WoodsWagon

Well, there's a few different EJ20's. Are you talking about the turbo or the n/a version? If the turbo version (which I'm assuming is the case), then you need a turbo EA82 crossmember to clear the up-pipe. The rest of the swap is mechanically close, however I would advise using the EJ AWD transmission because the EA82's don't handle a lot of power in FWD very well. Handling gets sketchy, especially in the rain. Using an EJ 5spd also lets you use the better clutches available to EJ's. The wiring will be different, as the turbo cars have more sensors and solenoids. Get a factory service manual (FSM) for the donor car you're swapping the EJ20 from.

Get one out of a junkyard Outback or legacy with the cable and it will plug right in. They all use the same tape/radio (outbacks have WeatherBand too, but same basic radio). My dad's 95 Brighton has a cd player out of a 93 gt in it.

Just buy the parts aftermarket. The point of these cars is being cheap to run. Waiting weeks and paying inflated prices at a dealership parts dept defeats that. Make sure you follow the proper procedure for lining up the belts. If you line both cam sprockets up at the same time, it won't run. You have to turn the crank before lining the other one up.

I had fully dressed V8's and smaller engines in the back of my Loyale a bunch of times. If you put the honda accord front springs on the rear coilovers it can carry plenty of weight.

You can try tightening the bolt down and driving it the 70 miles back, but the pulley will try to fall off again. The reason it came off a second time is because all those surfaces on the pulley and sprocket and bolt and crank shoulder that need to be flat and parallel were beat up from the pulley wobbling around. When the bolt was re-tightened, those non-flat surfaces weren't really grabbing each other like they should, so it worked back and forth until the bolt started walking out again. That's why the real fix involves a fresh bolt, pulley, and sprocket with a properly torqued bolt.

The snout of the crank gets the crap beaten out of it when the pulley and sprocket wobble back and forth on it. It does round over, score up, and trash the end of the crank. But that part isn't important. It doesn't carry much load, and the keyway is only to line the sprocket up until the bolt clamps it to the shoulder of the crank. The important surfaces are the shoulder of the crank snout just outside of the front main seal, the two surfaces of the timing belt sprocket, the two surfaces of the crank pulley, and the face of the crank bolt washer. These surfaces are what get clamped together by the bolt when it is tight, and it's the static friction of those clamped surfaces that transmits the power to turn the belts. If you can clean up the snout of the crank with a file, get a new key to fit in the keyway and JB it in it's original position, and put a fresh crank sprocket, pulley, and bolt on, it should be good to go. Make sure the crank threads are actually stripped, it's really rare.

Did you use a floor jack to lift the transmission by the pan when you were getting it and the engine aligned to come apart or go together? The pan can deflect and crush connectors/solenoids inside. Always use a solid block of wood that spans the pan or lift from the front diff.

Why try machining a STi 6spd front diff to fit in a 5spd case when you can buy an OBX helical front lsd for under $400?

So where does the AX-15 out of jeeps fall into the mix with the bellhousing adapter? It's the same transmission as a r150, just a different input shaft on it, right? Finding a transmission for a jeep cherokee in a junkyard, sorry, "automotive recycler", would be a lot easier than finding one out of a toyota.

If there's nothing mechanically wrong with the car, it's worth it to fix it just so that you don't put an expensive new car through a rustbelt winter. Plus, subarus are cheaper to buy in the spring/summer. Don't fix it like it's a new car, just get it back together enough to be legal and drive it through the winter. If anyone asks, it's your "winter beater" which is a well known thing to have a throwaway car for the salt.

What panels were damaged? Got any pictures? Someone near you may have a parts car that would have what you need to get it back on the road.

I'll sum it up with one word: liability. If a shop puts a T tire on a car that came OEM equpped with H tires, and the customer drives 130mph until the tires blow, then the customer would sue the shop and probably win. That's why you will never hear a professional recommend a downgrade or be enthusiastic about mounting downgraded tires.

Assuming this is an automatic transmission, the best way to go about this is to install the 4.44 rear diff and remove the rear section of driveshaft. Automatics are FWD transmissions with a clutch pack sending power to the rear, so the car will drive fine with the rear section of driveshaft removed. Putting in the replacement diff will remove your binding from the welded diff, and it gets you part way to your transmission swap. If you cut the axle out, you'll need to buy another one with the swap. If you swap the diff, you'll be making progress on your swap. My question "Why are you asking this" Your answer "Because I have a welded diff" I wouldn't have had to ask if you had included that in your original question. You still haven't told us if it's an auto or a manual, and the AWD systems are completely different, so it makes a big difference in the answer to your question.

H tires are 130mph speed rated, T tires are 118 speed rated. How often are you going faster than 110mph in your forester? It's a non-issue if you aren't a speed demon.

