Stubies Subie

I finally found a source for the Flosser 9104 headlights, the price on them was pretty fair to at $10.00 each, but the filament has changed, it’s not like the ones that Jeszek posted. As you can see from the box, I got the right part number: And the part number on the bulb matches: But the filament instead of being vertical to the base as Jeszek described and shows in his photo, this one is horizontal to the base like a 9004 would be: Maybe it’s a change they made for the US market? I don’t know, but I’ll run them anyway, they still have to be better then stock. I wanted to get bulbs like Jeszek got, you can see the difference here: but I think I'm out of luck to get one with the vertical filament.

I am really sorry, I completely forgot about this, here’s some pictures for you, and if you want the real McCoy rather then hardware bought fittings, I have three complete sets, minus the hose, that’s all that’s missing and if you want to pay postage, I’ll send you a set, but you will have to buy the hose which I don’t think is a big deal. $5.00 for this set sure beats the $50 I paid the dealer for the new one that’s on my car, and I don’t think you can go to the hardware store and buy the correct fittings for any less then $5.00 This is the bypass fitting set (minus the hose) This is the original fitting set that it replaces: This is the new blue fitting next to the old gray one that it replaces: This is a close up of the old gray fitting, notice one hole is smaller then the other: And here’s a close up of the blue fitting: (you can see the orfice in the center of it, at least that's what I think their talking about GD just resealed my engine, and it was drinking oil like it was going out of style, about a quart every 100 to 150 miles (it was that bad) and I put this bypass kit in it and it completly stopped the oil sucking. from the reading I've done, it seems to be a common problem between resealing an EA82, then having it suck more oil then before the reseal, apperently resealing the engine also causes it to develop more pressure inside which is forcing the oil out through the vacuum lines, at least that's my theory. I've also read that you only want to use the stock factory PCV valve, something about spring pressure or something is different with the aftermarket ones, which will also cause it to suck more oil.

I did some more prep work on the car parts: I went over to GD’s place and did some more bead blasting, and some touch up bead blast work on some parts I had done previously but had missed a few spots, and I finally got everything ready to paint. With it snowing today and kind of being stuck homebound, I decided to do some painting, I had picked up some Rust-Oleum caliper paint at Harbor freight for about $4.50 for a 12 oz. can, and I really like the stuff, it goes on easy, says it’s good to 900 degrees, lays on somewhat thick, so it covers the little imperfections. The Hub has two coats of paint on it and I’m going to call that good, I think it came out looking really good: I’ve also got 2 coats of paint on this backing plate, which came out looking good: Here’s the Caliper mounting bracket, it’s in the shop still drying: This is the steering Knuckle, it’s going to need some more touch up work after it drys and I remove the masking tape: When I get a chance to do the drivers side, I’ll handle it the same way, so by the time this is done, it should luck pretty much brand new up under the front end. I know I’m slow at this, but I’m enjoying taking my time and doing these little extras.

I'm going to take mine to the Lineup shop in Portland, on 102nd just north of Glisen on th east side of 102nd. that's where I've always gone and they have never failed me, awesome place, might cost a little more, but very well worth it.

I can tell you from an outboard boat motor prospective that this is the accepted method of resurfacing heads, and given the thinness of an outboard head, there is a far greater probability that an uneven resurface could occur, I have a couple of running outboards I’ve done this to and both of them are still running fine, as well as my car that GD did.

I have both fittings, I'll take some photos when I get ome so you can see the difference

+1 on that, do one wheel at a time, if you forget how something goes together, you can look at the other side that you haven't torn apart yet.

I think he's still looking for his jack

When I was 17, I got my first car, up until that point, I’d never so much as changed oil in anything, in other words, I knew nothing about cars (that’s how we all start) I gave $250 for the car (an old Chevy) and towed it home ….that’s right, towed it, because it didn’t have an engine, my dad looked at me and said, ‘the tools are in the garage, if you can't find what you need in the garage, then you’ll have to go buy it. If we had internet back then, I would have been making the same posts you are, “I can’t afford to have it fixed, so now what do I do?” I’ll tell you what I did, I found some local kid that had an engine for it, he wanted 35 bucks for it, I bought the engine, got a couple of my buddies together, and one weekend we were doing an engine instillation. The first time we put the engine in the car, we had the transmission bolted to it upside down, nothing fit right, and I had no idea why. After scratching our heads, and a little cussing, later that night, we had a running and driving Vega. (I totaled it out 3 hours after we got it running, in 33 years of driving, that last 30 seconds was the wildest ride I've ever had, but that's a whole nother story) My advice to you, get a jack, jack that thing up, and go to work, 1 bolt holds that caliper on, and you can use a pair of pliers to screw in the piston, and I just bought a set of front brake pads for mine off ebay for 10 bucks delivered to my door (because I’m still just about as broke as I was in high school) Now you have the internet and an awesome forum to walk you through any problem you might get yourself into. That 900 quote you got to fix your can means nothing around here, I’ll bet if you’re willing to get a little greasy, and ask questions as you go, you can fix that car for well under 100 bucks, it wouldn't surprise me if you got it apart and found you only needed 20 to 30 bucks worth of parts to fix it. I’m honestly not trying to be rude or inconsiderate, but I started the same way you did, and I wouldn’t hesitate for a second to do a brake job on my car. People here won’t lead you wrong, if they say it’s easy …it’s easy …go get your jack.

