exister99

For the record. Both of the DOJs suffered clamp failure and lost all of their grease. The guys at CV of Ocala were really gracious though and sent me a fresh pair of axles free of charge! I highly recommend them as a supplier.

If your fuel and spark (carb and disty) check out I would next make sure she is breathing OK. Your cat is about due for death. One way to test it is to take the air cleaner lid off and tug the accelerator cable. If you see a fuel mist blasting up through the carb it is a pretty sure bet your cat is clogged. I replaced mine with one off the Internet for $215. Good luck.

I was reading a bottle of that Lucas Oil Additive. You know the stuff they have in that little demo at NAPA with the plastic gears so you can see how it makes your motor oil sticky? Anyway the bottle claimed it could be used undiluted in diffs and manual trannys. Has anyone tried this? The reason I ask is I bought my '84 GL with a manual transaxle about 20,000 miles ago and I figure it is time I changed out the diff and transaxle fluids. What would you recommend as the best fluid for these applications?

Is the strut leaking juice? I went with KYBs all around and have been beating the crap out of them for almost 2 years without problems. I got the struts on the Internet somewhere for about $76. Good luck and be careful when compressing the springs!

Nice! I replaced the module in my EA81 with a module from an EA82. The distributors are radically different but the modules are outwardly identical, except for the numbers. I have been running that module for nearly 2 years. Drove it through more blizzards than I can remember and from Idaho to Texas without the slightest hiccup from the distributor. Interpret this as you wish. BTW, if any of you have any of these modules you can spare you might put them up for sale. Considering the price of the new ones you could esily get $20-$30 for a working used one. Cheers!

I run KYB GR2s. Very nice cornering. Got them on the net for about $76 a piece from some now defunct parts website. Be careful when compressing the springs!

I had a similar problem and it turned out to be the pickup coil, AKA ignitor, AKA ignition module. It looks like a misshapen donut wrapped around the distributor shaft where it emerges from the distributor body. This thing is basically an integrated circuit and with age it develops micro cracks. The right temp and a little jiggling opens up the crack and voila! dead engine. Happened to me along the Lochsa River, beautiful place to break down. The new unit runs about $165, but a new distributor with a new unit inside costs about the same. I bought a used distributor for $10 and took the ignition module out of it. The thing worked like a charm and saved me over $150. Plus I can rebuild the used distributor for a spare. Good Luck!

You would have to live in Idaho to understand how cool this movie is. Furthermore the Brat was inserted for "Idaho chic" effect. Few things are as cool in the backwooks of Idaho as tooling around in an old Soob.

What exactly are you going to change? Oil pump? Just the seals? Sending Unit? I put a new sending unit it mine a few months ago and got the same readings. It seems if the oil pump seals were bad I would be getting low readings instead of high. Is this a valid assumption?

I have the exact same problem in my '84 wagon. I drove it from Idaho to TX that way and it didn't blow up. Have any of you had a catastrophic event as a result of maxed out oil pressure?

Mine actually started as a quiet vibration several days ago. I would say there are worse noises to come from your joint. I guess I'll throw in one of my salvaged spares until I get this bad joint sorted out.

I recently changed the front struts. They are not of the adjustable variety, just straight shocks inside of big springs. Everything looks lined up good, and I had the front end aligned at a shop. I think I will be beefing up the heat shield on the cat and contacting OCV about giving me a new half-shaft since this one they sold me failed so quick. Anyone done that?

Thanks for the replies guys. I got these half-shafts about a year ago from the CVO website, which comes highly recommended by many on usmb.net. Do you all have any ideas about what could be causing them to fail so quickly. I don't think the inner DOJ joint's boot is actually open yet. Could the cat heat have just cooked the grease inside the DOJ? I would rather implement a solution that will allow my axles to last more than a few thousand miles.

Hello again fellow Soobers, I just drove the '84 wagon to Texas and she did fine the whole way. I have been here a week and this morning on the way to work my current problem started. Basically when I am in gear and driving there is a loud cyclic clunking noise coming from the right front end. If I push in the clutch, put the car in neutral and coast there is no noise at all. Any ideas? I figure it can't be the wheel bearing since they would make noise any time you are rolling on them. It must be a driven component of the drive train. The half shafts are only about a years old, though the one on the right side above the cat has been spitting a little grease. Could it possibly be the transmission innards? Also there is no change in the noise if I put the car in 4WD. Thanks for any help.

What a truly bad rump roast Soob! Lucky you in Oz land get to rip out the cat rather than pony up $250 for another clump of Platinum and Palladium when she clogs. Nice snorkel too. I'd say the only thing missing is a front mounted winch to pull you out when you are fording one of those Aussie swamps alone. Nice wedding tent / garage too, BTW.

I guess the answer to the title question is, "It depends!" I was in 4 low grinding through sagebrush when my fan switch died. Fortunately I had just forded an ice cold canal, and I was able to replace the 3 quarts that boiled out of the radiator. I only had about another 1/4 mile to go so I ground my way to my destination before the inevitable reboil. At the end of the day I was able to make it back to the highway before overheating and once I was doing 75 the fan was unnecassary. BTW I just replaced this fan switch last year and it's dead again. It is an Echlin. Has anyone else had these things die so quickly on them? I think I will go with the Beck-Arnley switch next.

