GeneralDisorder

Battery light is related to alternator output - basically if the alt is producing less voltage than the battery then the light comes on. The light is a measure of voltage potential across the excitation circuit from the battery to the alt - there should not be a higher voltage at one than the other. Could be a weak battery or a weak alternator - do a load test on the battery and a DC/AC output test on the alternator and make sure all your connections are clean and tight. GD

Basically - my method (since I'm an amature) is to paint everything to a seam so I won't have to blend it. After my last endevour using single stage - I think I would go with a base/clear solution next time. The issues with single stage aren't apparent at first glance but I can tell you that the reason they use a base/clear at most auto body shops is because the clear coat covers a MULTITUDE of sins . Especially when you get into metallics and semi-metallics like Subaru used on just about everything. . It's near impossible to get a single stage metallic to both lay-out flat AND not flake up like hammerite. It's all about temperature, gun settings, and all sorts of minutia that I couldn't freakin handle - not at $65 a quart anyway. . Base/clear is the way to go - shoot the base on and blend it a little as Hatchsub sugests - then cover up the sin with the clear coat and buff it out so shiny that no one notices how bad the paint under it looks GD

The non-aluminium tank (which you can build or buy) is a heated tank of Sodium Hydroxide (often refered to as "Caustic") and water. It's basically Lye. It eats the hell out of paint, grease, oil, fat and other protiens. It also etches Aluminium - if you put aluminium into the tank it will foam up - it damages the Caustic solution and dissolves the Aluminium so you can't use it for that. Anything that comes out of this tank must be immediately pressure washed and dried or it will rust something fierce - I have had wet stuff out of the caustic tank start rusting on me in minutes - it strips all the oil's off. It will not really do much to rust. Being basically a hot salt bath it's pretty safe - gloves and safety glasses - doesn't burn or anything if you get some on you but the tank is heated so gloves are warranted for the temperature (well below boiling). Aluminium is much more rediculous in it's cleaning requirements. Typically dipping tanks for it require nasty acid based cleaners and produce copius amounts of noxious fumes. I beleive the stuff we used was a Zep product and it was basically paint stripper in dip form. Ugly stuff - burns the skin, etc. You might consider just sending your aluminium out to be dipped since you are dealing with high school age kids and this process is nasty. They may not even allow it on the property because of zoneing. I don't really have any links for you - Zep is just a matter of calling and getting the name and number of your local feild rep. Lye you can get about anywhere I would imagine - any chem supply in your area. As for buying the tank - I have no idea. Ours was probably 50 years old and I think someone at the shop built it. GD

Weld the pipes closed that run under the heads. GD

Hehe - yeah there's a big difference between theory and practice if you aren't familar with how the "industry" likes to build things. It's one thing to understand electrons and current and resistance, etc. It's quite another to troubleshoot something that's broken - be it electrical or mechanical - I have found that very often the engineers that design this stuff are made to scratch their head and look like a deer in the headlights when it doesn't work - and they know little about actually taking readings with a DMM or where to start looking for a problem. Some do - but others are made to look like fools if they have to do anything that doesn't involve drawing lines and selecting icons with their index finger. And even when they do understand - it still takes people like myself who are "down in the trenches" to bring them the faulty part and tell them how badly they designed it and why . And sometimes it's followed closely by an "and I fixed it for you - add this to the design" GD

You fail to understand how the thermoswitch works - it is mechanical and does not depend on voltage - it will switch based on temperature irregardless of even having any voltage present. Thus adding the light inline with the switch would not change the value at which it closes. If I were doing it - I would have the light in series with the fan so that the light was on if the fan was running. If I didn't see the fan light periodically comming on or it didn't come on when I threw the switch - then I know something is amiss. But really it's a bit academic - you can hear the fan at any speed slow enough to need it and above that it shouldn't be on anyway. The temp guage is a better indicator of something going wrong with the cooling system. Sure - but I don't understand the need for an overide.... the only overide you need is to turn the fan OFF for river crossings, etc. Otherwise the whole point of the thermo-switch is so you don't have to bother with manual fan controls. If something goes wrong with the thermo switch then just jumper across it till you get home If you are doing all this wireing yourself then you should be able to know it's good enough to not short out - soldering and heat shrinking, etc. Any crappy wireing on the car will not be protected by the new fuses. One fuse is all you need for a relay and a fan. I just think you are making this WAY too complicated and in doing so you are going to cause problems down the line. You'll have a billion relays and fuses in your car for all your accesories with wireing design's like that and if something goes pop - you'll be tracing wireing for hours trying to figure out what went wrong. . For a wheeler - keep it simple. You have a better chance of getting home. GD