GD is one of them guys you would really need to meet, he may come across harsh on here, but in all honesty, he's the type of person that would give you the shirt off his back if he thought it would help you out. he's saved my neck more then once, and like you, I even got mad at him one time and went to his house to let him know, and I walked away humbled, and had to go back later and apoligze for the way I chewed him out. ok, with that said, I had some problems with my car that were a lot like yours, and I seafoamed everything, I soaked the cylinders for close to a week, my compression was all over the place before the seafoam treatment, I filled the cylinders up with it to get a good soaking, I put a can on it in the oil and drove it about 200 miles, and I ran 2 cans of it through the gas tank with a full tank of gas. I went through at least 50 bucks worth of seafoam, and there seemed to be some skeptical people that didn't think it would work .....my car now runs like a fine swiss watch, the compression is now even across all 4 cylinders, and there's no miss or hesatation at any RPM I swear by seafoam ...if you research it out through a search engine like google, you will find those that swear by it, and those that swear at it, and if you look a little closer, you'll find that the ones that are swearing at it are generally the ones that have never tried it. I find that to be the case on a lot of different ideas, the ones that are generally aginst it, have never tried it.

the boating forums swear by the stuff, they even got a concentrated anadote formula that they mix in with a gallon of fuel and run that straight through the engines to "clean them out" I've thought about doing that to my subie a time or two, but after soaking the cylinders in sea foam (because of bad compression, and feeding it through the vacuum lines, and doing a tripple dose through the fuel tank as well as a hefty mix in with the oil, my old EA82 now runs like a swiss watch, no TOD or nothin ....and it's still not leaking oil (had to throw that one in there for good measure)

poor GD, it seems like he always get's scolded for saying it the way he sees it, scold him all you want, the truth is, out of 18,000 plus posts, I'll bet you can't find one where he was wrong ....

I just fired up my old chain saw for the first time in three years just before christmas (had to cut down a christmas tree) I didn't realize I had put it away with fuel in the tank 3 years ago, it was treated with seafoam before storage, and 3 years latter on the 4th pull, it fired right up and ran fine. I'll use seafoam over stabil any day. This time when I was done with the saw, I made sure I drained the tank and ran it dry before I put it away.

6 months ain't old for gas, especially when treated with seafoam, treated gas should go more then 2 years, and I know on some of my outboards, I've used treated gas that's over 3 years old and the stuff ran fine.

Thanks for the heads up UberScoober, I did a little googling after I read your post to see if I could find some reviews on that torque wrench. This is one that sells for almost $40 and with discounts and coupons, I got it for $20. For the most part, it seems to have good reviews other then a few that were broken out of the box which mine was not. I did see a few warnings about the possibility of it being out of calibration because of being a cheap wrench, but no actual reports from people that have used the torque wrench saying this is a problem. My main reason for buying it was to torque the big hub castle nuts down to 150 foot pounds, I wasn’t to concerned about torquing the smaller bolts where I think the bolt breakage concern comes in. Next time I get a chance to get over to GD’s place, I’ll take it with me and see if we can compare it, or calibrate it against one of his good ones before I actually start using it.

Being kinda broke, one has to find creative ways to continue working and repairing their car, and with all the spare cash going into the Legacy, and still wanting to work on the Loyale, I had remembered that my girlfriends parents gave me a $25 Harbor freight gift card for Christmas, so I wanted to show you what that 25 bucks got me today: First up on the list is a pair of masking tape and paper cutting shears used for the prep work before painting: FREE Next up on the list is a can of caliper paint, says it’s good to 900 degrees, I should be able to paint everything with this stuff: $4.60 Next up is a new torque wrench to make sure I get everything tightened down properly, and because my old torque wrench was trashed:, $19.99 And last but not least, a new front end alignment tool so I can make sure everything measures out properly after I put the car back together: FREE I think I’m going to start out by doing some masking and some painting tonight

I might have to get them special lights under the fenders just to show off my fancy cleaning and paint work

