GeneralDisorder

Put the peice of gasket paper over the plate and then just use the rounded end of a small ball-peen hammer and lightly tap your way around the profile of the plate you are making the gasket for - this will cut the gasket exactly to fit. You can then either mark and hole-punch the bolt holes in it or you can use a small ball bearing and your hammer to punch those as well. Making gaskets is no big deal really. Takes a couple minutes. I don't even bother buying stuff like that anymore. GD

Post in the wanted section of the forum and please post where you are located. GD

Remove the harness from the XT, strip it, and repair all it's gremlins. It's the only way you will win with XT's. The wireing has such a long run to the trunk that they typically have more wiring issues than other models. Otherwise - you aren't easily going to fit the Weber to an MPFI engine. You will have to make custom manifold adaptors, etc. The heads/intake are not what any of the adaptors are made to fit. Not to mention the Loyale is setup for SPFI which is miles better than a Weber anyway. Square peg - round hole..... no matter how you look at it really. GD

The most common cause on the newer gen stuff is just plain poor battery cables or terminals. Especially in this cold weather - the cable's shrink away from the crimp joints and terminals get loose. GD

The place I use charges $35 for a flywheel surface. There might be cheaper places but these guys are strictly automotive machine work and they do a sweet job on everything. Plus it's typically a 15 minute turn-around (while I wait). Most places don't do them on a lathe - they are surface ground, milled or flycut typically. While it can be done on a lathe, it's usually faster setup wise to do them on a milling machine. GD

'82 will not have a ballast resistor - that I know for sure. I haven't checked my older FSM's but I'm not convinced the older stuff had them either. GD

Flywheel's almost never *have* to be replaced. They have enough material on them to machine 10x over easily. The whole clutch mechanism floats on the transmission input shaft so till you get to the point of being too close to the starter gear teeth you can just keep machining them. GD

Subaru's do not use ballast resistors. They are designed to work at full VR output and still fire well enough to start the engine on battery voltage. GD

Yes - either at the solenoid plug or at the corresponding pins on the ECU. The resistor goes between the ECU pin and ground. One of the two wires to the solenoid is a harness ground so you can just wire up the resistor to the existing plugs. If that doesn't work then you probably have a wireing issue - just cut the wire at the ECU under the dash, run the resistor from that pin to a ground point, and zip tie the resistor up there instead. If you can't get the CEL to go off, pull the cluster and rerout the ground for the CEL to use the same ground as the e-brake indicator. That way the key-on lamp check will still work but the CEL will no longer indicate a fault. GD

Yes it can and has been done. I'm sure you will have to customize the tranny mounts and of course the linkage. Otherwise it's not much different than an EJ swap into an EA car. GD

Yep - very likely bad tranny mounts and don't overlook the pitching stopper - that negates exactly the kind of movement that would cause your problem. GD

Are the solenoid's good? They are a common failure. You can replace them with a 33 Ohm, 5 watt resistor to fool the computer. You don't need either one for proper engine operation. And once warm you can just hook the two lines together for the EGR and have it operating when you go to get it tested. The solonoid only shuts off the EGR when the engine is cold. GD

If you think the front O2 is bad or slow, then just get a bosch replacement - they are like $30. If you still have the code invest in the $8 anti-fouler. Or better yet - do them both at the same time so you don't have to worry about it. It sounds like you have been WAY to nice to that car. It's an old car and it's not going to hurt to use non-OEM parts on a few things. This aint the space shuttle - don't treat it like it is. There *are* things I will only buy from the dealer but when there are good alternatives I will take them. GD

Easiesy way to do it is have the locksmith make a key for the ignition, then rekey the door lock cylinder's to match. I've even rekeyed door cylinder's myself. A good eye and careful work - it's not that hard. Just have to make sure you don't lose any of those tiny plates and springs. GD

Oh boy. I guess I have pictures to take then. That's a nice circular saw - my dad has one similar to it - heavy machine built for real construction unlike the plastic of today. A real contractor will tell you that the weight is an advantage to a point as it pulls the saw through the work if you know how to use the weight. GD

Just get a first gen Legacy. It's the right thing for you and your family. You'll love them trust me. Even compared to the 2nd gen Legacy's I would rather have a 90 to 94. They really cheapened them up in '95. EA82's are for kids, the clinically insane, people with too much time on their hands, and any/all combinations of the above. Under all but the most severe circumstances, there is no justifiable reason to operate an EA82 vehicle with it's OEM engine. And unless it's an RX or something - there's no reason to swap them either unless you live in an area where you can't get an EA81.....even then I would seriously rather just lift a Legacy. GD