I used to use a lot of Threebond where I worked (we manufactured/serviced Kobelco oil-free rotory screw compressors) and I know we had some sitting around the shop for a lot of years (rarely needed it actually since most air-end failures went back to Japan for core value) and we never had an issue with it. My experience was always that if the tube were sealed well and the stuff wasn't partially or completely cured - it worked fine. We never paid any attention to "shelf life" and I doubt my shop foreman even knows it has one (though I'll ask him about him when I see him which is every few days typically). From what I have seen, the Threebond has a different consistency and different dry texture than ultra grey. We were specifically warned AGAINST using RTV as it can clog oil passages in the machines we were using it on - Threebond did not. GD

Threebond is different - it's designed not to clog oil passages and as such I beleive it hardens much slower. It's not really like RTV at all though many people do use RTV in it's place. RTV stands for "room temperature vulcanizing" - the only way it goes bad is to harden in the tube..... same with the Threebond stuff - if it's not hard when it comes out of the tube then it's still good. My preference for the case halves is Loctite 518 - it's a flange sealant and is very good stuff. GD

That's normal - draw from the starter lowers the coil voltage. Being that you have voltage and no burnt fuses (and no car on fire!) then you can safely assume that the thing attached to the positive side of the coil that you called a ground was not, in fact, a ground. If you don't have spark then put a test light on the coil - if it pulses when you are cranking then the distributor is good. If it does not then the module is bad in the disty or something else is hokey in there - if it pulses check the coil resistance. Wouldn't be the first time someone didn't have spark because of a bad coil. GD

A ground wire on the positive side of the coil would be bad. That would instantly blow the igntion fuse - when you key-on you should have power to the positve side of the coil - black with white stripe. You sure this "ground" isn't a noise reduction capacitor? Negative side of the coil is the tach signal/trigger side - it's always yellow. Being you don't have a tach you should have a yellow wire from the distributor going to the negative side of the coil as well as a red or black w/white going to the positive side of the coil. GD

Correct - no D/R on automatic's. But you can swap an auto for one just as easily - just need a few extra parts like the pedal assembly, clutch, and front driveline section. GD

Why the second 5 way relay? I don't get the point of shunting the fan leads to ground with the 5-way's like that. The factory relay's are simple 4 pin relay's. Are you thinking that you need to shunt the fan motor to ground so it doesn't create transients from wind rotation and damage itself? I don't think that's really an issue with these but I could see it on something larger.... The relay for the thermo-switch really isn't needed either - just move the indicator lamp over to the relay coil lead from the switch. Make it an LED and you don't need any extra fusing either. The relay coil's can run off the same fuse as the fan. You should only need a single fuse for this circuit. The coil's and the lamp draw insignificant amperage compared to the fan. 1 fuse, 1 relay is all this should take. You work for NASA or something? GD

85 to 89 GL's had the D/R. '88 and '89 are the best as they are also fuel injected. Loyale's (90 to 94) never got them but it's a very simple swap if you get a Loyale with a push-button 5 speed. GD

The 4EAT is more reliable than the 5 speed MT's. Sad but true. I still won't drive one personally . That's a ton of coin for that car. 87k is low, but for that car it wouldn't matter too much if it had 150k. At that price make them throw in the timing belt since it's due at 105k. And have it's butt powdered by the dealer. And with these 105k belt cars - you WANT them to do the water pump, tensioiner, and idlers plus all the front seals. The deal is that this stuff is not lilkely to make it another 105k (210k total) before failure - especially being over a decade old at this point. Age is a consideration just as mileage is. Quite frankly you could find a better deal. I sell cars that I've gone completely through and done all the maintenance on for less than that. Granted they have more miles generally but mine have brand new timing belts, water pumps, etc and WILL be good for 60k at least. You are looking at a major maintenance item in just 17k miles. Lot of money to spend for something that's going to need work that soon..... If you can wait a week or two - I have a SWEET '99 OBW 5 speed that's going to be for sale. All the stuff that one you are looking at has, plus heated seats, 6 disc changer, fogs, etc. Engine (2.5 DOHC) has 130k (with the updated HG's) and tranny has 110k. Plus it will have a brand new 105k service done and all the fluids etc. Checked out by me top to bottom. I'm going to be asking $5500. And yes - it's immaculant. Might have like one door ding on the passenger side. It's got a stack of reccords too. Send me a PM if you are interested. GD

