jonathan909

It's certainly seized into the bushing sleeve - that's the characteristic failure mode. So the bolt is turning - with a great deal of manual effort, a few degrees at a time. But anything more aggressive (like the impact gun) just makes a lot of noise, thanks to the rubber. Those pictures illustrate the problem. Main thing is that I'm trying to do a nondestructive removal in order to get to the tank, then bolt the suspension back up again, so the torch just turns one problem into another one. Also, as can be seen in the torchy photo, the bolt passes through a big washer before going up into the bushing, so there's no access for getting penetrant into the bottom. It's a little better on top now that I've unscrewed the bolt and opened a ~1mm gap above, but no change yet.

Clarification: The stuff in question is Subaru's "Cooling System Conditioner" - it comes in a little blue jug for a few bucks, as mentioned. It's highly regarded around here (within reasonable limits, of course), won't do any harm, and may well seal up a very small leak like this one. Absolutely worth trying.

Sure, the "snoop" thing should work. But what's wrong with just refilling it, running it up to temperature, and looking for the spray?

This is what's so maddening about this problem: Impact wrench does nothing. The impact energy gets absorbed and returned by the rubber, so you can hold the gun on there for an hour and it just gets a nice massage out of it. For penetrant I use "Yield" (now "Free") - another of GD's recommendations. Expensive and a real hassle to get, but it's good stuff.

Ah, okay, thanks. At the moment the focus is a little tight, though.

Well, I don't actually know what the construction of the bushing is, since I haven't gotten one out (yet), so I'm not at all certain there's a sleeve in there, or just the bolt.

Yeah, I was thinking about something like a silicone lube, but when it's a big bolt passing through a big bushing, it's almost certain that there's also a big cap or other piece of metal at both ends, making it hard to get it in where it's needed.

Huh? Not a plumbing issue - damage (discussed in another thread) that requires replacing the tank. It's loose, but I just don't have the clearance to slide it out.

This has to be one of the most consistent problems I've experienced working on these old(er) cars. (Unsurprisingly,) the manual is right and the rear suspension has to be dropped in order to change the tank in this '01 OBW. It looked a lot like there would be clearance to slide it forward and down to clear the floor pan without doing so, but the tank wedges on something above. So I'm proceeding conservatively - loosen/lower/unbolt without entirely removing suspension, diff, etc., if possible. The big bolts passing through rubber bushings up into the body are the problem. The threads are loose and they're unscrewing, but dragging the bushing around with it, adding a lot of effort. Is there a trick, something in a can, or other magic that helps with this - anything short of destroying the bushing?

Btw, all those exchanges about upside-down gaskets were a bit close to home. With my first EJ25D rebuild a couple of years ago I actually managed to put a head on upside-down. Had a towel on top of it so crap wouldn't fall into the ports, cleverly hiding the exhaust ports from myself - also, the timing sprockets weren't on yet. The giveaway should have been that a couple of the bolts were rubbing the holes in the gasket rather than being centered - the gaskets aren't perfectly symmetrical. Fortunately, I caught it before torquing. Not the dumbest thing I've done with a car, but up there.

That one deviated a lot into discussion of bolt re-use. But there was one guy in there who'd recycled a head gasket and won. Two data points.

The answer to that question is actually very complicated. If I'm billing it out, a lot. At the other end of the scale, there are thing I'll do for friends for free that I would refuse to accept as paying work because it's too tedious and unpleasant and/or I know the client would be a PITA. And I've done a lot of volunteer work, notably for a Bay Area performance art group, for which I not only wasn't paid, but I had to cover my own expenses, including travel. In other words, if I find something incredible enough to work on, I'll pay to do it. I do R+D and startups, so I'm wired to accept varying likelihoods of success - or failure. I don't as a rule undertake something that has a high probability of failure, but again, there can be mitigating factors that make it acceptably attractive, like the people I get to work with and what we might learn along the way. This is sort of in that group. I know the odds of "success" are poor, but as we seem to have learned so far in this conversation, there may well be zero extant data points, and the idea of gathering the first is kind of attractive to me. I get that many here, and you in particular, may find this a bu!!sh!t argument - I understand completely. And (esp. now that it's almost summer) I've got a lot of important stuff on my plate, so I'm not in a big rush to do this. Just keeping it in mind should the the opportunity, inclination, and a little extra time coincide.

