porcupine73

Yes slowwww and easy on the tensioner, endwrench article used to say it should take at least 10 minutes to compress it, else you risk damaging it. The older tensioners were more resilient.

Thanks for the hot deal tip! Just ordered the special, man can't beat that, good price to begin with then it includes shipping. :cool: I ordered a gallon of Kroil maybe five years ago, and it's finally getting down toward the bottom. I read somewhere that guys in power plants often call it 'panther piss' because of the odor. Many of their other products work really well too, like the Lubricone, molyfilm, penephite, and rust remover. Their belt dressing is the stickiest most durable I've found. Their open gear lube is nice too.

The front diff takes GL-5 gear oil, usually either 80W90 regular or 75W90 synthetic works. That one it is most likely the 22mm or so plug on the front diff with a copper sealing washer. ATF in there won't hurt anything, but it is not best for that application, because it really needs the extreme pressure additives in the gear oil to adequately protect the gears. Otherwise they may wear prematurely.

If removing the engine anyway, I don't think many people would fault you for replacing the HG's. Then you can also check+adjust valve clearance. I think that has the shim style buckets? I think with the engine out you can do those without the $$$ special tool.

I would think on jackstands it would be pretty stable. I would accelerate and brake slowly. Like no flooring it or slamming on the brakes, those large counter torques would the most likely things to jostle it. I mean Ferris Bueller did it with just a bumper jack, and that took quite a few kicks to knock it off.

I think grossgary might have converted one to FWD. I think you unbolt the drive shaft, but leave the length coming out of the tail section of the trans. The differential I think is trickier, because of the axles. I think you can't remove the rear axles completely because that's what helps keep the hub in place. But possibly disassembling the outer joint and just leaving the piece that goes through the hub in place might work, then the rear diff could be removed too?

Sometimes with a digital meter, the 1.5 seconds or so it cycles the pump at key on to acc is not enough for the meter to get a stable reading.

Sometimes my '96 Legacy feels a little underpowered, like its laboring a bit, and it seems to be a little low on power. But then other times, it feels really peppy, like it should. I have noticed when it feels like it is laboring, the vacuum never goes about about 23mmhg when coasting. When it feels peppy, the vacuum will go to like 28mmhg when coasting. Also, when it feels like it is laboring, especially before the engine oil is at normal temp, pressing the throttle even slightly will drop the vacuum to almost zero. Whereas, when it feels peppy, pressing the throttle under similar conditions the vacuum goes only to 10mmhg. Any ideas on what this would be? Sometimes it will go several days in the 'laboring' mode, then suddenly change to the 'peppy' mode for a while, etc. There is no CEL. It has done this if I remember correctly since I got it pretty much, I just never really payed much attention to the vacuum when it did it until recently. The difference in feel isn't huge between peppy and laboring but it is definitely noticeable. '96 Legacy Brighton 2.2L 130k miles auto trans.

Other tube????? Oh oh.... Ok you may have put ATF in the differential, that isn't too bad, you can just drain it out and put gear oil in there. Hopefully you didn't put gear oil in the transmission....the sulfur in it can destroy the friction materials.

It's easy, just two bolts at bottom of the water pump. But here in NY plan on those bolts being siezed up so be gentle with them so as to not snap them off. Use caution when selecting a new thermostat as they are not all created equal. How do you know it has plenty of fluid? How do you know it is running a little hot? If it's the temp gauge going up, it is probably running a lot hot because the gauge doesn't move much even up to 210F or so.

I don't think it's the auto seatbelt itself that is unsafe, the way it comes from the factory. I think it is the thought of trying to retrofit it into a different vehicle that could make it unsafe. They're kind of undesireable because they seem to fail eventually, some part of the track comes loose sometimes and comes out, things like that. I think they were supposed to give you an automatic belting in if you didn't or forgot to fasten the belt. But you have to fasten the lap belt manually anyway so what's the point. I think that's part of why manufs got away from using them. Ford used those things too in cars of that era.

