Scoobywagon

I've been hunting for some newer, higher performance suspension bushings for one of my cars. Finally decided to make my own by purchasing the raw materials and machining my own. I happen to have access to the best part of a full machine shop, but these materials are soft enough that you should be able to do most, if not all, of the machine work with a hot knife and a power drill. Might want to look into that while you're hunting around.

I must have an eye infection because I just can't see going in to work on those days!

Shawn, IN terms of features, I like the site as it is. I just wish it wasn't having quite so many database problems. I wish I could recommend a cheaper and better performing solution than vBulletin, but I don't know of one. As others have suggested, perhaps it would help if you broke down some of the costs for us. I don't think anyone here expects you guys to spring out of pocket for all this. For myself, I can make some educated guesses as to space and bandwidth usage, but that's probably not good enough here. As a fundraiser, I like the idea of a raffle. As a matter of fact, if that happens, I've got a few goodies that I'll donate for that purpose. I even know a few people that might be willing do donate some fairly big-dollar items for such a thing. I'd be more than happy to do some footwork for that. I suspect that there are quite a few people here who would be more than happy to help out if they were only asked.

I've not had this done, so this is really just an educated guess. That said, I'd treat this as a front diff rebuild in terms of labor. Book time for R&I on the trans (5MT in a 93 Legacy wagon) is 6 hours. Most transmission shops that I know of have shop labor rates right around $100 per hour. That's from memory and its not quite 4am, so take it for what its worth. I don't know what book time is on the front diff. My guess is probably somewhere around 8-10 hours.

The smallest mud terrain tire you will likely find is going to be about 27". That is SIGNIFICANTLY larger than the 23" stock tires. Even with the stock suspension cranked all the way up, you're going to have some clearance problems so some lift is definitely going to be required. That said, ANY 6-lug wheel will do what you want with some redrilling. Best options are from 4wd Japanese mini-trucks. Frankly, though, you can make any of them work.

Lovin' the WarWagon . That's pretty awesome. Welcome to the board. Both of you!

Well, there's good news and bad for me. I finally scored a new job (that'd be the good news). Unfortunately, it looks like I'm going to miss a pretty fair chunk of the rally. *sigh* What to do what to do.....

I'm planning on being out at the Olympus Rally this year. I even signed up to volunteer. For those who care, I'll be easy to identify. I'm pretty sure I'll be driving the only Subaru GL wagon with lights and siren. Anyway, I'm going to be out there and some of my non-Subaru friends will be with me. Who else is coming out? If enough people come out, maybe we can have ourselves a bit of an impromptu BYOB (Bring Your Own Beef) cookout or something.

There are some direct replacement LED bulbs for turn signals. The problem is getting a good set. Cheap LED's will throw light in all directions, but not a lot of light. The better ones tend to have relatively tightly focused beams. There are some REALLY good one that offer both decent output and 360* radiance. Those are the ones you want, but they're also the spendy ones. Sometimes you can find the nice ones at NAPA, but I wouldn't trust what you'd find at Autozone or Schuck's. I know a local distributor. If you'd like, I can find costs on direct replacement LEDs.

I say 'easiest' because all it requires is that you get the car running and disconnect one wire. The other way requires the use of a meter or swapping a bunch of fuses around. *shrug* I suppose its easiest to walk someone through it over the internet.

I find that the easiest test here is to disconnect the starter wire (the little one from the key, not the big one from the battery). Get the car running, then turn the key to the start position. IF the car dies, you've found your problem. Odds are, the coil isn't powered up while cranking.

Subaru says they aren't replaceable, but some patience and a 20 ton press changed out a set several years ago. It hasn't come up for me since. That said, any decent driveline shop should be able to cut the shackles off your drive shaft and replace them with something more useful.

Chevron Techron should be safe to use regularly, since they put it in all of their gas. That said, I don't bother unless I'm starting to have an issue that I believe to be fuel related. If that's the case, then I usually fill the tank and add a bottle of Seafoam. If you are using good gasoline in the first place, additives shouldn't be necessary. I use Chevron and 76. That's pretty much it unless I don't have another choice.

