bendecker

And the OE parts we should be looking for for our Subarus...? I'd like to see you put a big bright star next to every single part that is the same as OK. For our Subarus. And others. But, mostly our Subarus

I just went through this with a stupid smog guy who failed me because of the monitors in my '96. I told him about the exemption and he said that he's done 100's of these over the years and knows his stuff. Well, he was wrong. 100% wrong. The guy was adamant. So, thinking there may have been a change in some rule book, I took it to the dealer. The dealer said the guy was an idiot, but the dealer's smog guy was not available. So I took it to another independent shop. That shop passed it with flying colors and said that the first guy was an idiot. Long story, short, don't worry about what monitors may or may not have been on or off in the past. Take it to a good smog station and have them check it. The monitors are a non-issue.

FairTax -- Is the fuse for all the windows in-line? I vaguely remember reading that somewhere. I checked the fuses in the holder and all were fine. I just bought a '97 and all the windows do not work and am getting ready to trouble-shoot it as well.

Dang it! Now, intermittently, the car won't start in park. More not starting than starting. I'm 100% sure it's an issue with the safety override and adjustments to turn it on and off. If I put in into neutral, it starts just fine, just not in park. I looked under the car to see how to adjust the switch that's up against the side of the tranny and it'a pain to get to -- would need to drop part of the exhaust. But... I might get it to work by tinkering with the adjustment on the other end of the cable (as in all the stuff I already did). I don't think that is the right solution, though, because it is shifting into each gear perfectly.

Fixed and doing great. I put the shifter and the tranny into neutral and used CNY-Dave's trick with a pin in the hole. Then, I put on the long nuts on each side of the aluminum piece (kudos to Fairtax and CrazyHeights for second opinions on that one) and torqued them down. Finally, I added a locking nut on the end for over-kill good measure. It's shifting perfectly. I just gotta wonder how the PO lived with it the way it was for so long. Thanks for the help. Much appreciated.

Put it all back together with the two long nuts and a lock nut as a backup. Working great! Thanks, again, for the help.

(Oops... should have said shifter cable in the subject. Wish I could edit those after the fact...) Just put in a new shifter cable in my (new to me) 1997 Legacy LSI, 2.5l engine. The PO drove the car for a very long time with the cable so loose that you could push the car into reverse without any kind of override. So, I don't trust that he did things 100% by the book and think the old nut may have fallen off and been replaced by a hack. The question I have is about the nut that should be on the left in the red circle. I've looked through my manual and the parts diagram from Subaru and the pics are either too small, grainy or are missing this detail: The PO had this nut on the end and it was very loose: It has a built-in washer that spins and it spanned all the way across both parts of the fork in the top picture. It locked the end of the cable 100% to the fork -- no wiggle at all. This doesn't seem right to me in that cables generally have the ability to wiggle/rotate a bit, and it seems like it should be locked to the aluminum piece in the center of the fork instead. But... that would be aluminum wiggling against steel. Here's the broken rod and the old nut that was on it: BTW, The cable came from Subaru with just the cable and a new long nut. So... anyone know what goes on the back end of the cable? The old washer from the PO? Another long nut that would lock the aluminum pivot between two long nuts (I have the old and the new.) Something else? As always, thanks for your help.

Just the cable and the long silver nut.

Hah! Just found a parts diagram that i believe is from another year. It looks like the others I found for my year were cut off at the right: It shows what looks like that nut with the spinning washer built in. I'm still not sure what a "grommet sheath" is, though: Found it here: http://www.subarupartsandaccessories.com/showAssembly.aspx?makeName=subaru&modelYear=0&modelName=forester&ukey_assembly=6029508&ukey_category=54100&assembly=s11-351-01

That tube is the long nut (silver in the pic above). What it doesn't show is an opposing nut. You are right that the white/silver section in the middle is the aluminum piece that pivots just a bit. It doesn't move move much. They say in the manual to torque down the nut, but they don't show what the opposing nut should look like. Nor does this diagram: It looks like using two of the long nuts will work fine, but I'd bet that is not what was in there originally. There is a little part #35151AC030 they call "GROMMET-SHEET D30" in the diagram. Maybe that is a tube that goes around rod on the left side of the sliver pivot in the fork, followed by a nut on the left side...?

I got the new part in. (Side note for anyone ever doing this -- if it looks right, but the cable on the right side doesn't pull back far enough, you have the bracket on the right in backwards. Looks perfect, but it isn't). I have a question about the nut that should be on the left in the red circle. I've looked through my manual and the parts diagram from Subaru and the pics are either too small and grainy (manual) or not detailed enough to see how things together (parts diagrams): The PO had this nut on the end: It has a built-in washer that spins and it spanned all the way across both parts of the fork in the top picture. It locked the end of the cable 100% to the forks -- no wiggle at all. This doesn't seem right to me. Cables should have the ability to wiggle/rotate a bit, and it seems like it should be locked to the aluminum piece in the center of the fork instead. I think the total lack of wiggle room is why the last one failed by breaking the threaded rod that the nut goes on. Here's the broken rod and the old nut that was on it: I'm thinking that it should be on the left, mirroring the shiny new one on the right. Crank them together so they are tight against the aluminum piece. Anyone know how this really should be? Was the the PO's nut wonky? (Make up your own jokes for that one... ) Is the mirroring of the old nut and new nut the way to go? Thanks, as always.

My buddy has a Gen 2 brat that we take on the freeway all the time. The gen 1 is just too little and too slow for the way people drive in their big behemoths at 80mph. But, when driving out to the desert (55mph road with much less traffic), I get some pretty cool compliments. BTW, my Impreza is one of those rare super basic ones -- no auto anything, including the transmission. 250k miles on it and still going.

