mountaingoatgruff

i talked to a tech at the dealership this morning... fsm indicates 92 N/A 2.2 Legacy L wagons have 4.11 gears, 92 Legacy Turbo 2.2 wagons have 3.90 gears and 93 1.8 Imreza L wagons have 4.11 gears. also, he said that one could in theory separate the front section of the trans and swap it onto a compatible model, but if the purpose is to have the right gear ratio then he recommends just swapping the diff. said any 4eat front diff before certain changes (98 or 99) should install in any 4eat before same changes. as a side note, i drove my hatch (picking up parts) and two of the techs spent a half hour looking it over and repeating that they'd never seen one so old. i mentioned my brat and their eyes lit up. they both said they'd never seen one.

yeah, snowman suggested changing out the rear diff too. i just didn't really want to spend that much more time/money on something with 231k. really though, i've got a couple hundred into rebuilding the front knuckles/suspension and i'm putting new lifetime waranty axles on the front, swapped over the brand new tires off the legacy before the wreckers took it, with a fp door the body would be nice (naturally there's zero rust :-p only thing ca's good for) and down the road maybe i could swap the 2.2 from that legacy into there - might be worth goin the whole 9 to come out with a reliable, comfortable impreza. i guess it'd be kinda dumb not to at this point. that color bugs the snot outta me though, i've never thought twice about a red car before. i don't know... i'm still working to get that atf out of my hair. greasy feeling's gone but the smell of ridiculously burnt atf remains, stuff was straight wrong. what a thing to wake up to.

still wondering if anyone knows... where/how to decode numbers on bellhousings of 4eat's i called a dealership and they've got somebody looking up diff ratios for these two cars whenever he gets a chance, but the girl didn't think they had the info available to decode the #'s. i'll post what i learn.

those rust pics are gonna give me nightmares... thanks

i just wish somebody would break the trend of pleasing big oil, gov't, etc with their run of the mill cars and distracting consumers with the superficialities surrounding them (can you say "beauty is skin deep?"). if ANY manufacturer offered a car with the kinds of technologies every intelligent man knows they've got sitting on the dusty back shelves i wouldn't give a crap if it did look like this hideous hosebeast of an automobile!!

what about ej rear splines to ea rear diff? could you swap a 3.9 r&p into a turbo rear diff or is that necessary?

hadn't thought of that. could i swap the entire section in front of the pump on just gaskets & seals? it'd be good to know, i'd like to be able to just grab the front chunk in the jy if there's a next time.

would there be any compatability issues between a 92 legacy 4eat and a 93 impreza 4eat? i got a tranny for the impreza, the guy wanted it gone pronto and it was so cheap i didn't bother waiting to check. was $80 but it has 180k, kinda better than a surely toasted 231k i guess, just needs to last till the brat's done then i can do it up right. i know the electrical connectors are the same and the inhibitor switch looks the same, but i'm mostly worried about the diff ratios, i can't figure out how to tell what either is. i already instaled it (that was far too many hours of hell...have yet to get the atf out of my hair! i hate a/t's wish i could drop an awd 5mt in there!) so i know it bolts up and all. engine is still out for maint so i haven't tried driving to see what breaks. impreza is a 93 l wagon, no visible marks on rear diff - just a finned al cover. tranny #'d 594730 and TZ102ZX3AA-GI on the two stickers by the starter hole. legacy was a 92 l wagon, no rear diff reference available. tranny #'d 402453 and TZ102ZA2AA-MH. can anyone tell me if they have the same diff ratios?

