WoodsWagon

Got the SBC, went out during my lunch break. I roped two other students at my school into coming. One of them knew the whole story, the other we grabbed at the last minute, so when I pulled off the road, through the snowbank and into the trails, he was surprised. We got the engine in the back, about 550 lbs. The rear mudflaps were rubbing on the tire all the way back to school. It was a little sketchy driving it, as on left hand turns the V8 would shift up onto the oilpan instead of the head, and the whole rear end of the car would squirm around. Fun stuff.

The electrical connectors on the engine and the sensors on the engine are water resistant, BUT you will force water into them if you pressure wash it. You may not notice at first, but then the corrosion will set in, and it will cause problems later. Spray it down with some heavy grease-fighting cleaner, then hose it off with a garden-style hose. Way safer than pressure washing.

Legacy spedo's seem to run 5mph high, ex. road speed is 55, indicated speed is 60 Outback spedo's seem to run 2mph low, ex road speed is 55, indicated speed is 53. When you put on outback wheels and tires, your spedo will read 2mph low. Nothing to worry about.

I've packed high temp wheel bearing grease into a misbehaving CV. It worked, got me another 1500 miles out of that joint. It was seizing, jerking the steering, and hot enough to melt the remains of the boot. Packed it full of bearing grease, and it loosened back up.

The OEM sub that goes in under the passenger seat. The wiring harness has a female plug and a male plug to match what goes into the back of the stock radio. You plug it into the radio, then plug the origional plug into the Sub harness. There's then power and line level audio wires that run down the center console and to the sub. Easy bolt in install. $185 to buy the stock sub new.

Uh, I hate to say this... but I think the 96 outback was stock height as the legacys.. I think it was in 97 that it switched to the higher suspension. Can you compare the struts you bought to the ones you have in the car? The spring seat should be noticably further up the strut on the replacements. Oh, and the brake lines that run through the brackets on the struts? Use a hacksaw to cut the bracket, bend it, and slip the hose in, then bend it back to hold it in place. Saves bleeding the fronts. The backs, youhave to remove the solid lines to the wheel cyl. so you're screwed anyway.

I kinda like the lurch.... It's even better when you wait for the opposite light to turn yellow, hold the brake with your left foot, give it some gas with your right, and pop off on the brake and hammer the gas when it turns green. Don't do this too long, cause it warms up the tranny fluid in the torque converter pretty good.

As for questions about alignment, after swapping struts, the car does need to be re-alligned. The two 19mm bolts that hold the bottom of the strut to the steering knucklecontrol the front camber. The upper on is a cam bolt, depending how it's rotated, it changes the camber. Lifting a car also changes how far the steering knucke is from the steering rack. This will change the front toe on the car. Get a 4wheel alignment for the car. Tell them to align it to a 98 outback spec if it's a 95-99 legacy, or to stock specs if it's a 90-94 legacy. There is enough adjustment for it to be perfectly alligned even with the taller struts.

The 2.5 flywheel is pounds heavier than the 2.2 one. I'll give exact weights tommorow. The 2.5 pressure plate gives an extra 200lbs of clamping force over the 2.2 one. So a 2.2 flywheel with a 2.5 clutch and PP seems like the best combonation.

could you get used ones in OK shape for less? They're also available in South america, where the shipping would probably be cheaper. How many would you ship at once? Put this on NABISCO as well.

With 4 rotors, that resque ROV will puree the victims no problem. Got any warning lables for the parties in trouble to stay away untill it stops?

I'd do that if it were sticking or acting funny, but it's not. It's working perfecly, but throwing a code anyway.

I did a bunch of wheeling when my soob was just rwd. It's all about keeping the momentum up. As soon as you stop, you're done.

No, if you exceed the capabilities of the machine, you will. I daily drive mine, and I offroad it. It's only when I exceed the limits that it gets trashed. I'm more carefull with it now that I need it to go 30 miles away instead of 3. However, with all this snow, I've been really stressing the 3 remaining cyls. 6k rpms at WOT for 10minutes + at a time plowing through thick snow is pushing it. I can tell I've lost power because of it, so now I'm easing up untill I put the new motor in. The best combo for me would be a VW diesel powered samuri, and a legacy turbo for the street. If you drive like a moron in the woods, buy a truck w/ solid axels. If you can offroad with a bit of restraint, a daily driver lifted subaru works great.