Front O2 is for mixture adjustment. Rear O2 tells the computer nothing useful as the catalytic conveter has destroyed any potential information that could have been gathered. It is ONLY to check that there is a percentage difference in HC's between the front and rear sensor's. You could completely remove the rear O2 sensor and besides a code P0420 you would see absolutely no change whatsoever in the fuel consumption. The engine would continue to run in closed loop operation from the single front sensor. GD

Yes - it came with the drawbar and full collet set to 1/2" in 32nd's. The quick change gear box has two possible change gears - a 48 tooth for most all threading applications and a 24 tooth for REALLY coarse threads - 8 TPI and less. The extra gear is always handy as it is bolted to the outside of the gear that is currently in use via it's extra long axle shaft. I also got three chucks for it, and a 7.5" faceplate along with a ton of cutting tools and tool stock plus a make-shift milling attachement that I can probably do something with. Several Starrett mic.'s, some dial indicators, a mag base, and just a whole bunch of other stuff that came in a three drawer craftsman portable. I got it all for $750. Which is a monster steal of a deal. Frankly I robbed the man blind. I could sell some of the accesories, make back the whole amount and keep the lathe. Of course I would have to re-buy that stuff so that would be pointless . GD

Classic wheel bearing. You won't feel any play in it so don't bother checking. If you could feel any play you would have already $hit yourself and called a tow-truck - by that point it sounds like a train is rolling through the cabin. Sounds like you have alignment issues and possilby strut tops, etc are going. But the humming is most likely a wheel bearing. GD

Oh yes - just about every tool made through the 1950's was very well built. Craftsman tools were no different as they were made by US manufacturer's - though their lathes of the period were mostly made by Atlas and had gear trains made from ZAMAC - a soft die-cast material. I steered clear of those for that reason as well as the owner's of the Atlas stuff (Clausing) aren't real interested in supporting them since they import new Asian models and would rather sell you one of those. Sad that most of that stuff has been thrown away just needing a few easily produced parts like bushings and bearings. The power of marketing and sales I suppose. GD

Thanks! Can't decide if my next purchase should be a mill or a car lift GD

You'll get there - just a couple years ago I was still working out of a driveway. It all happens so fast..... Yep - I have one built right now. Just have to test it out. GD

Yeah - it lists for like $450 on Logan's web site. I didn't know what brand it was till I realized I had the original box for it and identified it by the logo on the box. Then it all made sense with the "Poland" marking on the chuck, model number, etc. It came with the manual and the factory accuracy certification card. GD

EJ's are easier to work on than EA82's. Everything is simple by comparison - no coolant flowing through the manifold, single timing belt, etc. Don't be afraid of it - they are simple. Much better than the EA82's. GD

As many of you probably don't know, I'm a bit of an enthusiast of old stuff. Especially tools that are still functional. I collect books from the 1920's through the 1960's detailing shop techniques and projects - Popular Science printed a lot of compendiums over the years. Anyway - one thing that is almost always seen in a "man's" workshop of those time periods is a lathe. Almost every other page is a picture of a man smoking his pipe while something is turning on his lathe. I've always wanted one, but the expenditure for a new one these days is considerable - especially for something that's not an Asian import - which I despise for numerous reasons. Obviously a used machine was the most economical solution - preferably something made in the US, decent sized but not a behemoth that would take up half the garage and require a crane to move. Funny thing - I was looking for the most desireble class of machine on the used market I did quite a bit of research on what brand and size machine would be the best for my needs. I ended up settling on a Logan. They are fairly plentiful, US made from 1941 to 1985 or so. And the company is still around and actively supporting them with parts, documentation, and advice. The grandson of the founder actively runs a yahoo group devoted to them in fact. I had to drive 225 miles each way to get this 1950 model #200 (10" swing, 24" between center's). The price was right and it turned out the included accesories were worth nearly as much as I paid for just the machine. According to company records it was built on 10/26/1950 and was sold to the Bell Machine Co. The man who's son I bought it from apparently aquired it in the 60's and was an alfafa farmer as well as restoring vintage Ford's in his later years - he had a Model T coupe, Model T truck, and a Model A - all 100% restored to showroom (neat to check those out while I was loading my catch). Complete with power cross-feed, quick change gear box, stand/chip tray, newer Bison (polish) chuck, and a ton of accesories - this was a top-end model in it's class in 1950. With almost 100% cast iron and steel construction it weighs in at 525 pounds. Quite a bit of dissasembly was required to move it. I've had to dissasemble and clean every bit of the machine. There are some parts that need to be rebushed, etc but the lathe can make it's own parts! And the few I can't make I can either buy new from Logan or have machined for me. My plan is to put a small VFD and a 1 HP 3 phase motor on it for variable speed control. But even the way it is it's already useful. Took about 5 minutes to turn down a pulley spacer for a Maxima alt to convert it to an EA V-belt pulley. GD