you can upgrade to spfi and still pass ca smog. you just have to call the bureau of automotive repair (1-800-622-7733) and make an appt to see a smog referee to register an engine change. tell him you swapped an entire engine (even though you wouldn't) from an spfi donor car and you can get by on just a fuel system upgrade that way. the current law in ca is that you can swap in a different engine if it is of equal age or newer and it is of equal displacement or greater but fuel system upgrades alone are generally not permitted. he'll check to see that everything is up to spec for the model year of your donor car and that all those emissions systems/components are there and working. i did this to the ea81 in my 84 hatchback and i'm almost done smogging it. the ref noticed its not an ea82 swap but let me by with it when i showed him a printout of a reman'd feedback carb for $550 at autozone. now i just need to pass a sniffer. i got a temp tag through nov once the budget circus shut the b.a.r. & dept of consumer affairs down and haven't tried calling again yet. its not easy and its not cheap, but imo its worth it to upgrade to spfi. my hatch got better heads and lots of needed maint/repairs as part of the upgrade, but its like an entirely different vehicle...hardly notice the bad tranny... if you end up doing it and you need help feel free to ask, i'm up that direction regularly. i couldn't tell you a thing about webers, though... sorry for the novel, just trying to lend a hand.

i'm only thinking engine swap since i have one with way less miles and i don't want to just sit on it/sell it but the car needs a tranny for sure, it doesn't want to engage R now...

yeah, it was totalled for $5700 after some "negotiating." medical claim for my wife is still open.

just got a 93 impreza l wagon - 231k 1.8 auto bought it dirt cheap as a fixer upper - needs axles, brakes, engine work, a front pass door, maybe a tranny and definitely an appointment with a milkcrate full of rattlecans (i can't stand a fire engine red car!). had 185/60/14's up front and 175/70/14's out back and the front cv's are all toast. all that's left of the boots is the fragments of rubber trapped under the steel bands... tranny engages R and D just fine but shifting gears while driving is another story. it rev's between gears and doesn't always go into 4th. there's a light in the dash that says "POWER" in green and it flashes when you start the car, 16 times i think. i'm pretty sure i'll end up replacing the engine & tc but i'd like to save the tranny if possible, any ideas? also, i'm wondering if the different tire sizes may have jacked anything else up like the rear end or whatever. i swapped the brand new 185/70/14's from the legacy onto it already and i'll get to the axles & brakes this weekend. also, how can i read then clear the codes out of the ecu and tcu? the cel comes on once in a while (maybe 1 in 10 times starting then it goes out once you start driving) and the flashing power light is a tcu code alert, right? i have an obd II auto x-ray reader but no port that matches anything under the impreza's dash. its kind of a mess under there, too - a crappy aftermarket stereo/alarm install job sans electrical tape and zipties.... i'm thinking about sneaking a low-mileage 2.2 in there run off the 1.8's harness & ecu, that odometer keeps whispering in my ear that i might save some money down the road that way... i'll be tearing into it this weekend once the parts i've ordered so far are in but i haven't checked much yet except by driving it. should be a good car once these things are taken care of and i know you guys'll help me get it there.

looks somewhat different, but its definitely a place to start. thanks!

for a 92 loyale's am/fm and cassette deck? good guesses will suffice. i think there's some universal color codes for the functions of these wires but i don't know what they'd be. my guesses: red for constant power yellow for ignition switched power black for ground greens&greys for speakers (only 6 wires there, thought there'd be 4 speakers though...) what are blue & white? which one for lights? anyone know? i know its a dusty old tape player but i'm fiending for some savage nation!! i'm trying to put it in my 84 hatch and the car's radio harness has been chopped. i'd like to know which of those wires are which too if anyone's figured that out.

i got a few from autotrader.com over the last half hour. all in the $6500 - $8000 range but mostly obw's (and man, those things must really hold some value!). i haven't found a single 97 legacy l wagon yet, which may count in our favor since we're going to argue that the property damage settlement has to be based on what it will actually take to replace the car. i'll continue looking for 97 l wag's but i think i should be okay on this one already.