Rather than getting your panties in a twist, maybe take some responsibility yourself and fill in why you need an axle pulled and what transmission you have in your original question. If you want to experience real douchebag flaming, go post your question on pretty much any other board out there. USMB is tame and polite compared to the others. Now I'll tell you why it's a stupid idea. It's an AWD car, so power is always going to the rear diff. If you pull one axle, then power will still be going to the other wheel, causing a pull and potentially unpredictable handling if you hit a slippery spot. If you have a manual trans, 50% of the power of the car will be going through the one remaining axle all the time. If you have an Auto, you could put in the FWD fuse when you're street driving it, or pull the rear section of driveshaft. Pulling an axle is a PITA because you either have to get the lateral link bolt out, both the rear camber bolts out, or drop the diff. There isn't enough room to fit the axle in or out without dissasembling things. Then you need two cv cups to put back in to keep the bearings together and the oil in the diff. It's not like an old EA car where you could slide the axle off the stubs and put it in 2wd for the drive home. Why not just replace the diff? It's the same amount of work.

The car shouldn't be moved with an axle removed. The axles hold the hub flanges into the wheel bearings, so while it may roll for a bit the bearing will come apart and the wheel will come off. Why are you asking this?

Who told you that you needed longer endlinks? You don't, they work fine the way they are. Why not go back and get the trailing arm brackets off the forester you pulled the struts from? You don't even need those if you don't go bigger than 205/75r15's. Or, hammer/trim the rocker panel where it sticks into the rear wheel well.

A pressure test just highlights where the leak is coming from, then you have to fix it. If it's a hose or thermostat gasket, it's easy. If it's the headgasket, more work to fix it right. You can also put in a bottle of subaru Coolant Conditioner if it is the headgasket. They usually leak underneath right above the exhaust, and the coolant boils off the exhaust pipe giving a sweet smell. The headgaskets leak coolant to the outside of the engine, not into the combustion chambers. So you won't have coolant coming out the exhaust like most cars with a blown head gasket. It also doesn't cause any drivability issues as long as you keep the coolant full. The coolant conditioner is a stop leak, so it will fill the very small porous area of the headgasket and stop it leaking out of the engine.

There's plenty of oil slung around by the ring gear, the problem is that it's not getting thrown into the middle of the two pinion bearings but sloshed onto the end of the rear pinion bearing. So the front pinion bearing may not get enough oil. I suppose the reason for running the driveshaft backwards was because it eliminated the need for the rear transfer gears in the transmission.

So it does... that's just like the Germans to put the ring gear on the opposite side and spin the driveshaft the opposite direction of everyone else. So, I will have to change the vent on the top to a drain plug, and the drain plug on the bottom to a vent. I'm a little concerned about the pinion bearings getting enough oil with the diff upside down, but I suppose they are only under load when in 4x4 so they should last fine. It doesn't fit quite as nicely under the car upside down, but it's workable. Actually tucks the driveshaft back up in the tunnel more that way.

Quantum Syncro's are 4.11 gearing, which only works with the EJ AWD 5spd transmissions. The d/r 4x4 transmissions are 3.9 geared, so you need one out of a Audi 5000, or one of the other Audi's listed on that page I linked with the right 3.9 ratio. The turbo audi 5cyls seem to have the 3.9's, while the non turbos have 4.11's

All EJ 5mt's have viscous limited slip center diffs. You can buy an OBX front helical LSD for $380, but that requires tearing down the whole transmission and setting up the front backlash and carrier preload. If you're going to do the work to put that in, you should put in ForesterXT 4.44 ring and pinion. They're $350 new from the dealer. A matching rear diff is easy to come by out of an Auto legacy. Your legacy is probably 4.11 final drive. You don't need to mess with the final drive if all you are replacing is the center diff. Drop the rear driveshaft, pound out the roll pins and take off the shifter yoke, pull the cover off the rear transfer housing, pull one diff out, slide the other in, reassemble. Keep the transfer gears with the transmission and swap just the center diff. You don't even need to take the transmission out of the car.

They changed the design of the center diff. The plates and fluid of the viscous coupler are sealed inside the carrier of the differential. The older ones had a seperate chunk that contained the vc, and it could be removed from the diff without breaking the seal. It's easy to toss the whole diff in if you have a donor. Just make sure the big spring clip is still there in the back of the diff, that's what holds the cover on the VC chamber of the center diff. Sometimes they pop out and get run through the rear transfer gears, but that leads to no center diff lockup, rather than binding. It also makes bad noises as the spring steel runs through the transfer gears.

If the 99 is a phase 2 transmission, which I belive it is with the 8 bolt bellhousing, then a wrx center diff will fit. You can't replace just the viscous coupler on the phase 2 transmissions, the whole center diff has to be swapped. The wrx has a 3.9 front diff, a 3.54 rear diff, and a 1.1 reduction in the rear transfer gears. Make sure you use the legacy transfer gears with the wrx center diff when you swap. I'm assuming you're using a wrx trans as a donor because someone ripped 2nd gear out of it? You can also use a phase 1 center diff if you swap the whole transfer housing off the back of the transmission to a phase 1 version.

Probably rotted around the nipple for the filler neck hose hooks onto the tank. You have to drop the exhaust, driveshaft, diff, and rear crossmember to get the tank out. Maybe just fill it to a half tank? You can take a look at it through the access covers under the rear floor. If the sender is leaking, you can replace that without dropping the tank. If the tank is leaking, there's a permatex tank patch kit that has fiberglass and epoxy resin it it that you can coat the area with. It's a pain to get in there though. If you drop the tank, you will need to replace every pipe, hose, and clamp under there, and there's a bunch of them. If the rest of the car is in good shape, it's worth it. But if the quarters and rockers are rusted through, it might be time to take it off the road.