Progress has been slow, mainly because I’m buying another car, and I’m working to get it paid off ASAP It’s a 92’ Legacy, nothing special, just a very clean older car, it will be the DD so I can keep working on KC and turn him into a garage king weekend warrior: Meanwhile, because all my money is going into the Legacy, I haven’t been able to afford the parts needed to get ol’ KC (the Loyale) back up and running, but that’s ok, I’m getting extra time to do a few extra little things to it that I’d not normally be able to do. Today I tagged along with GD as he went to the wrecking yard and was able to pick up a few little bits and peaces for KC like a set of clean tail light wiring assemblies as mine are kind of trashed, I also got a couple of those coned washers that go between the hub and axel, I have a bad one on my car, and it was amazing, I knocked apart 6 or 7 front hub axle assemblies and only came up with 2 usable cone washers, so those being bad must be a really common problem. I also got 3 of the PVC hose bypass kits, the very one I just got done paying 50 bucks for because I couldn’t find a used one, lo and behold, 3 of them show up today at the wrecking yard, I grabbed them all, so if anyone needs one to help stop your EA82 from sucking oil, let me know. After the wrecking yard adventure it was back to GD’s place for my first chance to try out his new bead blaster, I cleaned up all the passenger side front end parts and got them ready for painting (except for the hub, because old age caught up with me and I tired out) As can be seen in the picture, GD’s bead blaster cleaned the parts up good as new. I’ll pick up a couple of rattle cans of gloss black engine enamel and give the parts a good painting; it should look really good when it goes back together. Sometimes it really benefits the job when your not in a rush and you take your time.

I took the passenger side steering knuckle over to GD's place so he could drive out the old bearings, (I beat the crud out of them last night and got no-where) Now that the old bearings are out, it's on to parts cleaning, painting, then start reassembling everything. Not having to depend on the car as a daily driver, it gives me time to do little extras here and there that I’d normally not be able to do.

I’ve got a somewhat dumb question …. How do you adjust the headlights on a Loyale? I know there’s two adjustments, the left to right adjustment is really easy to get it, just remove the two screws that hold the grill in place and it’s easily accessible. But take a look at the picture. That bottom adjustment looks like a pain in the hind side, no easy way to get to it, do I just sick a Philips screw driver in between the headlight and the bottom trim piece that’s above the bumper and hope for the best that I don’t bend up the trim? Or is there an easy way to get that trim off? I got a good passenger side headlight (thanks GD) to replace the old one because it has a hole in it, I figured I’d do some headlight re-aiming while I was at it.

hahaha, that's the best answer I've ever seen!!

I got my camera working so I got some pictures, and a bunch of questions, I’m looking for opinions. I’m just going slow and easy on this one, it doesn’t matter to me how long the car is laid up, I got other transportation, and I want to make sure I got this fixed right, I completely tore out the passenger side as you can see in the picture: Having it torn down this far got me to thinking, how far into this do I want to go? What’s going to be “worth it” and what would be a “waste of money”? When the car is running, it doesn’t have a lot of rattles and squeaks other then the loose shields around the exhaust system which I am going to address, for the most part, the car drives very solid and tight. I looked at all the bushings under the front end (sway bar and lower control arm bushings) and they actually look to be in good shape, so I don't know that replacing them would be a benifit or not. I checked out the front axel real close, the boots are intact, it doesn’t look to be that old, and seems to be in good shape, so my thought is to leave it be and not replace it, but having the car this far apart, should I replace it anyway? (Just for good measure?) One problem I do have, which is common on all EA82’s is the camber, the front tires sit on the ground like this: \\>----------<// the passenger side is worse then the drivers side. And I want to be able to get the best alignment out of it that I can, so I was wondering, should I replace the front strut rod with an adjustable one? I haven’t looked close enough yet but maybe they’re all adjustable and mine is fine? This would allow the caster to be adjusted, so is it a good idea or not? This is the adjustable strut rod: The ball joint felt tight, but kind of rusty, and I knocked the rubber boot off of it when I was pulling it out of the knuckle, my idea is to replace it, they aren’t that expensive, what do you think? Here’s the old ball joint: And what about the struts? Mine seem fine, but they do have 150,000 miles on them, so is it time to replace them or keep using them? I was going to use them, but had thought about maybe adding an adjustable camber plate as seen here: It seems like one would be fairly easy to adapt to the car, they make them for a Legacy, and from what I read, the bolt pattern is almost identical to the loyale, so is it a good idea or not? Would it be worth adding to get the tires on a more even plain like this: II>------<II I do at some point plan on doing a 2 inch SJR lift. I did get new bearings for the knuckle, the sealed type I found them on ebay for about $8.00 each delivered: I have yet to clean up the knuckle and still having found a part number for both the front and rear seals, so I haven’t ordered the seals yet, the knuckle looks fine to me, not bent or anything so I’m not sure what’s giving me the extra positive camber on the passenger side, it’s quite a bit more then on the drivers side. Here’s a couple of pictures of the knuckle: Here’s the back: And And here’s the front: I also scored a good deal on a new in the box Beck/Arnley oil pressure sending unit for $20 delivered to my door, about half of the auto parts store prices, that should take care of the high oil pressure readings I was getting before I unplugged the old sending unit: I also still need to buy the new rebuilt cliper, I made an offer on one on ebay but the guy never answered back, and he had quite a bit of bad feed back so I figured I'd keep looking for another good deal.

Hubs man, Hubs, I was getting tennis elbow swinging at that hub with a 3 pound hammer like it was a tennis ball. and if I impale myself into the wall taking off the other side, you'll find me at your house in a body cast asking you to finish the job ...... the car, not me ....