robm

I see Rock Auto has Redi-sleeves for the EA-82, as well. $24 each isn't cheap, but cheaper than a new engine or crank. Good to know. Thanks!

I tried the drill and screw idea. It is harder than it sounds. The seal is very hard metal, and the drill tends to slide to the inside where the soft rubber is, scoring the sealing surface. It is now a miracle that my crank seal doesn't leak. In future, I will just use a screwdriver or ice pick. In case it lets go, is there "speedy sleeve" that fits the crank? Where can I obtain one?

Fuel filter? It wasn't on your list...

The spark on the points side doesn't really count. It is a different current there, that is the low voltage side of the coil. It is like a transformer. Well set-up points shouldn't spark very much, if at all, that is what the "condensor" (capacitor) is for, to cut down the arc at the points. Since that is a high current spark, it really eats the contacts. Points don't last long without the capacitor.

Probably because it is easier on the metal for the arc to leave it than for it to arrive, if that makes sense. Look at how spark plugs wear, it is a similar effect there. Also, the rotor contact is wider than the target contact, and the point the spark leaps varies a bit with the ignition timing. And remember, the gap is really small, like a few thousandths of an inch, so it is no sweat for a coil to pump the spark over it, when it is designed to jump a spark 40 thou at very high pressure.

The contacts don't touch. The spark jumps the gap. The gap is very small, so it doesn't rob much voltage, or burn the contacts too much. Eventually, they do get burnt, and that is why you put on a new cap and rotor.

That sounds like a lot of brake pads for 62,000 miles. Does your mom ride the brakes? Maybe I'm just too used to 90% highway driving, and not worrying about brakes for 50,000 miles...

Axles are the same both sides. According to the chart, the AT turbo axles are the same as the MT axles, and should fit no problem. If one doesn't fit, maybe the car got schmucked? Pushed one wheel in a bit? Or maybe it is just a bit stiffer that side, and harder to pull the strut out so it all goes together?

They are a shocking price at the dealer, but $5.00 might just be worth spending to save the time and hassle of trying to find the right one elsewhere.

Check the o-ring that seals the inlet pipe on the water pump. Lots cheaper and easier to replace than the pump or gasket. Chances are it is old and hard, and the seal got broken when you replaced the radiator. Good luck.

Ignition timing. Get a timing light and advance the ignition timing by twisting the distributor. Try it at 10 deg BTDC and see what happens. But do the filters first!

Re: your coolant leak: Check the o-ring on the pipe that runs into the water pump from the rad. They get old and stop sealing, then can leak at the back where it is impossible to see the exact source. It just drips down the front of the engine onto the ground. Good luck.

Actually, the last Corolla with a rear diff was the 1992 AWD wagon. But it didn't have leaf springs. (If it had the longevity and ease of maintenance of a Subaru, I would still be driving it. The JDM ones that are coming in look very attractive, but they probably won't last longer than 200k miles. That was my experience, anyway.)

Check the oil pump the next time you are in there. I supect it was a seized oil pump that snapped my belt. It fired up and ran fine when I replaced the belts. I didn't find the pump was bad until I tried to reseal the it a month or more later. Could this have happened to you? If the belt covers are not a good reference, how do you judge the timing mark is just right? I wouldn't trust my eyeball for this task. Is there a plumb bob trick that can be used? I am wondering because my car hasn't run quite right since I did the belts and then the oil pump. Not badly, just a little more gas than usual, running a bit warmer than normal.

MAF and/or O2 sensor? CTS telling the ECU to run open loop/cold enrichment? Leaky injector? It is running way rich, for some reason.

Actually, in very cold conditions (-20 deg. C and below), new all season tires seem to work OK. I ran them on a rental car in Northern Alberta all winter, and never had any traction problems. Even in spring breakup, they were fine. The week the snow started to melt, I was the only one in the apartment who could get into or out of the parking lot. FWD Pontiac with ABS, and it was only extreme braking that ever gave me problems. For driving on snowy or icy highways, when temperatures are -10 and above, winter tires all the way! Didn't have to deal with any of that, that winter, it was always colder, and the snow doesn't stay on the roads there, it blows off. Much different now I am living here on the north coast of BC.

The bore of the inner sprocket is countersunk, or chamfered, on the side that goes towards the engine block. Are the cam sprockets identical? If not, could they be swapped?

With belt covers, there is actually a notch both top and bottom. But it is hard to see the bottom notch with the radiator in the way, so rotating the crank 360 is the easy way to go. Without belt covers, it is probably just habit. Never tried it. I haven't any reason to pull off the rear belt covers. I like to crank everything around a couple of times to check it, and make sure nothing slipped. Often it has. I work on my car to save money, not time, and the extra time spent is well worth it. Much better than having to strip it all down again to correct it later.

Mine are maybe the width of the hole in the cam sprocket off. If I were you, I would look at the crank sprockets, like GD suggested. The covers, belts etc. have to come off to check. I have had the passenger side cam a whole tooth off. It ran OK, but it was gutless and ran warm. Fuel consumption was affected as well. With you rproblem on the driver's side, it will affect spark timing as well. Just out of curiosity, where is the spark timing set when it is together and operating 1/2 tooth out?

I'm on the second oil change now (every 3000) and there have been no shiny bits at any time. The pump shaft would have been more like filings, I would think. Hard to see in the dark oil. Probably took 50,000 miles off the engine, so I won't be too surprised if it doesn't make 400,000 km. Pity.

Makes sense. The first thing to lose oil pressure is the pump, so it seizes and breaks the cambelt, protecting the rest of the system. Relatively cheap, compared to the damage that could be done to cam, rod and main bearings. I have run it 6000 miles on the new cam belts, so I suspect there was minimal other damage. Reason for running low on oil was a loose drain plug, and not checking the oil level!

It did get prettly low a month or two back. Down to 1.5 liters or so, but it was not low enough to cause the lifters to clatter. But the cambelt did break. Maybe it was the pump that caused that? At first, I thought it was the cam that had seized, but it seems to be OK. Rob.

I pulled the oil pump out of my '93 Loyale the other day, to replace the gaskets and seal. (I have had TOD on start-up in winter, and a persistent oil leak that the main seal did not cure.) The car has 270,000 km on it. I found the pump shaft was severely scored, too badly to make me feel good about reinstalling it. Now waiting for UPS (which does not have either the good reputation or good service in Canada that it does in the US....) to bring one. I noticed that there seems to be 2 outlets for the pump. One goes to the filter and the rest of the engine, the other supplies its own bearing directly. My question is, if TOD is caused by sucking air past the mickey mouse gasket, then wouldn't this bearing see a lot of air too? If so, would that cause the scoring of the shaft? Rob.

I notice that the 6207 bearings that Subaru uses for our front wheel bearings come in double sealed format, pregreased with 2 built-in seals. Is there any advantage to using these sealed bearings vs. the standard unsealed ones? Will they last longer, shorter, about the same? Also, the excellent photo write-up on replacing the bearings shows removal of the hub carrier. Is this necessary, or does it just make it easier? I mistrust all the corroded bits on my struts and carriers, I suspect that removal would be the hardest part of the job. Thanks, Rob.

I would like to point out to Jacobs that propane does result in improved combustion. Less MPG because there is less heat energy in the fuel, but you don't lose as much as mileage as you would think because it burns better. Now this how it was for carburetted engines. Fuel injected gas probably meters and burns better than propane. I am not sure how well the new propane injection systems available in Europe work vs. gasoline injection.