WoodsWagon

Reverse nuts = borked CV's I was doing forward nuts. Am I a hick if I call making extremely tight fast circles with the back end of the car swung out in a parking lot whipping nuts?

Does the drawtite harness plug into the taillight harness, or does it use those little vampire clips?

I would think, but the steering returns better when it's not at full lock. It's not full "memory steer" like a seized strut cap. It's a hard feeling to describe. There's a lag between when you let go of the steering wheel and when it starts to straighten itself under normal turns.

If it's snapped off, you can grab one of the old whip-type antennas from an 80's domestic car and stuff it in. Paste some JB weld around the hole, and it's golden.

2.5l Auto legacy outback. The steering has started binding a bit, as in the wheel's don't return to center as easily as they should, and it's harder to turn the car. If you put it at full lock, it will stay there and you can idle round in circles without touching the wheel. It seemed to have very little assist monday, but then seemed back to semi-normal after driving it a bit, so I put a used power steering pump on it tonight. It's still only semi-normal. But at least it isn't leaking ATF on the engine anymore. The alignment is fine, I did it myself, and all the numbers checked out (caster is what returns the wheel to center) I don't think it's the U-joints on the steering column because it binds smoothly, not bind and release, bind and release like a bad u joint does. So my only other options are a bound strut cap, steering column, or rack. I plan on taking it down to school 2 mondays from now, unthreading the tie rods and the U-joint and moving each componant independently. I hope it isn't the steering column or the strut caps, the rack is easy to replace, and it almost seems like a sticky spool valve?

You only need 2 sq feet of mesh. One for the right side of the cowl, and one for the left. (and if you have rust holes, them too. The other spot to check is the rubber grommets under the back seat, make sure they're in good shape.

Don't do it on less than a 1/4 tank of gas. I was out trying to reproduce a steering problem that my mom's outback is having, and I was whipping right hand nuts in a parking lot. Well, enough gas sloshed to one side of the tank, and the pump sucked air. Car was choking and sputtering for a bit. So I went and filled it up:grin:

Get a 5lb sledge, a 3lb hand sledge, and a sawzall for the front fenders. Go nuts.

It's really not that bad. I've crashed mine a few times, and it's held up well, and i'm uninjured. Go to a demolition derby rulebook and look up the prep regs. Weld the doors shut, bolt heavy steel plates to the side, wear a motorcylce helmet and a padded fire suit. With the amount of huge SUV's and pickups on the road these days with distracted/ cellphone using drivers, you're F'd if you're driving anything smaller than a semi tractor. All the airbags in the world wont save you when the F350's bumper is hitting you in the window. Don't worry about it. Chances are, you won't get hit and killed.

I had to cut about 1/3 of an inch of metal off of each of the square type motor mounts. This helped them seat into the EA 82 crossmember better. They haven't torn, and I beat the snit out of my car. I put used but good tranny mounts in, and I have a pitching stopper installed too. SO that's one EJ22 swap that hasn't had problems.

Pop the cover off of the dome light, and pull the two screws. ease the light down, and pop the connectors off the back. One of the wires will be a ground provided by the door switches, the othe will be a constant 12v. This wire is the one you want to splice into. Fish a wire down to the front of the headliner. You will need to remove the two sunvisors at their base, and the mirror. Just pull the mirror off, then remove the screws. gently pull the front of the headliner downby the windshield, just enough so you can see where the metal bracket in the roof is. Start with a small hole in the headliner, using a sharp knife. Expand and test fit the lights until you get a fit, then splice the wire in and screw it down. reasemble the mirror and the headliner. done.

The rear drums seem to do a great job. I may swap the front's to the dual piston calipers, but I think I'll leave the rear alone. The best used upgrades are the outback struts, the cruise control, the tachometer, and the map lights. The other's are just frosting on the cake.

Try driving with size 14 Sorel boots in the winter. I'd push in the clutch and brake, and the engine would redline. I'd push on the clutch, and I'd end up hitting the brake too. It sucks.

If you take off the black plastic covers at the base of the windshield, you can access the air inlets for the vent system. If you look on both sides of this cavity, you will see holes through the body into the quarter panel area. These holes have a bit of expaneded metal welded over them at the factory, but it doesn't cover the whole hole. JB weld some heavy wire mesh over that, and you should solve the problem. My mice are always on the outside side of the A/C evaporator. and I have found acorns and whatnot in the frame horns that run under the top of the quarter panels, so that's my best geuss of where they're getting in.

I have an Idea. Why not get an engine that is already coupled toghter? Nissan makes a decent V8 that would get the job done and still be fuji heavy industry.

