lneulicht

I put a salvaged engine in my wife's '97 Legacy Postal 2.2L. Since the old engine worked so well for 400,000 miles I'm trying to rebuild it so we'll have a spare. The bolts holding the halves of the block together have come out nicely but for the 12 point 12 mm bolts that have been washed in coolant for 16 years. I haven't applied full force to them with my long breaker bar because it seems that the bolt heads are likely to strip at some point. Then I would have to drill them out with a bit extension since they are recessed between the cylinders. I've soaked them in PB blaster for a couple of days, but since the block is aluminum and the bolts steel I understand that perhaps ammonia would be a more effective anti-corrosive. I guess I'll try that? Would the use of an impact wrench be more likely or less likely to strip the bolt heads than gradually increasing torque with a breaker bar? By the way I'm surprised that the cylinder walls still have their full component of honing marks after all those miles.

Try rotating your front wheels to back to eliminate a tire problem?

FWIW the ATSG Techtran manual lists the following possibilities: On car check: Faulty control unit Valve sticking Faulty throttle sensor Deterioration of ATF With transmission out of car: Overrunning clutch slippage Band & Servo slippage

You folks have about convinced me it would be wise to have a salvaged one on hand to transplant next time I get bored and want to gamble at turning a working 2WD car into a non-working AWD. I sent a PM to Ivan about the ones he mentioned having.

Since I am a new poster here I don't want to give the impression that I am lazier and more obstinate than I am. Here is a photo with the knee bolster removed. The Ecu is visible to the right. Here is what I take to be the TCU back behind and above the ECU. The top of the photo is toward the firewall. Here, on a piece of paper, is the plastic that broke off when I unscrewed the knee bolster this time

I appreciate all of the comments and suggestions

That there is good ground is confirmed visually and with an ohmeter. My understanding is that when the solenoid is powered by the TCU or direct wiring it opens the valve and releases the line pressure that has been activating the transfer case clutch that engages the rear wheels.

The writing on the TCU is not visible without removal. It is way up under the dash behind the ecu. Searches online last week found TCU's that specified they were for LHD cars, that's why I figured the RHD was different. I don't see why it would be other than that it is physically situated differently than the LHD cars so it might have a different shape or attachments rather than different electronics. I suppose I could ask the stealership to look up part numbers next time I'm buying parts there. (I paid $300+ for the PS hoses last week). My wife only uses this '91r when her '97 is out of service and I think I've got the 97 running well now, for a car with 420,000 miles on it and a freshly installed salvaged engine. I'm thinking that if nobody suggests problems with my work-around I will just go with it. We don't often need 4WD in the Carolinas. As I say, I dislike messing about with the wiring under the dash on a 22 year old car since I might damage other brittle bits.

Seems likely. Are there businesses that diagnose and repair TCUs?

I only tried my approach after I eliminated a faulty solenoid as the cause. In fact, I tried the work around to confirm that the transfer case and solenoid themselves were not the problem. Have you checked the resistance of yours? You can check it between the appropriate contact on the connector and ground.

Photos

I'll take a photo, but no, the wire that I spliced is the wire in the bundle that runs into the transmission and supplies voltage to the C Duty solenoid.

Concerning an earlier discussion in this thread: The speedometers stopped working on both our 91 and 97 Postal Legacies with around 150,000 on original and on replacement transmissions. The problem each time has been the nylon gears in the front differential that drive the speed sensor. No speedometer love without pulling the transmissions and rebuilding or replacing. This has been a serious PITA for the '97 which will not pass emissions testing with the OBD II carrying the speed sensor code.

Looking for some constructive criticism here. The tranny in my wife's '91 Postal Legacy (2.2L AWD Auto) had been shifting poorly and finally died. She uses the car as backup to her '97. The remanufactured transmissions seem unavailable, so I installed a salvaged transmission and got torque bind and a 24 transmission code. (The old transmission gave that code after it died as well, but my wife did not describe torque bind in its operation.) I purchased and installed a new Duty C solenoid and valve. Still got the torque bind and code, even with the FWD fuse in. I checked the resistance to ground through the connector at the firewall and got around 14 ohms. I cut the wire there and installed crimp-on connectors on the two cut ends. I ran a wire from a headlight fuse to the transmission end of the cut wire. With the FWD fuse in and the headlights on I have good FWD and no torque bind. With the headlights off I have AWD and torque bind. I take this to mean that the TCU or the wire from it to the connector is bad. The TCU is fairly inaccessible for diagnosis or removal. (I dislike taking things apart unnecesarily on an old car with cooked brittle plastic and wiring). Replacement TCU's for the RHD 91's look impossible to obtain. Have I missed any possibilities? Will we be damaging the car by driving it with the FWD fuse in and headlights on, turning the headlights off only if the car needs 4WD?