WoodsWagon

I've fixed a few legacys now by changing the fluid 3 times. Change it, drive a bit, change again, drive more, change again, call it good. Drive in figure 8's in a parking lot after you're done changing it to burnish the rear clutch pack.

Seeing as your in Maine, it's going to be rusted together more severely than most people on this site are used to seeing. I have beaten them until the cup cracked and not have them come off. If you heat them on the diff you have a good chance of ruining the differential seals, but it's worth a shot. The last resort is to take the inner CV boot off, remove the wire ring clip in the inside of the cup, pull the joint out, clean the grease out of the cup, and take a chisel to the sheetmetal plug in the bottom of the cup. Once you get the plug out or destroyed enough to fit a socket through, you can remove the bolt that holds the stub into the diff. It's an E10 torx socket I belive, but I've had luck using some undersized metric socket that I've forgotten. You may need to use an impact gun to remove the axle stub bolt. Once the cup and stub are out of the car, you can heat the cup with a torch and pound the stub out of it with a drift punch.

Did it start after your oil change? If the anti-drainback valve in the oil filter fails, all the oil drains out of the engine block and down into the pan. When you start it up the pump has to fill all the oil galleries in the engine before it can build pressure. Try changing just the filter. 350k miles is not the end of engine life, nor should thick oil or oil thickeners be used. Thick oil often accelerates bearing wear because it can't wick into tight clearances. The bearings run dry, the clearances open up, and the thick oil can then work. Thick oil will also lower your MPG.

I'm pretty sure the RR with HLA started in 95 because three of the 95's that I've had the valve covers off of had them.

From that post on nabisco:

Well, I've got an Associates Degree in Honda Automotive Technology, so WOOO hooray for me. I'm also willing to share information and knowledge without coming across as a douche or asking to be paid shop rate. Diagnostic codes have everything to do with helping a tech fix a car. The CEL only comes on if the detected failure could cause the car to emit 50% more pollution than it was designed to, so that is part of federal emissions law. The codes stored, freeze frame data, and live data stream are diagnostic tools though because they give a window into what the computer is seeing and working with. Now, your post cat sensor statement. Earlier cars with simpler programming strategies could be fooled by a resistor pack feeding 0.5v back to the computer from a rear 02 sensor simulator. So for those cars your steady state voltage holds true. Manufacturers got wise to that though, so newer cars look for fluctuation on the rear o2 sensor signal. You will get a P0139 circuit slow response code if there isn't fluctuation on the rear sensor. When a cat has failed to work, the exhaust will pass though without changing its composition, so the rear sensor output will mirror the front sensor output. That sets a P0420 code. By using a o2 sensor spacer to shield it from the direct flow of the exhaust, you cut a balance between setting either code. The sampling rate of the sensor is reduced to the point that it no longer fluctuates like the front sensor, but it still fluctuates enough to not set a slow response code. It works, even on cars with no catalyst. Now, going back to the P0420 code, it can also be set by an inaccurate front 02 sensor. If the front sensor is not following the mixture changes as quickly as it should and is sitting closer to a steady 0.5v, it's signal will look more like the rear 02 sensor. The P0420 is set as a result of the comparison of the two sensor readings, and if both readings are similar, it assumes the catalyst has failed. That is why replacing the 02 sensors can often fix a P0420 code. I've got cars out there that are code free 3 years after replacing just the o2 sensors for a 420 code. Now there's also the bit about o2 sensor fluctuation. o2 sensors are very peaky in their signal variation. Go a little bit leaner than 14.7 and the voltage drops way down from 0.5. Go a little bit richer than 14.7 and it quickly jumps up to 1v. This is the reason that the signal voltage oscillates so wildly with minor mixture changes, and also why the signal output is ignored when the engine has to go rich under higher load. The signal variation does not mean the ECU is feeding the cat lean and rich mixtures to keep it lit. All manufactures have switched to using a/f sensors instead of 02's for the front sensor because an a/f sensor reads accurately over a much broader mixture range, not just 14.7:1 like an o2 sensor.

The EJ22 flexplates also have a deeper dish to them than the EJ25 ones. I bet you had to crank down on the bellhousing bolts to pull it together, didn't you? I hope you didn't break the pump in the transmission. It should have just bent the flexplate back instead of crushing the pump.

The round bar that goes back from the front control arm to the body under your feet when you're driving is known for bending when you have impacts like that. It's called a strut rod. I've made them into full banana shapes before offroading.

The GL's have a much better turning radius. I find it makes all the difference when offroading on tight trails.

Rattling in the back going over bumps may be from the nuts not being tight that hold the strut rod into the strut cap. Some struts had a longer unthreaded portion where they go through the strut cap. The nut bottoms out on the threads before it actually touches the strut cap. Grinding a washer to fit in under the nut fixes it.

He's asking about putting just the carb from an EA82 on his EA81, not swapping the whole engine. I've only had EA82's, so I can't say for sure the hitachi will swap. There are feedback and non-feedback carbs. Make sure you have a non-feedback one. The computer controlled carbs have a mixture solenoid on them. EA82's are not bad engines. I've beaten the hell out of them and they never let me down. I've got a crank and rods on my wall that came out of my 92. Three bent rods from hydrolocking it at 4k rpms. I drove it for a couple weeks after the water incident, not many engines you can do that to.

Looks like the ball joint ripped out of the knuckle or the knuckle broke, so the strut rod and control arm are still attached to the frame. They're both bent though. Should be pretty easy to swap that corners worth of suspension in from a parts car, then use a tree and strap to pull the front back out.

