raleigh800

Are the Gates kits off e bay a good kit? I also see MizumoAuto. Amazon carries Evergreen Performance kits that come with a water pump brand of Aisin? Looking for something that will last awhile.

I needed new tires and given I live on a pretty rough dirt road and have a secondary road with 7 stream crossing I can use to get to work I decided a decent off road tire would be nice. I found a lot of good info on this site and others regarding different tire sizes that would fit but never saw anything with the exact combo I was looking for. so I thought I would share the setup I ended up with. I have a 1996 Legacy Outback Wagon that a previous owner put 16" rims on. I ordered 235/65R16 General Grabber AT2's for that online tire rack place for 525.00 shipped. Attached are a couple pictures showing the front and back of the car, as well as the strut to tire clearance. It's tight but I haven't had any rubbing. A 1" lift kit is on my to do list "just because" ;-)

I replaced the ball joints on both sides of my 96 OBW recently. The drivers side practically fell out of the A-arm. The passenger side, not so much. So looking around the garage for a tool to use to help persuade the ball joint out I found something that would work. First a ton of master blaster was sprayed in the joint. I used a pipe wrench to get it to spin in the knuckle so I knew it was loose. I just needed a way to pull it out. A 2" hole saw just happens to be the perfect size. I kept adding washers as the ball joint started to come out of the knuckle. Once it was out I tested the hole saw and it still cut round holes in 2x4's. Hopefully this will come in handy if run across any stubborn ball joints.

Found this utube video on a forum somewhere, I forgot due to the amount of searches I've been doing lately. It worked very well. I used the alternator belt, wrapped around the alternator and the crank pulley, then double it back as shown in the video and the picture I attached. Not as exciting as bumping the starter but it got the job done.

The engine forum looks pretty dead so I am starting here with my question. I bought a 1996 Legacy Outback Wagon last year with 250,000 miles on it. It ran great. I changed all the fluids in the car, replaced all the brakes, new front axle, new ball joints, tie rod ends and boots on the rack and pinion, new plugs and filters. Doing the timing belt was on the list. The previous owner thought it was done but couldn't remember. So I've been driving it daily and planning when to do the belt. Well the belt broke last week a mile from home. So I am going to get a kit with the idlers, belt, water pump and cam seals. The motor has a small oil leak somewhere so I am in the process of pulling it out now, just need to make room in the garage for the engine stand. Here's the questions: what else should I look at doing? new valve cover gaskets? head gaskets? rear main Seals? valve job? valve seals? resurface heads? I've rebuilt several Chevy 350's and a couple ford 302's back in the late 90's but never a subaru. I don't plan on a full rebuild but since the motors out.... By the way it was get 21mpg with general at grabbers, 215/65r16's with A 5MT in town and close to 25mpg on long interstate trips. I thought that was good mileage compared to my truck at 12mpg. Thanks in advance for any info and suggestions.

130k+ and this is the result. Last 2 owners never replaced the Tbelt. It was on my to do list, and is now a #1 priority.