Subaru Scott

Putting the finishing touches on Tribeca engine reseal and the alternator plug was pretty much destroyed by the PO when he replaced the alternator. No chance to get one from Subaru, so I started combing the net and found this: Subaru Alternator Wire Harness Plug Kit Oval Gr... Exact replacement and also fits other Soobs. The plastic was so brittle, it just crumbled apart with only finger pressure. Old one with new:

Sorry, no. Clean everything, yes, but the bolts MUST be well oiled for a correct torque reading.

Sorry man, but you just can't be giving out advice like that. 1. The timing belt will never skip teeth unless it is horribly loose. 2. Nothing whatsoever can put extra strain on the belts. They turn the camshafts, that's it. Jakethewhite, as long as you didn't pull the distributor, it will be set just the same as before the belt change. Just make sure the crank is on it's mark, and one camshaft mark is straight up and one is straight down.

I cut the bottom brackets off an old set and welded them on so the bottom hole of the original lined up with the top hole of the brackets, just for extra beef and peace of mind. Gave me a couple inches. You have to be VERY, VERY careful welding on struts though!!! **Explosion hazard** I wrapped mine with a wet rag next to the bottom and then propped a hose up to run water constantly on the upper part of the strut cylinder. Weld small sections at a time and wait awhile in between.

Stuff a cloth rag in the combustion chamber to keep the valves from moving.

I adapted an EJ22 into my houseboat. Made my own adapter from 1/2 aluminum plate to bolt up to an OMC outdrive with GM pattern. First, I got the plate drilled and bolted to the Subaru. Then made an a crank adapter for the OMC drive yoke from aluminum plates bolted together, then turned round. I then made a plate that would bolt to the crank adapter (GM pattern) with a 1" wide wing about 15" long off one side. Then I cut the heads off some 3/8" bolts and turned the ends to a sharp point. I did the same with 2 dowels. I went to the junkyard and found a GM 4cyl. with the correct pattern and set it up with the rear facing up. I bolted my plate to the crank, threaded the sharpened studs into each of the bellhousing bolt holes, and rotated the engine around till the wing was over the point, and gave it a bop with a hammer. This gave me a perfect punch mark exactly from the center of the crank for each set of bolt holes and dowels. Then I took straight and diagonal measurements between all the stud points. Then I drilled a tiny hole through each of the punch marks on my plate wing, just big enough to get the tip of a scribe through. I mounted that on the EJ and then scribed a small arc on the adapter plate in the general location of each hole while rotating the crank, thereby keeping all the perfect distance from center. I then laid out the exact centers with the other measurements, cross checking. It may not be machine shop perfect, but if not its damn close! Close enough for a marine outdrive anyway. This really worked very well. The EJ22 was close enough to the 140 HP that was originally in there, that the prop was fine. But... the bigger problem is the exhaust. Nobody makes a marine, water-jacketed manifold for a Subaru. You will have to make your own. I got by with a fabricated y-pipe that just ran up and over the transom with a muffler on the end. I heavily wrapped the whole thing to keep from burning a hole through the bottom of the boat. But it still got too hot, even with no engine cover, to go over 1/4 throttle for more than just short bursts. I bought a stainless turbo header that I was planning to weld a water jacket around. But I ended up just recently taking the whole works out because I really needed the interior space it was taking up. For the time being, I have a Honda outboard mounted, but a custom EJ outboard is on the drawing board! Edit: the only place the starter would fit with my outdrive was all the way on the bottom. I could not access it easily, so I rebuilt it before installing!

Tire probably has a broken belt, look for a bulge.

You can try running it in gear on jackstands with the front wheels off. Just be careful, use good jackstands and chock the back wheels. You won't have to get under, just use a broom handle or a long dowel rod up to your ear and touch it up against the components to pinpoint where the sound is loudest. You may have to clamp down on one of the parking break levers on the caliper if it only wants to spin one side.

eBay. Keep searching through there till you find the best deal. You can probably get 50 for ten bucks with free shipping.