The meter is going to give you a measure of voltage "potential" - that is you are not looking for voltage that is flowing, but rather that there exists a higher voltage on one side of the meter than the other. This is important. If you test using both legs of the fuse then you will get a 0 reading if the fuse is good. That means either that there is no voltage on either side, that there is 12v on either side, or that there is 10,000v on either side because a power line fell on the car . It doesn't tell you much in other words. Doesn't even tell you if the fuse is good because there might not be any voltage present - might as well be sticking the meter probes into your toes at that point. You need to check for 12v between either side of the fuse and ground - generally the Subaru fuse box lids will have an arrow indicating which side is "batt" and which side is "load". That tells you which side of the fuse is supposed to have power. You can check that side (through the top of the fuse - the leads are exposed on the top of blade-style fuses so you don't have to remove them) with the meter's red probe and the black probe on a good body ground point. If you have voltage potential you will get a 12v reading. That tells you the supply TO the fuse is good. Move the red probe to the "load" side of the fuse and if you still have the same reading that tells you the fuse itself is good. Then you need to see if there is problem with the lead running from the fuse to the fan. Check from each leg of the fan connector and the battery ground. You should get 12v on one of the these pins. That indicates that you have power at the fan. Do those tests and tell us what you find. I doubt you have power at the fan if jumping the temp switch didn't kick it on so no need to get into further detail till you actually perform these tests. GD

My sugestion is based on working in an industrial setting - rebuilding machines of all types. I would not just get one setup. There are times when you want chemical and times when you want a hot detergent type wash..... For an actual parts washer, I would get one of these: http://www.roto-jetoa.com/ We had one where I worked and for a lot of cleaning jobs it worked great. Now that said, it's not going to clean places that it can't "see". Line of sight is important with parts washers and so things that have large cavities in them or blind passages, etc are difficult to clean. For that you need a chemical dip. An alkali hot-tank for non-aluminium parts and another seperate tank for aluminium are what I would reccomend. You can't get aluminium clean enough with the roto-jet to really sparkle and in any case the detergent discolors it. If I could have nothing else, I would have just the chemical hot tanks. They are the most versatile by far and the cheapest to get into (it's a metal dumpster full of chems). Cleaning them out and dealing with the waste isn't fun but they do things that no parts washer could ever do. Of course a steam cleaner (pressure washer with a heater) and a blast cabinet or two are also neccesities IMO. So much so that I have both in my garage - I upgraded my house with an on-demand hot-water system that makes endless 140 degree water. I installed a hose bib for it so I could run the hot water to my pressure washer . Works amazingly well on engine bay's, etc. Plus my shower never runs out of hot water either Here at home I get by without a parts washer - just a solvent tank (with Zep Dyna 170), blast cabinet, and steam cleaner. I may rig up an old dish-washer to clean parts after they have been washed in my solvent tank. Future upgrade . Why not make the parts washer a project for the class? I guess it's not automotive though..... GD

If it didn't tick before and you didn't touch the lifters or remove the cam towers in any way - I would suspect that the oil pump seal didn't get installed quite right. Did you check the pump condition? It's a good idea when it's off the car to measure the components and check for wear. GD

It is unlikely to be the valve itself - they rarely fail. Most likely it is all the hoses, connectors, and the valve covers that are plugged up with carbon and causing the system to flow incorrectly. Don't forget to replace the small PCV filter inside the airbox - it's a tiny white filter element that's about 1" by 2" and is located on the side in front of one of the PCV hose ports. GD