i had issues doing it until i got the hang of it. click the "Photos" link at the top right of any usmb page. on the page that appears, click the "Upload Photos" link a little lower in the upper right. from there, i just click on any "Browse..." button by the entry fields then find the image in the "Choose file" window that opens. once you've found it, click on the icon and click on the "Open" button or simply double click the icon. that places the pic's file location in the entry feild to be uploaded once you click the "Upload/Submit" button. you can put up to 8 entries in those fields, but if you have average to large jpeg's, i've found i usually have to do them 1 or 2 at a time for it to accept them. click "Upload/Submit" and it'll got to a page that says its processing then it automatically goes to the next page where you can see all the pics you have uploaded so far. to paste the pic in a thread posting, i open a tab/window for the post and another for the pic. when you get to where you want the pic in the post, click the little square icon in the row of tool icons that has grey mountains and sun and a yellow sky. if you have a good pop-up blocker your computer will have a banner come down from the toolbar asking you if you want to temporarily allow scripted windows and just click that option. otherwise you may have to manually turn off your pop-up blocker (from what i understand). if you click the icon and it opens the "Explorer User Prompt" window then you can skip this part. you now go back to the tab/window that has the pic (you may need to click the pic to get the largest version), right click it then select "Properties" from the bottom of the menu that appears. highlight the entire address of the pic from the "properties" window, right click and select "Copy" then click the "Okay" button to close that window. return to the tab/window where you've typed your post, click the picture icon (yellow sky, grey mountains) to reopen the "Explorer User Prompt" window if necessary. delete the http that's there and then right click and paste the address of the pic you just copied from the previous step. click the "Okay" button and the address of the pic will show up in your post with on the other. here's my sample pic (my boy, of course!): when you click the "Preview Post" button you can verify that the pic shows up and that it's where you want it.

my wife and i haven't signed anything for anyone but hertz and the doctors. we had a consultation with a lawyer this morning and he was giddy to take the case, said we've done everything right so far and this should be a fairly routine one. things should go smoother for us now. i had to use up the rest of my vacation to care for my son since my wife is effectively incapacitated so it should be interesting to see if state farm is willing to pay me back for that... edit: got some homework from my lawyer. i need to find high-priced listings of 95-99 legacy wagons from dealerships to help argue a higher market value than the inevitable lowball offer they'll give at total time. if any of you guys know of any within 300miles of 95358 (central ca pretty much) i'd greatly appreciate it.

i'll be retaining a lawyer for sure, i've gone through this a few times but never from this perspective (i wasn't even in the accident, i was asleep at home!). what's really screwed us over right now is paying out of pocket for everything then having to submit claims for reimbursment. i spent two hours on the phone yesterday red in the face and offloading on one rep after another about how sick i am of hearing their industry rhetoric so i could get out of paying $500 out of pocket for the rental. i may have made an rump roast out of myself in a sandwich shop and i know i made some state farm employees pretty unhappy but i didn't have to pay for the rental! my insurance co (aaa) is going to reimburse our medical expenses then go after state farm for their money, state farm wants aaa to handle the property damage too, aaa says they won't since we only have liability ins on the legacy.... this thing is snowballing into a ridiculous mess and i've already missed two days of work cuz my wife can't care for our son. :-\ lawyer is at the top of the list at the moment. then

took the car in to a body shop for an estimate: $4365.10 state farm is going to send a total loss claim rep out next week. they said they won't take the hundreds of dollars i just spent on that t-belt job into consideration because its "routine maintenance" and when they estiamte a car's market value they assume its been fully maintained.

i apologize, i removed the pics cuz i thought i needed the space to upload the ones in the other thread as OB99W posted. its faster for me to do that than resize the pics especially since i eventually have to remove some to add more anyways. here's the three pics:

the baby has a little misalignment in his lower back but is okay overall. my wife is pretty messed up and can't even pick our son up but with proper treatment she'll be fine, its all whiplash. we got a rental for now since the bumper cover is resting/melting on the exhaust and i only found it after noticing the smell from inside the car once i got off the freeway (i had to pick up my wife at the hospital last night). i don't care to mess with it as long as they're paying... rental is an '08 toyota corolla and it effectively reaffirms how much i dislike new cars, they feel like cheap office furniture. anyone have any shop recommendations in the modesto/turlock or surrounding areas? also, does anyone know exactly what source for "market value" state farm would use? market value is fairly ambiguous without knowing the source.