Do the voltage drop test that these guys are talking about: Put one lead of a voltmeter on the stud sticking out of the alt that has the cable held on with the 10mm nut, and the other on the positive terminal of the battery. There should be less than 0.2 of a Volt. Do the same with the negative terminal of the battery to a clean spot on the alternator case. 14v is pretty close to normal.

Well, other than the obvious like torn engine mounts or a bent pitch stopper rod, I'd look for bent exhuast hitting on the crossmember or a rock/stick stuck bewteen the block and the crossmember. I've hammered my oilpan on a rock so hard the engine kicked back and tore the radiator hoses off, so I know a thing or two about making the car have funny problems after wheeling.

Proper RWD subaru burnout technique: =That EA81 wagon has an open rear diff BTW. In one of the other vids' it does some one wheel wonder circles.

Ohh yess, now you know the fun that can be had. Does the front of the car rise up a fair bit when you accelerate hard, then bust into wheelspin? That's what happens with mine. The only thing you have to watch out for is that if you're hammering on it to pull away from someone at a light, both front wheels can get going, and the front of the car will slide to the right, potentially into the car accelerating next to you. This is with 215/75r15's BTW, I bet the car would vaporise stock size tires. RWD is awesome. 170' was my personal record. Hold the e-brake, drop from 2krpm, rev it up to 5.5krpm, the right rear will spin until it heats up, then the left rear will bust loose and the car will hold posi. Let of on the E-brake a little bit, work the throttle to keep it at 5.5k, and go until your right arm gets tired holding the E-brake. You can do major distance, and nice fishtail marks.

ANd I was figuring that the "air conditioning" was another belt driven accessory that compressed gasses, but instead of sending the gasses to the condenser, it piped them into the intake manifold.

I've sanded belts before. Get a full sheet of 60 grit, cut a strip off the long way, cover the backside in duct tape, and loop it under the belt. Have a friend start the car, and holding it only with the tips of your fingers, work the 3 sides of the belt. This is assuming it's a v-belt, not a serpentine. Another thing to try is pumice hand cleaner. I've slathered that on, and it shut up for a bit after some initial squeeling.

It's been a hard week for the car. It started with a noise in the back that's been getting progressively louder. I put new wheel bearings in the back in the fall, so I was hoping it wasn't them. Well, it is. The rear left bearing has some play in it, so I'm swapping the part out under warrantee. I now have a "removable silencer" for a muffler because of some snowbanks I was plowing the car over. It's kinda back together, but It's not the quietest. My latest problem: the plate that the shift lever pivots on sheared in half. It appears to have busted right about where the 4wd shift lever anchors, and so now the shifter can move separately from the body. People who complain about having a vauge shifter, they aint seen nothing yet! I have to pull up on the shifter to change gears, otherwise the linkages underneath rub on the driveshaft's U-joint. 4wd is touch and go, it takes a combonation of both shift levers to engage or disengage 4wd. It still hauls me to school and back, 60 miles round trip.

Where in NH do you live? I get you a pair pretty easy and cheap used.

OK, so this block turned into a clusterFK. The pitting from corrosion in the bores is so bad that even after honing till the stones wore off didn't take the holes out. So this block goes on the shelf till I have money to buy big pistons and bore it. Piston rings are more like $120. So instead of dumping about 250 bucks in rings and seals into a gauranteed oil burner, I went looking for another block. Which brings me to engine number two, a SOHC EJ25 with a busted ring land. I traded one of my EJ22's for it at school. Only catch is, it's been fully dissasembled, and not torqued when it was put back together. Soooo, full teardown, cleaning, and I'll throw my pistons and new rings on it. Put my waterpump on it. This block has the oil to coolant heat exchanger on it. I like that, but I can't fit it and the oil filter on with my skidplate. So I'll have to swap a block plug from one of my other engines and a thermostat housing. My choice of heads for the EJ25 shortblock: 1992 SOHC EJ22 heads with 1995 roller rockers and cam 1997 DOHC EJ25 heads 199x SOHC EJ25 heads What should I pick? I'd like the EJ22 heads for the low end torque, but the SOHC EJ25 heads look appealing.

Yeah, my ej22 is kicking the bucket. The swap worked fine, my hacked wiring harness has held up, but the motor is biting it bit by bit. One of the injectors ran lean and it burned the #3cyl, then the valves. So it's running on 3 cylinders, and getting fed a steady diet of 1970's SD series 10w30 out of cans in the back of my garage. It's started ticking, so I think some sludge is circulating through the lifters. It's been like this for oh, 2 months now? It pulls as hard as the EA82 ever did even when it's running on 3 instead of 4. Soon it will be time for the EJ25 swap.