And how do you know? You been testing your oil for blow-by contamination? If you don't know the hose sizes then you obviously gave no thought to how this should be done so I'm doubting it. Could just be you got lucky and the PCV lines are so plugged up that they can't flow enough to pull oil from the valve covers. GD

The air supplies for the catalytic converter? As in the Air Injection System??!?! I have to ask: 1. Why would you think these should get crankcase air when they were hooked up to the air filter box orginally? 2. If you don't have to pass emisssions, why are you running the AIS anyway? Pull that crap off and route your PCV as in the picture above. This is the proper way to run it and mimicks the factory setup RE: hose sizes and routing to acheive the dual purposes of properly evacuating the crankcase blow-by gasses and not sucking oil from the valve cover into the intake. Do it the wrong way and you risk damage to the engine. Crankcase gasses are nothing to mess with - they will foul your oil and etch the metal in your engine leading to bearing failure. GD

Sounds like a classic vacuum leak - maybe something came loose while you were doing plugs and wires? Spray around with a can of carb cleaner and see if you find something? GD

That's not how it's done - the temp switch is a ground control - there is ALWAYS power to the fan (through fuse #15 apparently [Gary - have you checked for power on both sides of this fuse?]). The other lead to the fan goes to the temp switch and then the temp switch closes and shorts it's fan lead to ground. That completes the circuit and starts the fan. There is another path to ground though the AC relay's but if you have no power at either of the fan leads - none of that "downstream" stuff will work. They build stuff this way so that power leads that can short to ground are as short as possible and if a component fails internally, it's on the downstream side of the load and doesn't blow fuses. So if the temp switch were to fail and short itself to ground - all that would happen is the fan would come on and not go off - instead of blowing a fuse, overheating, etc. Sounds to me like you have a bad power lead to the fan (or the fan fuse) - if that's the case then you only need to run a new wire from fuse #15 to the fan lead (whichever one doesn't have continuity with the temp switch). Gary - do you have a multi-meter? DO NOT put voltage to the temp swich connector. You will create a direct short to ground and burn something up. It is not located on the supply side of the load (fan). Bypassing the stock wireing is the LAST resort here. And replacing as little of it as possible is the goal. First we need voltage to the fan. Solve that problem and see where you are at. GD

Could be a pinhole leak in a hose - there's been quite a bit of cooking going on in your engine bay so it could be one of the hoses under the manifold, etc that carries coolant to the bottom of the carb... If it was still steaming and hissing when you parked it then that's a good sign - means there was still some coolant in the engine . As long as the gauge didn't climb and the engine kept running - you are fine. They will lose power and basically stop running right if they truely run out of coolant and an extreem overheat results. I wouldn't worry about it other than to note that you probably have a coolant leak and you should try and find it and certainly keep it filled and keep extra coolant with you in the car. GD

You can run the line to the idiot lamp switch port instead, which is off to the side and better protected than the bottom port. Also it's a more common size - it's either 1/8" BSPT or NPT - can't recall which at the moment. You'll lose your idiot lamp but it sounds like that's already not working. Or you can do what I did once - didn't want to bother finding an adaptor so I cut the threaded portion of an old pressure sender off (leaving as much of the hex portion as possible), then drilled and tapped it to 1/8" NPT and came off there with a right angle tubing fitting directly to the nylon tube for the mechanical gauge. Cheap and effective. If you are going to be off-roading it - I suggest you go with stainless braided hose up to at least the fenderwall area to give it some strength. The nylon tubing that most gauges come with is pretty flimsy and the cheaper the gauge the thinner the tubing. For decent nylon tubing (street driven, etc), find a place that sells VDO gauge kits. Their tubing kit is like $12 and comes with a high quality, LONG section of tubing as it is designed for the older VW's with the engine in the back of the car. GD

4WD is ok on dry pavement if you know what you are doing and have matching tires . With matching tires there is NO STRESS in the drivetrain from using 4WD in a straight line. When it gets sticky is turning corners and you have to take it out before you get bound up real bad. I've been using 4WD Low range 4th gear on my 4 speed for years in place of a blown 3rd that pops out, etc. You just have to remember to go back to 2nd gear 2WD for turning. Which isn't a problem in practice. I've driven like this with many Subaru transaxles and never once had a problem as long as you don't break the golden rule's of tire size/inflation and sharp turns. GD