Fairtax4me

As far as I know the parking brake is separate from the caliper on those. It uses a separate set of shoes inside the inner drum of the rotor. It's not until later years (05 maybe?) that the park brake is part of the caliper, and even then you shouldn't have to remove the cable to get the caliper loose.

Is there not an arrow on the splash shield pointing to a spot along the seam? You can lift the car by the rear cross member, but the jack may not lift the car all the way off the ground from that point. There should be a notch or something in the pinch seam where the jack should go. Worst case, you can lift the car by the outrigger for the diff mount where it bolts to the chassis near the trailing arm. In this pic, the large bolt with the circled number 2. http://static.opposedforces.com/epc_img/366495020101.png You can lift from there with a floor jack. But you should still find the correct place on the pinch seam to place a jack stand while you work.

Play at the output stubs from the front differential is normal. They are high clearance and offer quite a bit of wiggle room between the stubs and the diff carrier. A bad center diff can make clunking sounds, but usually causes binding when turning tight circles. The car will not roll easily, you will have to give a LOT of extra throttle in order to make tight circles. The car will jerk/jump and the tires will squeal on asphalt. There was a year or two that the center diffs had problems, but their failure mode results in the diff basically exploding and usually taking out the transfer gears with it, which eventually leaves you with NO drive at all. Warning signs of this are slight, usually a constant grinding or squealing sound from the transmission. Clunking/ clicking when turning is usually an axle.

One of the many problems that can cause a P0420 code. Autozone scanner won't show you MAF or Fuel trim graphs. You'll get a numeric value that may give some clues IF the scanner they have can read Freeze frame data.

Well that would cause some clunking! Is the belt new?

Oh nooooh! Google doesn't like your site. Maybe a virus scan would catch something? (I don't know how that kind of thing works with websites) Anyway. Any plans for Gen 2 Legacy/Outback bumpers?

Diggin that Gen2 Outback bumper! Any other pics of that? Does it have or can it be ordered with light mounts? Winch mount possible? How/where does it mount to the car? Are the tow hooks part of the bumper? Extra cost for those or included?

I can open the FSM now (on the home PC) . Torque spec for rocker assembly to head is 8.7 ft lbs. +/- 0.7. Rocker cover bolts 3.6 Ft lbs. +/- 0.7.

Of course you can. The holes don't move when you take the engine out. Just spin the crank with a breaker bar until the screwdriver slides into the flywheel. I use a 6" long 1/4" allen driver inserted from the passenger side. Never has failed to hold the crank in place while I wail on the bolt.

Head gaskets are NEVER reusable, regardless of design. Once they've been compressed they're done. Also copper spray is a big no-no on these. The MLS gaskets already have a coating on them to help with sealing.

Only 8.7 ?! You know that does sound about right though. I had posted it in another thread but that was a while ago.

The bolts on your rocker assemblies are loose. I've had that happen (it was my fault) and the end result is no fun. It's good that you caught this at this stage. Torque spec on those is something like 20ft lbs. Tighten in a cris-cross fashion from the center bolts out.

What happened to Low budget? No offense, but boost is going the complete opposite direction. Forced induction needs a lot more to work than just a Turbo stuck on the engine. You need higher flow injectors, higher flow pump, intake parts, entirely new exhaust. Then you still need the right electronics to make it all work (ECU, sensors, etc), or some form of engine management. If you want to go that route that's fine, there are plenty of options, but I don't think an Ej22 crank in a 2.5 block is going to work. If you're really stuck on using the 2.5 block, just take it apart and rebuild it. A set of ACL Race Bearings is like $40-50, need a few O rings from the dealer for the case halves, new head gaskets (again). As for the 2.2. What does "in pieces" mean? Did you separate the block halves?

Rag joint on the EJ steering shaft? I've never seen one. All the ones I've dealt with are just a straight section of tube between two U joints. The 2" kit I put on my 96 had a lengthened steering shaft with it. Seems to me it was only about 1" longer than the stock one though. I think they just cut the stock one in the middle and slipped a larger I.D. tube over it. Dunno how they figured the length though.