I want my torque down low, so it should be perfect. The bores are fairly rusted, so I'll hone them and see how much it cleans off. I'll put a piece of cardboard with a cutout for the conn rod in the bottom of the cyl, then flush it out w/ ATF. I've got the two front pistons out, 1 and 2. The rings were stuck in the pistons pretty good. I'm using ultrasonic cleaning to loosen the rings enough to pry them out with a nutpick so I can get the ring expander on them. It's a PITA. So I'll hone it, buy new rings, and hope it all works out well. If not, I'll only have $50 worth of rings in it. Oh, and you have to swap the timing belt tensioner bracket from the 2.2l engine to the 2.5l. The tab of aluminum that holds the middle of the timing belt cover for the drivers side head interferes with the SOHC pully. You could alternatively cut off the tab.

Maplights out of a 97 outback went in easy. The holes and captured nuts for the two anchoring bolts are in the sheetmetal of the brighton. I didn't want to take off the A-pillar trim to install the wire, so I spliced it into the 12v feed to the overhead dome light. Put everything back together, and it looks as good as it did in the donor car. I put on the skidplate off of a EA82 on it tonight. Drilled 3 holes in the leading edge, and filed out the rear two slots to fit the mounting points on the Brighton. 5 8x1.25 bolts, a few washers, and a couple of nuts later, it's on solid.

A lot of legacy radiators have plastic tanks, where only the core is metal. The filler neck and hose fittings are all plastic. Use steel wool to clean it up, you'll just cut the snots out of it with the knife. Only the part inside where the cap seats matters. The hose on the yellow cap should only be venting if the resavaur is way overfilled

The resavaur is NOT supposed to be full. There is a max line on the side of the plastic bottle. Drain it down to that line when it's cold. The radiator is supposed to be full. If the area inside the filler neck where the cap seals is crusty, clean it off with some steel wool, check to make sure the gasket on the springy part in the middle of the cap is good, and throw it back on. There is a phillips head plastic plug in the top of the radiator on the passenger side. Open it up, and coolant should come out when the engine is idleing. If it doesn't, pour more into the filler neck untill it does. Having heat when you rev it but not at idle usually means air bubbles, which bleeding with the phillips plug should solve. The 2.2 is unlikely to have blown head gaskets, unless heavily abused.

24Air control valveAir control valve inoperative (Abnormal signal produced in monitor circuit)Prevents abnormal engine speed using "fuel cut" in relation to engine speed, vehicle speed, and throttle sensor position Quote from Legacy777's site This is the IAC right? I've seen this code pop up on a couple of normally idling legacys. Mine idle's fine, and will adjust the idle enough to drive the car with my foot off the gas in 4lo uphill, downhill ect. Why is it setting this code if the system is apparently working? The fuel cut kicks in if I floor the car off idle.

Dumping an a/c system full of R12 into the air is kinda like dumping a cup of gasoline into a swamp. It's only a little bit in both cases, but it ************s the environment for everyone, and once you've dumped it, there is no way for it to be removed. HVAC guys usually have a portable recovery unit. One of my neighbors has one, and I had him suck out my R12 in the loyale. They store it in green propane cans, and love recovering it. It's rediculously expensive to buy, so the 10 minuites it takes to recover is worth it.

Pix: [/url] That's a 95 legacy Brighton with Outback struts + Outback wheels and tires. The snow makes it look lower, when you're in another car and see it, you can tell it's higher than normal. The car it's compared against is the 1998 Outback that I rebuilt for my mom.

BF Goodrich Allterrain t/a's. 235/75r15 Quiet on the road, and do a fairly good job offroad. $130 apice, US money. I commute an hour and a half each day, so wear and noise are important.

You put the bearing shells in the right way? If you put them in without lining up the oil holes, you could be getting high pressure.

It's easy, break a front axel doing burnouts, remove the pieces, put it in 4wd, and you have RWD.

Took the heads off of the 2.5 last night. Darn, rusted cyl bores. The oil was clean, the plugs were clean, I hoped it would be fine, but now I have to take out the pistons, hone the bores, and put new rings in. Friggin'A.