Again, not the question.

Thanks, that's where I used to hang out before immigrating here. Appears to be a good price, but still a little dear for this rustbucket. I'll keep it in mind as the job progresses.

Not at all (conclusively diagnosed, that is). I'm just doing the anticipatory legwork based on your initial answer. I'm under there now, unbolting crap (tank covers, exhaust, propeller shaft), getting ready to unhook the tank, and hoping that the manual is wrong in telling me I have to drop the entire rear suspension, because it sorta looks like if the front of the tank tilts down enough to clear the floor pan the front of the diff might not actually be in the way. A girl can dream... We have a few self-serve yards, but honestly, the weather here has been so damn miserable. Normally there's one late spring honker of a snowstorm - a foot of the heaviest and wettest that takes down trees and power lines and that's the end of it - but this year there's some kind of torture underway. Hovering around 0C, light snow on and off every day, cold wind, winter just saying screw you I'm not leaving. Not the most desirable time to be crawling around in the boneyard.

BZZZT! Sorry, that's not the right answer! But Vanna has some lovely parting gifts for you. They don't have the KYB springs, whether with or without the strut. Struts and mounts only. That's why I was looking for some feedback on the springs they do have. Please trust that I'm not trying to bring all this wrong-side-of-the-border tedium to your lives. I just want some parts...

They list the KYBs - cheaper than Rock, actually - but not with springs. And... wait for it... Do You Ship Internationally? We do not ship outside the United States. We only ship to the Continental 48 states. On some products shipped by air freight we can ship to Alaska and Hawaii. We do not ship to Canada, Guam, Puerto Rico, or to any international destination. We also do not ship to freight forwarding companies or hotels.

Rock has KYB for the struts (and mounts if needed), so I'm fine there. It's the springs that are the hard(er) part. Honestly, I doubt many of you fully grasp the misery of getting stuff over the border these days. Either shipping is exhorbitant or sellers won't ship here at all. For those cases I have a friend with a Montana mailbox (he lives just a few minutes north of the border). But even though he got a commercial carrier permit so he could fetch stuff from it, the feds changed the rules, forced him into quarantine (despite having come into contact with nobody during the hour he was in the US), and threatened lose-your-house sized fines. So now we've got six or eight months worth of stuff piled up there that we can't get. Which is why - as much as their super-low prices - I like buying from Rock. They ship here via fedex without breaking the bank.

At least I can get that stuff here - I wanted to get a couple of cans of their MP HD (on your recommendation) and found it's not sold in Soviet Canuckistan. Had to smuggle 'em in from Montana two summers ago.

FYI, dealer just quoted $85 USD for each spring and $135 USD for each mount. For comparison, Rock carries API at $32 USD or Moog at $43 (plus $18 shipping) per PAIR of springs, so $20-$25 vs. $85 per spring. We're talking >3x the price to buy OEM locally. I asked previously whether anyone could offer any opinions on the API or Moog, but nobody answered that one. Also, there are two different API parts listed - w/ and w/o "self-leveling suspension". How do I tell whether that applies? They also have the KYB top mounts for $22 ea, so that one's easy if any are needed.

...though this body is by far the worse of the two '01 H6 OBWs. The fender rust is uncharacteristically severe, so I really hope I don't find terrible things when I get up in there to unbolt the struts. A little strange, actually, because the POs were both (only two, I think) local.

Yes, I've done a few - both front and back (and a couple of non-Subaru). Again, one of those things I don't do often enough for it to be "natural" and I usually seem to make one minor mistake or another during reassembly and have to recompress the spring - just dumb not-paying-attention stuff. I don't think I've ever replaced a top perch, and just used Rock cheapies (FCI?) in non-demanding applications. I'll check with the dealer shortly, but to date have found that "not priced outrageously" does not necessarily apply north of the border.

"Meets or exceeds OEM specifications" indeed.

Any thoughts on aftermarket springs (i.e. API, MOOG)? I'll check with the dealer tomorrow, but based on past experience I don't expect any love from those guys.

Feynman's actual van! Not a realistic depiction of working with thermite, though. You don't light that stuff with a match...