The early EJ's didn't have any of that "sore thumb" deal on the intake, just a straight tube from the filter box to the TB. But you do need to keep the Breather hoses that run from the valve covers to the intake tube. They don't have to hook into the same place, but without them you'll have all kinds of other fun problems to deal with, like oil seals blowing out, and sludge in the crankcase. Actually I don't suppose you HAVE to have them, you could put those little breather filter dealies that you get cheap on the rice rocket isle at Autozone on the valve covers, but they'll probably just leak oil all over the place. I'd rather have the hoses connected to the intake tube in some way. PCV stuff has to be there, but that isn't going to be in the way of anything. Certain vacuum lines you absolutely DO need. Others depend on what your ECU is looking for. Fuel pressure regulator has to have a vacuum line. No if's ands or buts. Although that's the only one that I can think of that's absolutely necessary for the engine to run. Are you going OBD1 or OBD2?

Well, I wouldn't expect wheel bearing noise to carry all the way up the axle shaft and still be prominent in the transmission case, but I suppose it could. Transmissions are loud any way. It's possible the noise you heard in the trans was just normal gear noise. At any rate, input shaft noise will be more prominent closer to the back end of the transmission. The input shaft roller bearing (the one that commonly fails) is mounted at the end of the main case, not up front where the axles are. Noise can carry some, but when listening with a stethoscope noises are much louder when you're right next to the source. A bad input bearing will typically start out as a low clunk or knock sound that changes exactly with engine RPM, and will go away entirely when the clutch pedal is depressed. Follow the seam in the bottom of the transmission between the halves of the case. Where it ends, the MSB is directly above that point in the upper half of the transmission. Beyond that is the center differential and transfer gear housing.

You don't even need the axle pin tool. Just a few punches that you can buy cheap from the parts store. The special tool just makes it a bit easier for people who do these on a regular basis. If you're really dependent on a mechanic, Order an axle from MWE, and have the mechanic install it. Mail the original (core) back so it can live on in someone else's Soob rather than go to the crusher and be made into a Kia.

Snap-On? Matco? I have a set of Craftsman flare nut wrenches that are miles better than the cheapos I bought at Autozone years ago. Yet they're still no comparison to the Matco wrenches I bought last year when I needed good wrenches for brake lines. I have yet to round off a flare nut when using the Matco wrenches.

I think you're barking up the wrong tree there. Cheaper to just pop that 2.2 in it and leave the 2.5 block for when you have $$ to rebuild it. Fel-pro EJ22 head gaskets are $20 each at Autozone.

No rust in there! That's good! I guess the bolt just cross threaded on the way in and jammed? Was it a pain to get it loose?

You need a really good flare nut wrench. Or vice grips. And a hammer.

This is a continuation of a thread from a few months ago. The captured nut is broken inside the floor so the bolt can't be tightened. He needs to cut a hole out inside to put a wrench on the nut.

I've been driving with a split boot for about a month. It split at the narrow end though so there's less chance of stuff making it into the bearings in the cup. No gears in there just a few large bearings, and they're pretty tough. These are very easy to reboot though. Can be done in about an hour start to finish, you don't even need to completely remove the axle from the car to do the inner, but you might as well. If the outer boot looks like it has cracks between the ripples you might as well replace it too while it's off. Check Youtube for videos on how to replace CV boots. There are quite a few.

The vacuum tubes (small rubber lines) don't clog. If they split/break you just replace them. The large copper ( I think) pipe that runs from the back of the head up to the back of the EGR valve is what I was referring to.

I would drill the hole behind (to the rear of the car) the bolt. I think there's less chance of there being stuff in the way. Drill directly behind the crossmember and your pilot should end up only about an inch from the bolt. But like I said, remove the ECU and whatever else may be in that area, and hang any wiring up off of the floor so it wont get knicked by the drill bit just in case. You may end up just drilling right through the floor pan there, but that will give you a reference for where to measure from so you can cut the bigger hole.