so after spending a ridiculous amount on that t-belt job, my wife was rear-ended last night 100yards from our driveway. it was a younger guy in a late 70's toyota pickup that said he was going over 40mph when he hit her, but it was likely closer to 50, that's the obscene speed of traffic right here: and this is inside by the pass side of the spare tire area with the floor panels removed so the sheetmetal damage is easily visible. the oval plastic plug that should be there was found under the spare: the hatch won't close all the way now, the latch will grab but it doesn't lock and the light on the dash won't go out. my wife and 10mo son were in the car stopped to turn left when he hit. both drivers went by ambulance to the hospital and my wife was released with whiplash and a vicoden rx. my son seems okay but he's going to be checked out today to make sure. they've both got chiropractor appt's today, too. we haven't heard about the other driver. i'm pretty apprehensive about how they'll want to take care of this thing since the interior sheet metal is smashed in. any words of advice out there?

i've been driving the illegal injected hatch (its not my fault those idiots can't pass a budget) while working on the wife's legacy and noticed that it runs like poo in the morning when i'm going home from a graveyard shift (that's as close to cold as it gets here right now, unfortunately). it doesn't necessarily start harder but it goes to an idle of 2000-2200rpm's until i blip the pedal then it comes down to about 1800 or so. if i don't try to drive it it'll idle okay and come down just fine to somewhere around 700-750rpm's. if i try to drive it though it sputters like elmer fudd after a hard night of toking and yodeling.... the hatch runs like a dream once it's warmed up, but not before that. more power than i'd have ever hoped for and purrs like a kitty at stoplights. i've abused this ailing 4speed a couple times lighting up the tires for folks who get a kick out of this little old rig and you should see the looks i've gotten! that's all in the 3.90's and the weight not the hp, but they don't know that... replacing the o2 sensor with an oem and the y-pipe with that maremont aftermarket really quieted the exhaust down (which sucks of course) but seems to have helped it run better, especially at freeway speeds. kinda rattles since it's strung up with galvanized electric fence wire until the 5speed's in but i can live with that for now. so, anyone else with an spfi or pertinant knowledge have any ideas on this one? i'm leaning toward an elusive vac leak (i've searched high and low multiple times now, where could a vac leak occur while cold and go away once warm?) or maybe a bad signal somewhere... it'd be great if i could swap out a cts or something to fix this.

just checked the diff oil and it's good - fresh and on the mark. about an hour ago i figured out how to read a dipstick and got the tranny filled to the lower hot mark. i went across town to borrow a lawnmower and checked the tranny fluid once i got back. after fully warming up its just past the word hot on the stick which is overfilled a bit so i'll be draining some out once it cools down, but other than that it seems okay. the car is shifting and driving fine, did some circles with the wheels all the way over each way and it did great with no binding, clicking, etc. temp is a hair lower than before and steady even at 80mph (i DON'T do that often at all but i really wanted to know things would be okay). now the embarassing part - i had to drain about 3 1/2 quarts of atf to get it to the level its at now... i didn't drive it overfilled but i guess its bad enough all the same. thanks for the help again guys.

i drained it on ramps and i'd estimate i got about 8-10qts out. now i don't have 5qts left to drain/fill again and even if i did that would kind of be a waste without driving the car to mix the fluid so i could get more of the old crap out. that atf dipstick is harder to read than sanscrit!! for all the things subaru has done so right they really dropped the ball there, at least in my opinion. i'm just trying to prolong the thing's health and here i am worried i've it at every turn!! just to verify with everyone, i'm checking the level by the hayne's manual method (is that my problem?) which says with the engine warm shift through each gear beginning and ending in park then use the cold marks if the tranny's cold and the hot marks if you've driven it around to warm it up.