Hm, might involve cutting the roof off and welding in the roof from the donor vehicle, to get the motor, belts, cogs, fastening points, and assorted miscellany to get it to work? Right, usually people want to go the other direction.....getting the belts from a Canadian vehicle such as yours to replace their broken 'auto' belts. Maybe you can work out a trade?

The way I find it is with a mechanics stethoscope. It will click on for about two seconds each time the key goes from acc to run. Then with the mechanics stethoscope you can pinpoint exactly which relay it is. Now of course the relay has to be functioning properly to hear it click. But that brings about a couple other thoughts. When are you measuring the voltage at the fuel pump? It doesn't run the fuel pump unless the engine is running, or as noted for a couple seconds when the key goes acc to run. Else you will not see voltage there because it isn't supposed to be running. Other thing that has been seen a few times is the transistor in the ECU that drives the fuel pump relay going flaky/bad.

I don't think so really....the ECU from time to time does some smoke and mirrors tests to determine if it is seeing proper EGR flow....it seems like it would be tricky to do what it would take to fake that out.

I will keep that in mind for next time. I think I don't mind the donut so much as long as the flanges are still intact, but after that it becomes a lot more work messing with the split flanges, getting long stainless bolts which are a couple $ each and stuff like that. The Subaru exhaust pipes themselves seem to be pretty good quality. Even on my 94 and 96 rust bucket soobs, the exhaust pipes don't seem anywhere near rusting through. Unlike the brake lines, fuel filler neck, and stuff like that.

Hm yes that sounds like a more permanent fix! In hindsight having it eliminated does sound like a better longterm solution, esp if can find a place to do it for that price! The donut and new springs/bolts costs about that much anyway not to mention the time to install them and like you say possibly needing one or two split flanges. One issue I've found is for this donut to seal properly, obviously the part of the exhaust the rounded side sits against must be smooth. The old gasket likes to stick there and it takes a lot of chiseling and wire brushing to get it all out. If it's not smooth all the way around it won't seal completely. I just had that happen on '94 Legacy. So as a test I smeared about 3/4 of a tube of permatex ultragrey I had left around the donut, that actually worked very well and sealed up the remaining little leaks.

I believe that should work, biggest thing people seem to say is if the original engine had EGR, the replacement engine needs to have EGR or live with the check engine light on all the time. Other factors....single/dual port exhaust, charcoal canister underhood or underneath by gas tank, possibly reusing old engine intake manifold.

Wow it's hard to believe it's been five years already since this repair. I noticed this donut gasket is pretty much rotted out again so it needs another replacement. So far all my soobs have needed this gasket replaced. Do these gaskets contain lead? Something makes them slightly malleable.

I'm not sure about the paper over the exhaust test. I did try that on '00 Outback before, and it did seem to suck the paper to the exhaust, but the timing was dead on and has no issues. I have a video of it I posted here somewhere maybe I can find it......ah here it is: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=79083

Not talking necessarily specifically about these gaskets, but a parts manufacturer might produce one part for the vehicle manufacturer to the vehicle manufacturer's specs (the genuine part), and produce it to different specs for the aftermarket.

This came up recently, apparently 1999+ EJ22 will work, before that will not work in that application.

For the front it can also be the oxygen sensor slow response code, I think that is P0133.

The axles are fairly easy to replace if some of the tips above are followed. A good 3/4" drive or larger breaker bar and socket is what I have been using. Then I put about a 5 foot long piece of 1-1/2" pipe over it and just lay on it. I have yet to find an axle nut that can resist that amount of force. No need to bother unstaking it. I have used an impact gun and that works fine too, but I saw somewhere Subaru said they didn't like impact for that application because of potential wheel bearing damage though the direction of the force doesn't seem like that would be an issue.

Sounds good! Might want to get the valve cover gasket kit, that includes the bolt hole seals, valve cover gaskets, and I believe those spark plug tube seals. Valve clearance check can be done while the valve covers are off if desired.

The oil leaks around those seals and into the spark plug tube. Those seals are supposed to keep the oil behind the valve cover from getting to the spark plug tubes. The spark plug tubes on that engine penetrate the valve cover.