Find the wire that runs from the TCU to the Duty C solenoid on the TCU connector in the cabin using the right wiring diagram for your year. Cut the wire and splice in a single throw double position switch. When the switch is in one position it will connect the center pin (which you wire to the TCU side of the cut wire) to the wire going to the Duty C solenoid. That's the normal AWD position. When you move the switch to the other position, it disconnects the signal coming from the TCU and connects it to the other pin on the switch. You can leave that pin unhooked, but it will throw a code for a failed solenoid and the a/t temp light will flash. If you build a resistor pack to mimic the solenoid and connect that to the unused pin on the switch on one side and ground on the other, then the computer will think the solenoid is still there and working. By disconnecting power to the Duty C solenoid you allow full hydraulic pressure to apply the rear clutch pack. That will lock it in 4wd.

Subaru's use R160's except for STi's which use the R180's Doesn't mean you can't retrofit a R180 to an older subaru.

The earlier TCU's for 4eat's had a longer delay for the rear engagement and the hydraulic passages for the rear transfer clutch are smaller so that adds to the slow response. Replacing the TCU and the rear transfer assembly with a newer version will make the AWD work much better. You can put in a power cut switch to force it into 4x4 instead of AWD. That will make it handle the same as your pushbutton 4x4 5spd's. Search for 4eat lock switch or something like that and it should come up. Threads like this: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=105077 If you build a dummy load out of resistors that the signal from the ECU gets shunted to when you cut it to the Duty C solenoid, then it won't throw codes. You should be able to turn up all the info needed with some searching.

Been following this over on Nabisco. It's coming together nicely, to say the least. I'd recommend against the TH400 if this is anything other than a 1/4 mile car. Unless the rear diff ratio is in the 2's, you'll miss the overdrive. What about a 4l80e?

Replacing the pistons with the updated moly coated ones seems to work well too.

Someone probably connected the diagnostic connectors under the dash, which is why the fans and fuel pump relay are cycling. They're green and black and tucked up by the steering column above the pedals. The green ones will have no retaining clip, the black single pin connector will. They are meant to be un-connected unless you're doing a diagnostic check. People think it looks wrong and plug them together. Have you done head gaskets yet on this engine? If it has never had them done, you could pull the engine and do a headgasket timing belt, idlers, tensioner, and water pump job. Use genuine subaru headgaskets. The oil separator plate is a stamped sheetmetal one if you buy a replacement from the dealership. It's much better than the plastic one you have leaking now. 90-94's had a cast aluminum plate, which I think is best, but harder to come by.

All the nipples crumbled off the tank in my friends 94 turbo wagon. He bought a new tank from the dealer instead of trying to mess with fixing it. It wasn't that bad of a price either. You can also convert it to the newer style aluminum and steel tank.

You've never worked on cars from the northeast then. After they get about 15 years old, you don't lift them from the pinch welds anymore. I got a flat tire on my 3 door coupe once, so I used the factory jack on the factory lift point. I lifted the car up in the air, but before I had a chance to take the wheel off the jack disappeared inside the body of the car. Latest car I've had that the rockers were gone on was a 98 forester.

I spray painted lift points on my loyale after the rockers became too soft to lift from. On newer gen cars, do not lift from the bolt head that holds the differential moustache bar to the body. It's right next to the lift point and looks solid, but it will crush into the car binding up the bushings and transferring differential noise to the body.

The temp sensor your friend cut the wires to is the one the computer uses to monitor the engine. The sensor right next to it with a single spade connection is the one that runs the gauge on the dash. So not only did your friend hack the engine wiring harness, but he replaced the wrong sensor. That is, if the engine isn't actually overheating and the gauge is actually working perfectly. You can cut an splice another connector onto your harness, or you can replace the complete engine harness. It's easier to do if you pull the intake manifold off, but I wouldn't recommend letting your friend do that if he can't replace a simple sensor without butchering things. The reason it won't start and the fans run continuously is because the computer has no idea what temperature the engine is anymore. It sets a code for a faulty temp sensor and turns the fans on continuously because it's safer to have fans cooling an engine than no fans letting it overheat. It also runs the engine on it's up-to-operating temp fuel map, which is too lean to start a cold engine on. It's like having no choke on an old carbed engine. To get it started, you can splash a couple tablespoons full of gas on the air filter, then snap the airbox back together and start it. It will run rough until it warms up. Then you can drive it to a competent mechanic (not your friend) and have them fix what's actually wrong with the car and splice the harness.

It's not experimenting. Subaru sold FWD only cars from the factory for quite a few years. Pulling the diff, axles and rear section of driveshaft just reverts it to a FWD model.

Before buying a slave cyl, have a friend work the clutch pedal while you watch under the hood. If the clutch release fork is being moved by the slave cylinder, the hydraulics are probably fine. The pivot ball in the bellhousing wears through the clutch release fork until it cracks. Then the pivot ball punches through the release fork and the fork now does nothing. You can pull back the rubber boot where the fork goes into the bellhousing and look down in there with a flashlight to see how it looks. Unfortunately if it is the fork, you need to either pull the engine or the transmission to get at it.

When doing a belt job, replace the timing belt tensioner, the water pump and the 3 other idler pulley's. The newer arm with a vertical piston tensioners fail the most often, followed by the cogged tooth idler pulley next to the water pump, and then the water pump itself. If the pump fails, it usually siezes so the engine overheats but doesn't jump time. If the cogged tooth idler goes, then the engine will often jump time and the idler grinds into the side of the oil pump. If it's an interferance engine, jumping more than a tooth or two on the cams will cause valves to hit pistons and bend. theimportexperts on ebay seem to be a good source of good timing belt, tensioner and idler sets.