the_bard

I've always used a piece of 2x4 wood, endwise, and made sure I was square on with end of the shaft, before I started pounding on it with a sledge (or 3 lbs. cross pinion hammer... works good if you store all your tools in your car, 'cause you don't have anywhere else to store it. D**n brownstone apartments. D**n city living. I wanna get back to the country.) Used to do it with tractors all the time, and it's worked so far with my Subie.

Here's my two cents, not that it's worth that much . Two months after I picked up my Loyale, I drove down a steep grade here in Troy (right next to RPI). In second gear, there was a large grinding noise coming from the right front. Press the clutch down, and the noise stops. Let the clutch out, same deal. Rode the clutch & brake down the rest of the hill, trying to prevent the grinding noise (didn't know what it was, but it sure wasn't good). Pulled into the parking lot across the road, and got up underneath to take a look at it. Right engine mount was very loose. Top bolt had worked itself halfway out, and the bottom bolt was gone. Ended up slapping a new bolt in there, and tightening things back up, and they've stayed that way since. Got a feeling it bothered something else, though... ever since, I get off the gas heavy at about 3,000 rpm's or above, and I get two distinct and heavy clunks from the right front. Gonna try swapping out the right front ball joint once the weather turns warm, just for giggles. The mount itself doesn't look all that bad, to me. They're holding now, and I'm confident they'll hold until I can do the engine/tranny swap into the new chassis come later this spring.

Bit a of drive for me, but it might be worth it (read fun & relaxing). Might learn a bit, too. I've got Sunday and Wednesday off... Sunday's shot (previous plans) but I can talk to the wife and see if we've got anything planned for Wednesday (I think she's in class all day anyhow). Need anybody Wednesday? I'll check out how far away ya are when I get home, and get you a firm answer.

I'm thinking that #1 and #2 will not give a ECU error code, right?

Beautiful. I'll toss a gallon into it, see if it helps. If it does, great. If it doesn't, looks like I'll be looking for the d/r tranny sooner rather than later. P.S.: Thanks guys!

Should've spent longer looking at the pic, and more thinking. That's not the head you've got a pic of, it's the block (hence the comment about the heads being alright). Thought that chunk looked smooth enough, it should be there (hence thinking the heads were alright, when I was looking at the block, not the heads, hence the heads are alright, but not the block). Oh, I give up trying to save face . P.S.: Now that I look at it, it doesn't look all that smooth. Ah... oh, well.

Betcha that when it's finished... it'll look how a Brat is supposed to look. I want one.

Granted, I'm a fairly big newbie on the internal workings of engines... but are you referring to the green/yellow corrosion on the stud in the foreground? Sure doesn't look good to me, that's why I'm asking .

Stopped down at Advance while I was running an errand, and they've got 80w90... 5 gallons for $25, Coastal. Couldn't find it in quarts, though I'll find it.Wife will kill me if I bring home 5 gallons of oil, and store it in the apartment.How many quarts fill the tranny, anyhow? If I went the d/r route, I'd just rob the shifter, linkage, and console right out of the donor car. Whether things will line up when I get it into the Loyale, I don't know, but there's got to be a way to make it fit. Same goes for the 4wd indicator on the dash... well, that's for the future, anyhow. I'm not offroading yet, so I don't need the d/r. The pushbutton's fine

Well... that makes me feel better, and worse, at the same time... somehow. if the oil's inexpensive enough, I'll see about swapping it out now, and doing again when I do the swap. That way, if the oil change doesn't help at all, I can start to look out for a replacement. Will a 5spd D/R replace that pushbutton without too much trouble? I know I'd end up replacing the center console, but I don't know any complications besides that...