My '93 Impreza has a driver's side airbag. From a quick google search: http://www.carid.com/subaru-impreza-accessories/. If memory serves, it's built into the steering wheel behind that big, padded center section. BTW, I'd go with the Impreza for safety in a heartbeat. On a side note, I had a pretty nasty crash the other day in my '96 legacy. The Ford compact that ran into it crumpled like a coke can. Legacy has a lot more beef to it thatn the Impreza. Also, I never drive my '81 brat on the freeway. It's a deathtrap here in SoCal.

All I can say is I wish you lived closer! Best of luck in all your endeavors. And, a master tech on here is a godsend! (Not that I want to hit you up for free advice or anything... no, I'd never do that! :-)) Welcome to USMB. It's a great board and forum. Lots of good people.

I went ahead and ordered a new one. The dealer gave me two prices on two different calls -- 81.03 and 73.29. Either way, ouch! Part should be here Monday.

Next issue popped up. Starter needs a new solenoid and contacts. No big -- I expect little annoyances when I first buy a car. The broken shifter cable from my other thread was a major annoyance. Learned a lot on that one...

Anyone know of someone with this part? My old car got crunched pretty badly on the right side and getting it out is going to be a beast. (Really regretting breaking the dang thing this am...)

CNY_Dave -- Thanks. I'll check for that. BTW, this is my first time getting a car from snow country. In SoCal, there's no such thing as a cable being so gummed up that it won't pull through its housing.

Ok. First, I get the bonehead award. I was working in very confined quarters and had the shifter lever and the tranny levers under the car reversed in my head. DOH!! Now that the cable has broken, yes, I can move the lever on the side of the tranny and the shifter inside easily. I think you are 100% right that the cable was just super corroded inside. Now to find a new one. I could pull one from my old car if a '96 works in a '97 (likely)

Something that I should have added to all of the above: the shifter has been very difficult to move to lower gears, getting worse as it went down. So, now I've got a bigger mess. I was trying to adjust the cable again this morning and the thread part at the end of the cable -- not the cable itself -- broke. I was working the shifter back and forth and it suddenly became very loose. [[ EDIT: I was confused. The tranny lever can be moved by hand and the shift lever is fine. This is probably the cable -- see entries below. ]]

I just asked my wife about that and she's up for the job. I was adjusting, crawling out, testing, crawling in, etc. I did find what I think is the right part if it truly is stretching and/or damaged: 35151AC000 http://www.subarupartsandaccessories.com/p/Subaru__/CABLE-ASSEMBLY-SELECT-LEVER/49246876/35151AC000.html?partner=googlebase_adwords&kwd=&origin=pla I could also pull the one off my '96, but it's in the middle of a field on soft ground (jacking safety) and I'm not ready to give up on the idea of fixing that car quite yet (realistically, that's probably never going to happen, though - lol )

I hope it's that simple. I've been looking around, though, and it is definitely not a common part. Anyone know where to get one? I'll break out the manual and see what replacing the cable takes. BTW, my '96 went 260k miles with never having an issue with the shifter/cable/tranny setup.

Background: I crashed my beloved 1996 Legacy with a 2.2l in it and I'm freakin' BITTER about it. So, I bought a 1997 (with the dreaded 2.5l, but the engine is in fine shape) with an automatic for a good price with no rust and only 125k miles on it. Issue: When I got the car, you could easily push the shifter from drive into reverse with no safety override. I thought it was no big deal and just needed a cable adjustment. That was kind of right, but also wrong. The nut on the cable adjuster was very loose when I got under the car to work on it. I tried to adjust it properly -- over and over again. When I get it set correctly so that park is in the right place and the reverse safety override works, neutral is too far away, drive is worse and it gets worse from there. In other words, as I move the from gear to gear, the position of the expected "clunk" point does not line up with all of the actual gears. In short, park lines up. Neutral kind of lines up. Drive is way off and the error cascades down. What am I missing? I'm beginning to think that it was driven that way for such a long time that maybe something has happened inside the cable or the transmission itself...? The shift mech inside the car looks fine when I pulled it apart -- no odd wear on the the saw tooth part that positions where the shifter should go for each gear. Help, as always, would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. (Oh... and I want my old car back!!!! GRRRRR!!!!)

Unless you are looking for an off-road beater, definitely pay more and get one in better condition. Parts come in three categories for me -- dealer parts, aftermarket parts (generally from Rock Auto) and various body parts. The dealer parts are pretty much few and far between, but sometimes they surprise me. Basic parts are pretty cheap because there is usually something on closeout at Rock Auto. Not as good as OEM, but if you need the part, you need it. The third is just a matter of looking, waiting and looking until you're blue in the face. Ebay sellers have really jacked their prices up, but you can find some reasonable prices from time to time. People on here are generally really nice and ask for reasonable amounts if they have some parts they can (pardon the pun), part with. Definitely a "help out the other guy" vibe. Staying active on the board and being a part of things ups the odds that someone will offer a part to you. One last category, though, is anything you can fabricate. One time I got some bushings from the local hardware store and spun/sanded them on a belt sander for use on the tailgate hinges. They're still holding up. I've learned to mold plastic parts as well for a couple of parts. Sometimes, you gotta do, what you gotta do. As far as driving goes, I put less than 1,000 on my Brat every year and it just keeps going with really no need to replace anything at this point. It just doesn't see enough miles. But then there's insurance... biggest cost by far.

BTW, my gut tells me the guy (73 years old) is legit. He hardly ever drives the car, obviously makes a ton of money, there is not a drop of oil leaking from it and it is clearly very well maintained. He just wants to get rid of it because he is sailing home to Hawaii and no longer needs a ski car at his second home in Tahoe (must be nice! BTW, there is no salt allowed on the roads there). So... I think it's a good gamble.