Syonyk

Interesting. Anyone here have a good standing relationship with an ancient Subaru tech at a dealer that might be able to shed some light on this? Thinking about it, I'm 99% sure that the cam cover o-rings on my '88 DL were just plain rubber ones. I had to replace one because it was dumping (literally) a stream of oil out. I replaced it with a plain rubber one, and just took the pieces of the old one in to match. It was in a few pieces, but I'm quite sure I'd remember if it had metal somewhere in it (and wouldn't have replaced it with a plain rubber one). Who has found metal rings? Or, are the metal ones holding up well enough that very few people have had to replace them? -=Russ=-

I believe you have the right idea, but to clarify the cam timing process: 1. Remove the timing inspection cover, set the flywheel at the middle of the three scribe marks. 2. Set the driver's side cam pulley. The small hole in the pulley (the odd one) will point straight up, either at the notch in the timing belt cover, or lined up with the cam case/valve cover joint. 3. Install the driver's side timing belt. The bottom side of this belt is the tension side, so this must be tight when installing it. 4. Rotate the crankshaft 360 degrees to line up with the scribe marks again. The mark on the driver's side pulley should be pointing straight down. 5. Line the passenger's side cam pulley up. The mark should be pointing straight up, either at the notch in the timing belt cover, or lined up with the cam case/valve cover joint. 6. Install the passenger's side timing belt. The top side of this belt is the tension side, and is the side that must be tight when the belt is installed. At this point, you tighten the tensioners, rotate the engine a few turns to make sure everything stays lined up (if there's slack that causes things to be off a tooth, you'll see things not staying lined up properly after a rotation or two), and crank. It should fire right up. -=Russ=-

Yes, it does. And that would be the "trick" I was missing - I had been looking for a 3/8" square hole or such to tension it with (similar to many serpentine belt setups), but didn't see anything. I'll check tomorrow morning before work and see if I can get it taken care of. Thanks! -=Russ=-

I replaced the accessory belts when I did the oil pump (since everything was apart anyway). Everything is back together (I'll do the waterpump next week), but the AC belt isn't tight enough. With the alternator, I used my normal trick of wedging a long wrench in, prying to tighten it, and locking down the adjuster. The AC belt seems to be tensioned by the idler pulley with a long extension bar type nut on it. I've pushed it as hard as I can, and it's still too loose - there's a really nasty squeal from the belt when I turn the AC on, and I can feel the belt is too loose. How do I tension this properly? I can't find a good place to pry on things. -=Russ=-

Mine does this too to some extent. You might want to check the output values of the coolant temperature sensor & TPS - if they're off, the engine will start to have trouble when it's cold. -=Russ=-

Which Subarus have the timing belt driving the water pump? I've had this discussion with enough people now that I'm really confused/annoyed. And I think I'm going to be doing the water pump next weekend or so, I don't have much time tomorrow to work on it (work, then the stupid sun goes down), and I need it running. -=Russ=-

1. Do I have to get the AC bracket out of the way to replace the water pump? It appears so - I can't get to the hard coolant line or the small line feeding the water pump. 2. How do I get the AC bracket out of the way? -=Russ=-

Great! Glad we could help to get you rolling (and stopping) again! -=Russ=-

Mark? It's a hole in the pulley. It's not hard to see. In a nutshell: Set the flywheel to the proper position. There are three scribed lines near the timing marks (but not the timing marks). Set the pointer to the middle line. Set one of the camshafts to the proper position - the small hole should be pointing straight up. This lines up with either the mark in the rear timing belt cover, or if you don't have that, with the cam cover/valve cover seam. Put the belt on, make sure the tension side of it is tight and things are lined up. Rotate the engine 360 degrees to line up with the middle mark again. Set the other camshaft with the mark pointing straight up. Make sure the tension side is tight. Tighten the tensioners, fire up, and away you go. -=Russ=-

The issue that I've heard with converting a R-12 system is that the newer refrigerant is not as efficient. On a car designed for it, it will have a somewhat larger condensor & evaporator than a car designed for R-12. My AC has trouble keeping up when it's really hot (it blows cold air, but there's just a lot of car to cool), so converting to R134a won't help this any. Honestly, I think tint will take care of the issues - reduce the solar load significantly, and the AC shouldn't have a problem. -=Russ=-

Can't say I've had it out of the car. I'm not sure I'd want to do that either, I still have the factory R-12 charge in, and getting that stuff dealt with is expensive. :-/ I don't think it was smoked in, but it could probably use a cleaning. -=Russ=-

Oh, I didn't know Max was recirculating. Sweet. I knew that the blower moved more air with it in max, but I figured it was somehow just hitting the blower with more POWARH! I guess that means I really do need tint. It blows cold, and the system is charged, but it just has a hard time keeping up on 95+ degree days in the sun. -=Russ=-

Is there a way to retrofit the recycled air feature into a wagon that didn't come with it? My AC has a hard time keeping up with 100F ambient air temperatures sometimes. -=Russ=-

If the rotor does not spin when you crank the motor, the driver's side timing belt is broken. The good news is that these are non-interferance engines, so you can just replace the timing belts & go - the internals are fine. Do a search for timing belt replacement, and look in the USRM - it's an easy job for anyone moderately mechanically competent. -=Russ=-