When I first picked up my Loyale, going on a year ago, first was always hard to shift into. Gal I bought it off from said that it had always been that hard... didn't worry to much about it. Lately, though, it's been getting harder and harder, until the engine (and presumably, the tranny) warmed up. I simply attributed it to the cold weather we've been having... After I swapped out that halfshaft, I checked the fluids... noticed that the tranny fliud looked rather funky. Yellow, interspersed with dark yellow/brown, and tiny bubbles. Doesn't help that there was more fluid in the tranny than should have been, too. I don't think tranny fluid is supposed to look like that. At least it ought to be homogenous. I've heard about oil being able to leak into the tranny, and that's exactly what I imagine tranny fluid would look like if engine oil had been spilled into it. That's probably the rear main seal, right? The one that everybody suggests replacing when you do a clutch swap? Within a month or two, I'll be swapping the driveline out of the '92 into a '90 chassis, most likely. If I change the tranny fluid, and be easy on her, will it last until I can do the swap? Or has the damage already been done... so I ought to start looking for a replacement tranny?

Woohoo! Swapped out the halfshaft on the right front, and it no longer clicks when I accelerate! Oh, it feels so good. Completed in an hour and a half, roughly, versus the six hours it took me before (extra time there was spent running around town, buying the tools I needed). Thank gawd Subaru's are easy enough to work on in a parking lot, using only the tools I keep in the back of the wagon. For those of you that want to know how to swap 'em out in a Loyale, just follow Edrach's directions here . I modifed them, using Skip's suggestions... instead of fiddling with the strut backing plate, I pulled the parking brake line off the control arm, then pulled the bolt out of the control arm pivot mount, allowing me to pull the hub rump roast'y out far enough to yank the shaft of the stub. Had to pull the anti-sway bar off of the control arm, too...

Yeppers... NY does a number on cars, that's for sure. After I get a wagon in good enough shape to begin with (crossing my fingers on this current project), I'd like to find someplace with a garage (dry concrete floor) where I can get underneath the car every three or four months, to keep up with combating the rust. Contemplating taking the underbody covering off, and POR-15'ing the entire bit, then recovering it with underbody coating. We'll see how that goes. Really wouldn't mind giving Rust Bullet a try on some of the areas that aren't quite bad enough to warrant cutting it out the rust and slapping some sheetmetal in. Might use it to protect the interior of the area behind the rear wheels, though, before I slap that sheetmetal into place. Drilling out an access hole sounds like an intriguing idea, too, especially on the rear areas... what if I slapped a couple 12v DC fans usually designed for cooling computer cases in there, to bring in air from the interior car and blowing it out an access hole? If I cut the rust out, treated the interior areas with Rust Bullet, put the sheet metal in, gave myself an access hole, sprayed the **** out of the interior area with underbody coating or herculiner, then installed the fan to circulate the air? I ought to be able to wire an on/off switch for the fans, too... I'm a big fan of switches (makes the interior feel more like an airplane ). On the front fenders, I'd sure like to know where & how that crud is entering, so I'd have a better chance of sealing it off. I haven't taken a real in depth look at it, yet (probably will when I swap out that half shaft Thursday), but I imagine it's probably where the fender meets up with the rest of the body. When I do the swap, would it be worth it to run some silicon caulk up along that joint, then spray underbody coating over that, in an attempt to keep the crud out?

Hmm.... might check out this stuff, and see if I can't get some more reviews on it. I've heard really good things about POR-15, but not much about RustBullet. I'll be slapping sheet metal in place behind the rear wheel wells, anyhow, and probably replacing the fenders. This stuff sounds like it'd be good to treat spotty surface rust, where it hasn't eaten much through the metal.

Been following the thread on the Brat rust, so I ran across SubaruBrat's article on the rust in the rear wheel wells that seems to be so common to Brats (http://www.subarubrat.com/wheelwell.htm). This got me thinking about the rust that seems to be constantly plagueing the EA82 wagons I see... specifically, the front fenders (front bottom, center top, and rear bottom), and just behind the rear wheels. Why's this happen in these usual spots? I figure the area behind the rear wheels is just prone to being hammered by rocks, gravel, and general road debris. Is there more to it than that, though? SubaruBrat mentioned a gap in the rear wheel wells of Brats where water, salt, & debris can enter, to collect and rust out the wells. I figure this is the case behind the front wheels, judging from the crap I pulled out of my front fenders in that location when I was investigating the rust on my '92 Loyale. More to the point, has anybody figured out what to do about preventing the rust that occurs in these areas? There's no sense in me slapping some new sheet metal in that trouble spot behind the rear wheels if I'm not stopping what caused the rust in the first place (like mudflaps that are allowing water & gunk to seep in behind them, then holding it against the metal, quickening the cancer.

