a living and wish that light came on with the door about ten or twelve times a night.... the last thing is a starter interchangeability question.. 87 gl-10 auto 2wd.. 92 loyale 5 spd 2wd.. both ea82, ones and auto ones a stick. can i swap them? i took my starter apart when it died, (i had JUST gotten this job after 2 months unemployment, and was penniless to fix my car) cleaned the entire armature/coil/brush apparatus, and reassembled it, and it worked like new. its worked great ever since. i drive pizzas for a living, and id like a cheap junkyard unit in the trunk in case my soviet rebuild ever fails me.... anyhow folks, i must go to bed. thanks for the info.