markjw

If the tranny or engine are new, meaning they've never been mated up before, make certain you don't have too many locating pins. It's easy to miss a pin in the mating surface of the tranny when you already have one in it's opposing position on the engine.

Sounds like ground isn't your problem, but I've had good results attaching one end of a new ground wire to a screw holding the plate on that covers the gears, and then attaching the other end to a bare metal spot on the firewall.

Seems a extra ground wire from the wiper motor to the firewall (scrape some paint) usually helps with wiper problems.

Storage only until next month I'll be towing the Hatch and dolly with a motor home. Except for looking absolutely ridiculous going down the hwy, the trip was no problem at all. With the hitch mounted directly to the back floor pan, it was a little noisy in the cab with all the banging and rattling. But I've noticed that on 3/4 ton pickups with a light dolly. But in the end, I'm gonna remove the hitch and plug the holes put the bumper back on. A Subaru hatchback is obviously Not a tow vehicle. Just 'cause you can do it, don't make it right.

I'm definitely Not going to put a car on this dolly, but still, I've never towed anything with a Subaru. I have to go 200 miles to put the dolly in storage. I installed one of those "bolt-on the bottom of your bumper" receivers but instead of the bumper (which I removed), I drilled thru the back floor pan and attached it with 4, 1/2 inch bolts and bar-stock straps on top. Kind of a sandwich mouth I guess. Seems strong enough. Initial test drive was uneventful. Braking wasn't effected hardly at all. I'll see how it does at freeway speeds later today.

Leave a couple cam tower bolts lose but still in place when you break free the cam tower. That helps a little with the rockers falling all over the place. Try to keep the rockers organized so you can put them back where they came from. And when you reassembl, use the assembly lube. It's really the only way.

Have you checked to make sure one of your front hubs isn't stripped out? It's worth checking out considering the weird clutch failure. Set your parking brake, start you car, put the tranny in first gear and let the clutch pedal out. Then get out and see if your front axle nut is turning either side. If so, you have a stripped hub.

On your "flat spot" when you give it the gas, you might try a adjustable, inline fuel pressure regulator and dial it way down. I had my fpr dialed down to 2.5lbs before the hesitation on acceleration went away. The Weber was just getting too much gas.

Alright. Thanks for the info, guys. Sounds like my options are pretty much limitless. I shoulda asked a couple weeks ago when I started thinking about all this. As for the hoods, these are both pretty new subi's to me. The loyale's hood suffered huge damage coming open on the PO going down the hwy.. The hatch I plan to paint and its straight except for the hood. And it only has typical dents but I don't want to do body work and I don't want to paint dents.

Two hood questions actually. I have a 86, ea81 Hatch. I need a new hood. Does my replacement have to be from another Hatch or Brat? Or, will a 80-84 wagon/sedan/coup hood work? Also, I have a 92 loyale sedan. I need a new hood. Can I use a hood off a loyale/gl wagon? I searched the archives. Came up inconclusive. Seems I've read that there are compatibility issues between the hood's on these particular models. Any insight much appreciated.

Drilling holes in your primary butterfly is a BAD Idea. I took the butterfly out of another 32/36 I have. And WOW. What I thought was a acceptably tuned weber is now SO much better. The un-holed butterfly changed EVERYTHING. After preliminary tune, I was even able to idle down to 200rpm and it actually ran decent. It fixed a slight dieseling problem I was having as well. Im feeling a lot better about running around in this hatch now. I do love F.I., thou. Thanks for all the help!

naru, thanks for the explanation. I know I've seen small holes drilled in carb butterflies in the past, never knew the reason. And yeah, when he said Chevy 4.3, I thought that was a bit much for a weber regardless of jetting. Was a Toyota truck, wheeler application.

I think it was GD's recipe I found here on the board. I ordered everything online exactly how it was written.Seems right as the ea81 runs well enough but I gotta figure out this idle. Before the new jets arrived, I ran the weber with the 200s. Within a couple miles driving down the road, I was heading back home with my head hanging out the window trying to escape the gas fumes. Yeah, it was running a little Rich.

Thanks, Jeszek. Ill switch it out, see if it changes anything. I got the weber from a guy who had it on a Chevy 4.3 Vortec. 200 Mains!

I bought this 32/36 used and its now installed on my '86 hatch. Runs very well with proper jetting and hopefully all vac leaks sealed up. But, it wants to idle at 1200. I believe the carb is tuned properly and the electric choke is set right. Still idles too high. My question is, would this little hole drilled thru the primary butterfly cause a high idle. Also, what would be the purpose of ever drilling a hole thru the butterfly.

Make certain the intake gaskets are OEM only. Anything else will fail prematurely.

Thanks for the reply. The car overall shows signs of typical neglect. Tranny fluid was a couple quarts low before I changed it. I'm thinking after the person who owns this car pays for repairs, they might then pop the hood occasionally and chk the fluids. But, then again, maybe not.

Reviving and old thread here but I have the exact same symptoms with a 2004 Forester. I also changed out the fluid and filter with little or no change. Did you guys come to any conclusion as to what was wrong with your trannys? Maybe someone else can shed some light?

Make certain you don't have more alignment pins than you need. When you separate engine and tranny sometimes the pins stay with the engine, sometimes they stay with the tranny. If installing a different tranny, it can be a problem. It's easy to over look.

Maybe connect the white diagnostic plugs together and turn on the ignition. Watch the red blinking light on the ecu see if there are actually no trouble codes stored. Its as good a place as any to start.

Edit

Start with checking for trouble codes.

I've also had good luck with going to the yard and pulling a trailing arm with a good, used bearing already installed. About $20 at PAP.

What about the hydraulic tensioner? Does it seem to be in good working order? Do you know a good one from a bad one? I know they dont fail offen but if it wasn't keeping tension on the tensioner cog, I believe you could get a Knock there. But I think you would have seen that when running the engine with the covers off. All the same, check that closely.

I agree. I would do whatever needed to level that trailer. And your trailer is covered by your auto policy when its hooked to your subi. If its stored in your yard or garage, it needs a separate policy to be covered from theft/damage (optional, like you say) but your homeowners or renters policy wont cover it if its stolen or damaged while stored on your property. Or anywhere else for that matter.