l75eya

Will throw that in the vault for next time. Got the bolt off after sawing it but what a PITA. A vice would help, too.

I wish I had one!! I got it though, and it goes perfectly along with what you said; I don't have an angle grinder to grind the bolts away so I wound up using a hacksaw and cutting the piston so I could then just seperate the top part from the whole strut assembly, get a really good grip on it with a vice grip, and then I got the bolt off. Santa needs to bring me some new tools man lol:horse:

I just pulled out my rear seat a couple of days ago (again), and there is a horizontal metal support that runs from one side of the car to the other, right in the middle of the opening into the trunk. It is removable by four 10mm (iircl) bolts, though; not welded. That was an 87 GL.

Yeah, that's what I was going to say. Just have at it, you have both cars there. I pulled out my back seats today in about 5 minutes to get in to my trunk (long story..). Just pull them out and see if they fit!

Yeah, sounds like there is barely any coolant flow near the bottom of your radiator, which is where your thermoswitch is, too. I'm fixin' that if there isn't enough coolant flow, your switch isn't getting hot enough to turn the fan on. You can get a cheap radiator for 45 bucks on ebay. I have one in our Loyale that has been problem free for over a year now. Free shipping on it too. New radiator, new hoses while you're at it. Thermostat wouldn't hurt. Good luck!

Yeah, that's what I was afraid of =\. Wish I had a grinder! When I had the rear struts out of my GL I brought them to a shop and they torched them off:Flame:. After that I helped my brother do his rear struts in his 93 Imp. and those came off so I thought maybe I'll have another go at it with the Loyale, but no dice. Thanks for the advice.

Dude! How much shi* is in the trunk of your car? lol, that lifted front end can't just be due to the angle of your driveway, is it?

This transmission fluid looks fine right? WHY did I not change it sooner? Because I'm a moron, that's why. :banghead: Also! In the midst of changing shocks on the rear of the Loyale. Any tips on getting the whole piston to keep from turning when trying to break the nut on the tophat? I've used a pair of vice grips to CLOSE a pair of vice grips around the piston, but when I try and break the nut, the piston just spins in the vice grip still. STILL!!.

I vote fix it too! Or if you need to get rid of it, I'll take it hehe

New alternator and most likely another battery too. Alternator is most probably the culprit here. Voltage regulator has gone. Killed your last battery and will kill this new one soon too, if you don't replace the alt.

This sounds identical to the bogging our Loyale experiences. In our car, it is due to the EGR solenoid. Is your check engine light on? About the lack of spark and the weak spark, you mention you used a roll pin on the plug wire while somebody cranked and at times it was weak and occasionally didn't spark at all; Have you checked the other plugs? See how the spark is from each wire.. Is the rotor in the disty cap in good condition? I'm not much of a seasoned mechanic, but these are the simple things I can think of. Don't despair though, if you have the time to wait a little bit, the gurus on this board will chime in here before long.

Swap the bulb to the other headlight and see if it's good. It most likely is fine. That's a real bad ground.

God I hated that jet engine noise. I felt like I was driving an old Toyota FJ jeep each time I heard it. Glad I'm rid of my clutch fan.

There was just something about seeing this iron/steel boat barreling down the highway at 75 mph that made me feel good inside.

Man, you guys make me feel very nervous about how non-chalantly I've been using oil in my car Think I'll try out different oil in the summer now, but I've been running mobil clean 10/30 in our cars since day one with religious 3k oil changes and mobil 1 filters........ No problems yet and oil pressure always looks good (according to the incredibly super accurate Subaru supplied dash cluster gauge!) but maybe a thicker oil is in order for the warm months. Nice reading though this thread.

Please make sure they teach their girlfriends to drive as well.

Carbureted EJ engines come to mind. I'd check those out while you're there! Even if just to see one.

If I manage to make a little money (CHRISTMAS I HATE YOU) I was hoping to head down to a pick n pull in south jersey. There's a red wagon there (The only GL in this state as a matter of fact in a junkyard) with cruise in it. Didn't get to see whether it was factory or dealer. Hoping to go snag it one of these days.

When I was having issues with my radio wiring in my GL and in the Loyale, I did the same thing in each car. Grab a 12 volt bulb from your car (the dome light will do nicely), attach a good length of wire to the bulb's pos. and neg. contacts. Ground the negative one to the car, and turn the ignition on. Start touching the positive wire to every wire you have coming out of that harness for the radio. When the bulb lights up, you have 12 volts! If the bulb shuts off when you turn the key off, voila; you have 12 volts switched! I wound up running a power wire to my radio though as I couldn't find a constant hot. Good luck.

To check out the u-joints, all I have to do is feel for play in the driveshaft, right? I know I don't know much about drive-trains (yet) but my gut is telling me it's not the u-joints. It's just such a ...rattling, spinning noise..and it does it while I'm stationary and/or moving. About the popping out of gear, that hasn't been happening as much lately. The only reason I can account to that changing is that it has been warmer lately than it was at the time. Thanks for all the input guys, and thanks for the explanation GD

That's pretty impressive. One of these days I'll get around to doing my own..

I'm still trying to narrow down what exactly the noise is that is going on underneath my car. Original speculations were a bad throwout bearing, but I'm not so sure anymore.. That original thread is found here http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=136960 I'm thinking maybe the transfer case now but I'm still wading in to unknown waters. The car is my 87 GL in the signature below. My question after reading up a bit on transfer cases and anything relating to them on this forum as well as on the internet; Is the transfer case on our cars married to the transmission, or is it a separate unit? If it is part of the transmission, does is use the transmission gear oil to lubricate? For example, if I check the dip-stick on my transmission (I love that there IS a dipstick to check it with!) and see that my gear oil is full and looks good, is it safe to assume that my transfer case is just as safe and full of oil? If the Transfer case is separate, or has a separate supply to lubricate it, how can I check that out? I'll jump back to my reading now. Happy thanksgiving to all by the way!

First gen imprezas had the ej1.8

Yeah, I'd usually religiously shift at 3k driving around town, sometimes lower when turning on to a block or something, and there's so many speed-bumps and such all around my town, it's just easier but; After reading through here, I've been trying out 3.5 to 4k shifts and wow. It's kinda like I'm driving a normal car in terms of acceleration now. I'm noticing a hit in my gas mileage though so I don't think I'll start driving it that way all time. I also found out I can hit 35 mph in 1st gear at about 7,300 rpm. The engine really does start to gasp for air above 6200 rpms.

I know what you mean when you talk about the metal clip that holds the boot on. I also noticed the grease thing. I pulled the boot off and greased it. The metal clip was a bit of a pita, but I got it back on. Also, MOOG parts get no complaints for me. Installation was great, and the front end is awesome now with all new MOOG ball-joints, tie rods, and tie rod ends. My .02