Any if you or anybody else needs help on the way up, I'm sitting here in Albany, available for helping unless I'm working. Emergency contact is 518 - 470 - 6101.

I've been thinking about the same... so far, I've thought about taking a sheet of plywood and cutting it to shape, fitting in a hinged section for those two compartments on the sides (one for the jack, the other for ?). Then taking that stuff that's normally used for lining shelves, cupboards, dashes, etc... epoxying the **** out of it to the plywood so it won't rip as easily, if I drag something across it. Might build up a few layers of it, depending on how it looks/acts. I've got everything organized in a big plastic tote right now, and it slides all over the place... hoping that liner stuff would keep it from sliding. Don't imagine it'd be too easy to clean, though I suppose you could pull it out, spray the **** out of it, and let it sun dry. Be kinda awkward in the colder months, though.

I second skip... check the wiring at the door hinge first. You said that none of the driver's door switches work (locks & windows, if you've got PW), and that "Door Lock" light is always on. I could be wrong, but I imagine there's a wiring harness connector somewhere near that door hinge, to facilitate removing the door if need be. If that connection came undone, none of the switches would work. The "lock" idiot light might interpret no connection to that door as an unlocked door, hence the light. Same goes for the parking light switch. You can use the headlight switch to turn on the parking lights (one click for parking lights, two for headlights), but they'll go off when you turn the ignition off. Hit the parking light switch on the column, and the lights will stay on when the ignition is off.

Dug this one up from the grave... sorry folks . Their online inventory system is finally up, so I took a brose around it. They don't seem to have much in the way of Loyale stuff, but I'm going to give them a call regardless. One (or more) of these j/y's will have my attention come Thursday.

Gee... one gets the feeling that you don't have warm feelings towards that 3at

After talking with him earlier, I believe that 3AT is toast... that's given him the impetus to put that 5spd pushbutton in there.

Not in bad shape at all... the rust on the hatch shouldn't take too much to slow down. If not, it shouldn't be too hard to find one to replace it, right? Defiinitely going to need to take that AT out, and slap in the 5 spd manual. I love the sight of all those Subie's in the background in the first pic... along with that Ford sitting under the carport (love Ford trucks... got a '78 F-250 Custom sitting back home, rusted out crossmember, so we use it for hauling gravel. 400 under the hood, 4:11 tranny... power ) That back end does look like somebody slapped a new tailight on there, especially with the condition of the rest of the car. Edit: Wandered a bit... figured I'd keep it on topic, and email ya instead

Ya know... I'm quarter Polish, too. 'Course, then again, it could be the quarter Irish in me too... *theatrical sigh*

Gives me something to play with . Actually, I haven't had too many problems with the set in my current Loyale... 'course, I've only had it for a year. I've got a tendency to baby them, too... no bringing them down if they have snow/ice on them, that sort of thing. I've seen and cooked electrical motors before, and try to avoid the practices that create them. That said... yeah, anything that's more complex is more prone to breaking down. But I don't mind 'em.

Call me crazy, but why not slap the plow on the rear end? It's gonna be harder to see, and steer, probably, but my dad's been plowing using a tractor with a plow mounted on the three point hitch (in the rear, for those of you non-tractor types) for years... Keep in mind that all the tractors done up in this method are rear wheel drive... not to mention that they usually have pretty beefy tranny's, even reverse gear. Not sure how a 4wd Subie would handle plowing in reverse. Oh... and if you decide to go through with this, and it stops snowing... mind moving to Troy?