10w30 in a 30+ year old EA81 is probably ok if you drive very conservatively, have under 150k miles, and the outside temps are under 90. Go over any one of those 3, in my opinion, you need heavier oil. Let me point out some basics before I go further. The first number in any XwXX multigrade is the actual viscosity of the oil before additives. 10w30 is a 10 weight oil with viscosity additives that should make it perform like a 30 weight oil when it reaches operating temperature. 20w50 is a 20 weight oil that should perform like 50 weight at temperature. That first, or base number is the only one you can really depend on, and that won't shear, or break down like additives will. That is, if the additives were good in the first place. The quality and amount of the additive (was it mixed in on a Monday after a holiday weekend?) is a complete given that we trust simply because the numbers on the bottle say so, because that's what it should be if everything was done right. That's why serious racers use straight weight oil, completely dependent on what clearances they are running and HP per CC. Multi-weight oil was developed because nobody wants to wait for their oil to warm up, which takes longer than the coolant to warm up. And everyone expects to start their car on sub-zero days, slam it in gear and go immediately. It really has little to do with the outside temperature once the oil is warmed up, but the biggest risk of running too heavy of an oil is just for cold startups. Otherwise, we would all be running a straight-weight dependent on our engines clearances. Thin oil is for satisfactory lubrication on cold startups, that's it... But wait! there is a huge second factor involved in this whole equation. Carmakers have to sell cars, that is pretty much their number one objective. And when some schmoe is trying to decide between a Honda and a Subaru (because both cars he saw were a color he liked), if their is one mpg difference between them, guess which one he wants? The entire movement towards thinner oils is all because of gas mileage, and the subsequent pressures from the EPA. It really has NOTHING to do with newer, tighter, more efficient engines. That's all blah, blah, blah. I have run Castrol conventional 20w50 in hot weather my entire adult lifetime. I have never "blown" an engine, in broad terms. To be specific, I've never had any bearing failures. Any time I had an engine overheat, it was fine after correcting the problem. Every engine I've ever owned was passed-on in running condition (exception of a few that rusted up). My daily EJ22, which has over 500k miles, is driven extra hard and has never been down past the valve covers. So give your old motor some nice thick oil! Just don't be in a hurry to blast off for work if it drops below 50...

Is it full of fluid?

Way back in high school, I was trained how to completely rebuild alternators, starters, even generators! I actually went to my regular high school in the morning, then traveled by bike to another high school with the best automotive facilities in the city. I learned from some great, real old school guys who started teaching AFTER they retired from careers in the automotive field. None of them ever went to college. After graduating, I soon found out that part of my training to be of little use because no shop I ever worked for wanted to invest the time, or assume the liability of rebuilding... well, pretty much anything. Those skills did come in handy for personal vehicles, family and friends. But after being into Subarus for awhile, I had a shelf full of electrical components from cars I stripped, but usually never, or rarely needed any. Especially the 70s and early 80s Subarus, just seemed like they would last for the life of the car. Which may just be because there were less electrical demands on those early ones... or not. So, it's been a long while since I've dug into an alternator. Not really sure who has been the OEM supplier for the regulators over the last couple decades. But I can say that the good ones will be made in Japan, and that is what I would try to find if I were going to go that route.

While taking a look on Rockauto for alternators, I noticed they also sell name-brand regulators, and found it quite interesting that they were all more expensive than any of their remanufactured alternators... BTW, charged the SVX battery up last night, (it was under 12 volts when I started and batt is new) and this morning the alternator was charging just fine...

Yeah, but aftermarket rebuilders are now marketing them as OE, Mitsubishi, Nippondenso, etc. which they are, just rebuilt with cheap components. 90 percent of the time, it is the regulator/rectifier that fails. And I think even if it just needed brushes, they slap a new $1.65 China regulator in it and call it a premium rebuild. Using another model alternator mainly depends on bolt spacing and plug configuration. You can swap another plug on pretty easy if you cop the whole thing from the junkyard. I'm pretty sure the XT6 will directly swap with many other Soobs because it's a popular high-amp conversion for those who need it. (primarily those kids with their thumpety-thump bass heavy stereos) I do have a good EJ alternator I may look at in the morning, but there is a used one on ebay for 50 bucks with free shipping that looks like my best alternative.