Are all the wheels locking up, or just one? Jack the car up, hit the brakes to lock things up, and try to spin the wheels. If it's only one wheel, it's either a sticking caliper/wheel cylinder, or a bad soft line (if the inside creates a "flap", it can work as check valve). If it's all the wheels, it's most likely master cylinder related. If the pushrod on the vacuum booster is extended too far, the master cylinder will not fully release, and you'll get this behavior. It's also possible that the hill holder is sticking, but that should only affect one wheel. Find out which wheels it involves, and then we'll go from there. -=Russ=-

It beats "You're going to have that stain cleaned off the cement when you move out, right?" My old GL... leaked. Everything. Mostly oil, but there was some power steering fluid, and then the nice stains of brake fluid from when I was working on the brakes. Three hours with a powerwasher later... it was mostly clean. -=Russ=-

Do you know why the head gaskets blew again? If not, you might want to check the mating surfaces for flatness again. As for removing old gasket bits, my personal method is a can of carb cleaner, a pair of good rubber gloves, some paper towel, and a razor blade based gasket scraper. Spray all the stuck-on-gasket with carb cleaner. Put a few layers of paper towel over it. Blast the paper towel to keep the gasket soaking wet for a while. Let it sit for half an hour or so in a windfree area. Remove the paper towel, gently use the gasket scraper - don't scrape the aluminum. The wet stuff should peal right off. If you get down to a dry layer, respray/resoak/repeat. -=Russ=-

Line 3 shouldn't be coming from the brake booster - it's a high pressure brake line. It probably goes to the rear of the car (there's a splitter back there). As near as I can tell, you have drum brakes in the rear. Have you adjusted the slack of the brake shoes? I don't know what kind of slack adjuster you have, but if there's a lot of travel needed before the shoes contact the drum, you'll have problems like this that no amount of bleeding will fix. To my knowledge, there are two types of slack adjusters on the rear: Star wheel types (that are manually adjusted), and a ratcheting type (that should be automatically adjusting). If the slack adjuster is missing, seized, or fully retracted, the wheel cylinder will have to travel quite a bit to make contact with the drum, and this can take multiple pedal presses. Once it firms up, is it a hard pedal? Air in the brake lines will come across as softness, even once things make contact. If it takes a few presses and then is a hard pedal, it's most likely caused by excessive play somewhere in the system. Also, when you were replacing the wheel unit, did the master cylinder run dry? If there was always fluid in the reservoir, the gentle flow towards the rear from gravity will keep the lines mostly air-free (and just make a big mess on the driveway - I do miss working in a gravel parking lot), so you just have to bleed the wheel cylinder. If the master cylinder did run dry, then... you've got air in a lot of places it shouldn't be, and good luck getting it all out. I've heard a few hours of gravity bleed can help in that situation (open all the bleeders & let them flow, add fluid as needed to keep the master cylinder level up). -=Russ=-

Thanks for all the suggestions - I've done video work before, so I have an idea of what's involved. I wasn't planning a huge production - most likely just video with voiceovers & some simple graphics/figures as needed. -=Russ=-

I'm pondering putting together a DVD of "service howtos" for old gen Subarus (initially EA82 stuff, because that's what I have). It would cover the basics of maintenance/repair on these cars - topics I was thinking of including: Oil/filter change Coolant flush Timing belts Accessory belts Alternator replacement Oil pump replacement Water pump replacement Axle replacement Brake work (both disk & drum in the rear) Tuneups (plugs/wires/cap/rotor/etc) Door disassembly And other assorted things as needed, potentially having a "beginner" and "advanced" set. I'd be selling these for somewhere in the $20 range. I might also have a downloadable version or something (buy access, get the videos as needed). Is this something people would buy? I know old gen people are as a rule broke, so it's a good crowd to pitch to. My thought is that while the USRM is a wonderful resource, many people learn better by watching, and I think it would become clear just how simple things can be if you've got a DVD to watch of the process. Thoughts? Suggestions? -=Russ=-

Do you have drums or disks in the back? I didn't think many Loyales came with 4 wheel disks. Also, the rear calipers on a disk setup don't need to be turned in - the parking brake is in the front. -=Russ=-

Wonderful info! I noticed that my Loyale showed almost no underbody rust compared to my GL, but I attributed this to the fact that it was undercoated at some point. -=Russ=-

I agree, but I just hate sitting on the side of a road going, "Well... crap. Should have taken care of that a while ago." Also, I disagree that all components will give warning before failing. Some stuff just fails in a hurry (alternators come to mind). Also, replacing stuff early means you have a known good spare that will at least get you home if needed. -=Russ=-

It's a fuel pulsation damper, and it's safe to remove/seal the end. Or you can replace the fuel pump - it's part of the fuel pump assembly. A new pump is around $150, pulling that off & plugging the hole with some sort of solder/braze/whatever you have is a lot cheaper. -=Russ=-

Ignition coils, despite being purely electronic devices, can and do fail. I don't know if old Subies eat coils, but other vehicles can and do go through coils at a fairly regular clip. My mileage is based on when stuff failed on me. I'm sure there are parts that can go longer, but if we can get a general idea of when stuff fails, it would be useful. I've had two water pumps start leaking right around 145k miles. I had a factory alternator quit around 135k miles. So I'd be inclined to say that a water pump, in general, can't be expected to last 150k miles. -=Russ=-