A few things to be aware of as you proceed. First, if you are going to have the system open for any length of time, replace the receiver/drier while you're at it. Think of it as $30 worth of A/C insurance. Secondly, and I think really more importantly, when it comes time to charge the system, you need a vacuum pump to do so properly. Yes, you can just 'blow some charge in there', but you'll still have air and air has moisture. As I said before, R134a is corrosive in the presence of moisture. The receiver/drier should take care of some of that, but really that just means you're shortening the life of your receiver/drier. Third, any o-ring that you disturb should be replaced. That means that if you disassemble a fitting, replace all of its o-rings before you reassemble it, even if they look good. This is why you need to try to figure out where its leaking first. It'll save you buying a bunch of o-rings you don't need, though its not like they're terribly expensive. And it'll save you a bunch of time working on things that don't need working on.

I'll preface this by saying that, as has been said, you should probably take this to an A/C expert to have it looked over. That said... There are LOTS of places for an A/C system to leak. Everywhere there is a connection, there's at LEAST 1 o-ring and, in many cases, 2 or more. Look for oily residue on the hoses. Many A/C shops put dye in the system when they add refrigerant. I'm betting this isn't the first time that car has leaked, so there's a fair chance that there's some UV dye in there. You can either wait until late at night when its really dark out or pull it into a garage with the doors closed and all the lights out. Get yourself a UV light and look for the glowy bits. Once you've done all that, it is still possible that you've not located your leak. R134a is corrosive in the presence of moisture. So it is possible that the, already thin, aluminum in the evaporator or condenser cores has become so thin that the refrigerant is leaking directly through the aluminum. A professional is going to be able to assess that most efficiently.

I'm not sure why, but somehow that seems kinda sad.

As far as I know, all the R160s are externally identical with the only differences being the gearing inside. Having said that, 4.11 is the most common gear set, as near as I can tell, so you shouldn't feel like you need to limit yourself to the Foresters.

No comm w/ ECM is usually a pretty good indicator of ECM failure. Not always, but usually.

Don't install a used windshield. The windshield is part of the safety system in the car. With a used windshield, there's no way to be sure that the new adhesive will be compatible with the adhesive on the used glass. And no matter how clean you think it is, there are still some elements of that old adhesive in there. If the adhesive should fail, that's what we call a Very Bad Thing. Call a reputable local glass shop. Have them remove the windshield. Then, with the glass out of the car, you can make a valid assessment as to the extent of the rust. The glass people will discuss the options with you. Sometimes its something they can get squared away in an hour. Sometimes it has to sit overnight. Sometimes its so bad that the car needs serious body work.

If I had to guess, the "weird" results that you're getting are something like one side comes on but not the other and then, when you switch to high beam, the reverse themselves. In most of the later models, Subaru keeps both filaments hot at all times. If you meter the three wires at the bulb with the lights turned off, they will all meter 12v. The headlight switch sources ground for either the high beam or low beam. Bear this in mind as you wire up your relays. Frankly, though, I think you're barking up the wrong tree here. As the others have said, the first step is to clean the head light lenses. There are a number of ways of accomplishing that. Personally, I use rubbing compound and an old terry cloth towel. After that, if you STILL aren't getting enough light, get a set of the JDM or Euro light assemblies. As I recall, both of those markets still get glass headlights. If, having done all of that, you still don't get enough light, upgrade to a set of HIDs. If that doesn't get you enough light, you need to have your eyes checked.

I think he was pointing that installing an EA82 in the lake would ruin the lake.

mmm....chainsaw fumes. Got my RDA of that this morning.

Ok, well, in that case, my gear must be good because it looks NOTHING like that. So, I'll continue on with plan a and tear down the valve tomorrow.

Thanks, Rob. Much appreciated. Ok, well, I didn't disassemble it because I don't have the tools to do that here. However, I did replace it with a valve from another trans and the problem has gone away. I'll be taking the old one in to the shop with me tomorrow and I'll tear it down and clean it there. Here's what I don't understand. To my fingers, the plungers on both units feel the same. Both have similar wear patterns on the gears, though the new one has at least 60,000 fewer miles on it. The new one works, the old one doesn't. WTFO?

So my 88 GL with 3AT is having trouble with upshifts. It will do the 1-2 shift at about 3,000 rpm and the 2-3 shift at about 5,000. Searched around and the consensus is that the first suspect is the Governor valve. Pulled it and checked it over. The plunger feels fine, but there is a little bit of shmutz in a couple of shallow grooves on the shaft. The gear on the end looks ok. However, I'm not sure what apple coring means and I can't find a picture of an apple cored gear. This one looks fairly smooth, but there's an obvious wear line in the gear. If this were a diff, I'd think it was perhaps a little excessive even for 250 kilomiles. Does anyone have a pic or a good description of what apple coring means in this case? Thanks.