Well man, must be something in the air. Alternator just laid down on the wife's SVX in the last few days. I'm assuming, as she has a very short drive to work so the battery has carried it. Even though she insists on always driving with the lights on... Figures, just when I'm about ready to sell it. But a much better scenario than you had. Their really should be some sort of backup protection for overcharging. An alarm at least. It would be super easy to do. Mitsubishi makes a good product, but if it was rebuilt, I'd say it probably wasn't with Mitsubishi components. So that's the dilemma we're faced with. Why buy a name-brand OE alternator, when in all likelihood it has been remanufactured with the cheapest regulator to be had? Best bet is usually always a factory unit from the boneyard with lower miles, but hardly realistic in our case.

It's been a long, long time since I've messed with one, but I do seem to remember there being a place to insert an allen wrench and manually crank it open. May not help depending on where the mechanism has issues...

Fuses and circuit breakers are kind of funny when it comes to an overvoltage incident. They only blow/trip when the amperage is too high. I worked in a bike shop in the 80s and when a regulator would fail, sending the voltage to 16-17 volts, it would wipe out every bulb on the bike but never blow a fuse. Same thing in your house when there is a voltage spike, the breakers will not trip. Only when amperage, or amount of current is exceeded. Now, when your regulator failed, it just went full field, so volts and amps were unregulated. If a device or component will USE more amps than the fuse can handle, it will blow. A battery will take all the amps you can throw at it, which is why your black fusible link was smoking. Other devices will not use all the amps the system is rated at, unless they have a failure. Your TCU uses hardly any amps, so no chance of blowing the fuse. Obviously, it couldn't take the voltage, which is a shame but at least you had a spare. A testament to how tough Subaru ECUs are! Was that an aftermarket alternator? Glad you got her going again!

I think your mechanic was mistaken, or telling you a story. Unless someone put it together like that, which would be nearly impossible as well as the chain and sprockets are marked, it would have to have catastrophic damage/wear in the chain, guides, tensioner for it to actually skip a tooth.

Yeah. I walk when I see black oil. Unless I'm buying purely for non-engine parts. Most Subarus don't need much maintenance, but at the very minimum they need oil changes. If they weren't willing to do that, they damn sure did nothing else. That's a 200 dollar car, bub. Cause that's about what you could get for scrap. I know it's quirky n all, but the engine is probably toast, and even if not, it may run you 1000 dollars just to get it running if the tank and pump are rotten. If you look hard enough, you could find a pre-97 2.2 Legacy/Outback for 500 bucks that would legitimately kick rally a$$. Don't waste your time.

Back in the day, the Justy made a fine little econobox. Rally car... not so much. Although if it is the 4wd model, with the right setup it might do ok, IF you are trying to stay in a small CC category. If that is not the case, there are much better rally cars for sure! Parts availability will probably be an issue. The fuel system, depending on how much and what kind of fuel, plus how much condensation took place, could be a nightmare. You may very well need tank, lines, fuel pump, injectors... or it may start right up and just smell nasty till it gets fresh gas, no way of knowing. Is it a manual trans or ECVT? The ECVTs were great to drive, but I'm not sure how much punishment they could take, and you can pretty much forget about repairing or rebuilding one if you had a problem.

How is your compressor mounted? Is it more in the middle with the alternator on the outside or is it hanging out past the alternator on the drivers side? I thought everything past 90 got the factory air, but I could be wrong.

The Brumby was actually sold in Australia till 94??? No WONDER they're all over down there! That makes me slightly ill... And we never got the van, can't get a diesel or a dual-range either... makes no sense to me. Good looking Brumby ya got there! Welcome to the forum!

XT seats go pretty nice in a Brat.

You also have the belt saver system, which will shut it down if it detects the belt slipping. The sensor on the compressor clutch needs to be in adjustment too. Can't remember the factory spec, but if you set it around 1/16" off the rotating tangs, it should work.

Yes, I was speaking in general. Not particularly that engine-car.