So here is the premise. I went to the junkyard and pulled a carb that looked exactly like the one in my '84 GL wagon. Rebuilt it and swapped it in. After setting the idle and all that it runs good once warm. Gas mileage is great and I passed emissions like a champ. The only issues I have are the following: The car idles really low in the morning cold and when I turn on the A/C the rpms go down instead of up like they should. I located the FICD Actuator. It has a rod that gets sucked in when the AC is on. This rod is supposed to hook on to an arm that stick out of the throtle linkage and increase the idle speed when the AC is on. The problem is that when the AC is off the contact portion of this FICD rod is about 1/4 inch away from the throttle lever. Then when I turn the AC on the contact portion of the rod moves and touches the throttle lever but doesn't actually move it. So, a couple of questions to toss out there: Is the FICD responsible for increasing the idle speed during a cold start as well as during AC operation? Why isn't my FICD actuator pulling on my throttle lever? Do I need to adjust the position of the throttle lever? Wrong carb model perhaps? Do I need to tweak the FICD Actuator? Any input is appreciated. Sincerely, Runnin' lean and mean in Idaho

Also another thing I forgot to mention: when I turn the AC on the idle speed actually drops a couple hundred RPMs. The correct behavior is for it to go up as a reaction to the increased load. As far as I can tell the AC is supposed to activate something called the Fast Idle Control Device (FICD) Air Valve. Has anybody messed with this thing before? Where on the carb is it, and what does it look like? Thanks...

I found this thread while searching for a solution to the exact same problem. Let me know what you find out and I'll do the same. I suspect it is the choke control. There is a spring in there that expands as it warms up. Like you, I just rebuilt the carb, so I think we need to figure out how to adjust this electric choke control. Good luck.

I just took out two ball joints on my '84 with little hassle once I got the procedure down, so here is ball joint removal per exister99. Warning! This procedure could be dangerous if you don't jack and chock your vehicle correctly or if you are strong enough to lift your Soob. Do not attempt this unless you are sure you can perform it safely. Your safety is your responsibility! After getting the front end on jack stands and removing the front wheels: 1. Remove both pinch bolts. 2. Stick the nozzle of a penetrating fluid can into the pinch slot and spray generously. 3. Turn the steering wheel full right. 4. Using a hammer tap a 1/4" Craftsman cold chisel into the pinch slot until it bottoms out onto the current ball joint's head. 6. Turn the steering wheel back to center. 7. Carefully place a floorjack under the right rotor and jack up the wheel assembly to take weight off of the control arm and stabilizer bar. Make sure you don't lift the car off of the jack stands. 8. Tap down on the edges of the control arm with a hammer to break the ball joint loose from the steering knuckle. 9. Lever a short (12") pry bar between the steering knuckle and control arm with the head of the pry bar pointing to the front of the vehicle. 10. Stand up and place your right foot on the head of the pry bar and your hands under the lip at the top of the wheel well. 11. Close your eyes, make an ugly face and push down with your right foot for all you're worth. 12. Repeat steps 8 - 11 until the head pops out of the steering knuckle. 13. Repeat for left side turning wheel full left instead of full right. 14. To remove the ball joint from the control arm I use a jaw type ball joint remover. After trying in vain with various pullers, and unwilling to trash the boots with my pneumatic fork I finally succeeded with a Tie Rod/Ball Joint Lifter identical to this one: http://www.etoolcart.com/browseproducts/Tie-RodBall-Joint-Lifter-TA61900.html http://www.thetoolwarehouse.net/shop/TA-61900.html This thing is definitely worth the price. It will pop a ball joint out in a matter of a few quick turns of a wrench and spare you the possible front end damage of the aforementioned "BFH"

I would torque down the cylinder heads first. There is a thread on this site somewhere with instructions for making the special tool for nut #1. According to some this should be done every 12K miles, though I suspect most Soobs haven't had it done since the factory.

What do you mean by "cat back"? Did you replace the catalytic converter? The honeycomb structure in those things inevitably falls apart and clogs the thing up. Your symptoms sound like mine before I replaced the cat. BTW, the cheapest I found the cats was on the Internet for about $215 with shipping. This was for a "bolt in", which actually required a bit of cutting and filing to fit. Have you checked your timing? The distributor is probably on its way out too. Take the cap off and shake the rotor. I was surprised by how easy it was to rebuild my distributor. Napa carries the bushings. I saw you have the MPFI so you might look into the state of the fuel injection system. My '84 is carbureted so I don't have any personal experience there. Finally do you have hydraulic valve lifters? If not you should probably adjust the valve clearance. It sounds like your engine is mechanically sound, so I would look for a problem with the breathing, spark or fuel. Good luck!

What I referred to as the Murray Press book actually is the John Muir Publications book. They are the same folks that published the classis "How to Keep your Volkswagen Alive", and now publish the excellent and entertaining "How to Keep your Subaru Alive." Anyway, it says the range for your model is like 132-161. If they are all reading the same though I would agree with alleyboy that the numbers look good. You could be losing a couple of PSI through your testing equipment. Are you using the screw in tester or the push in rubber tipped one? The last time I did a compression test on my 84 GL was due to terribly slow acceleration. After much poking around the cause turned out to be a clogged catalytic converter. What are your symptoms?

Those sound good, but to be sure you should consult one of the manuals. I have all 3, Haynes, Chilton and Murray Press, with the last being my favorite. I am pretty sure I found my compression numbers in that one. Like I said though, they sound about right.

Yes. All will be clear if you look up the fan wiring schematic. I think the much maligned Chilton maual has one in it.