musubk

Late update here, but I've been doing a lot of traveling recently and only today got this problem solved. I thought I'd update here for the sake of closure. The flywheel pilot bearing had partially come apart; all the ball bearings were still in place but the 'side' wall that covers the bearings was missing and a fragment of inner bearing race had broken off and wedged itself between the friction disc and pressure plate, preventing the two parts from being able to move independently, effectively making the friction disc and pressure plate into a single joined part. Therefore my symptom of pushing the clutch pedal, and seeing the cable move the top of the release fork, but it never actually releasing and letting me shift. I had a new clutch kit on hand today because I wasn't sure what I'd find in there, so I replaced the shattered pilot bearing and threw the new friction disc / pressure plate in as well, and she drives beautifully now.

I think I found someone on one of the facebook groups to send me another fork, but it'll probably be a couple weeks before I can get in there and see for sure if that's the problem. I just can't see any issues at the pedal assembly or with the cable. I want to have a new clutch/PP/TO bearing on hand when I open it up, just in case the problem is with one of those.

I just did and I can't see anything cracked or flexing there, it looks solid.

No I didn't, I guess I've learned a lesson on that.

I think your guess is a good one though. I don't see or feel anything out of the ordinary with the cable or pedal, and I can see the top of the fork moving when a friend presses the pedal, so the problem has to be either down at the bottom of the fork or somehow with the pressure plate. The pressure plate and TO bearing are new this summer, and there's no TO noise coming out of it.

Are those forks available new? Do you happen to know a part number? What do people do to fix this? Try to weld in some reinforcement on the fork? I have a new fork for a 1988 wagon. Completely different trans, I know, but any chance that would work?

I just stacked 6 washers under the clutch cable adjustment, then tightened the adjustment all the way in, and still no difference. It did feel stiffer. I also tried it while the cable was completely disconnected. It makes absolutely no difference how the cable is adjusted or if the cable is even connected at all. Something must be wrong in the clutch/pressure plate area.

Okay, back to this problem again. It's been driving fine since I last posted here, but it started doing it again today. I can't see any crack at the pedal box, but it's hard to see up in there so I could be missing something. But the pedal feels the same as always, the throw doesn't feel hard or wobbly or out-of-whack in any way. It just... doesn't fully disengage the clutch. It happened when I drove to the gas station. All was fine, I started the car to leave, and suddenly the problem is here. I drove the mile back home, shut the car off, restarted and the problem was gone. I get a few miles down the road and it's back again. It's very hard to get into gear from a standstill, grinding on every shift if I don't rev-match perfectly, and pretty much impossible to get into reverse with the engine running. Sitting still, in gear with the clutch pedal pressed all the way, the car wants to move forward and I have to hold the brake to stay still. I've tried adjusting the cable at the clutch fork and it seems to make little difference no matter where I adjust it. If I tighten the adjustment all the way to where it's bottomed out (around 6 full turns tighter than usual), it still behaves exactly the same. I'm thinking the problem has to be at the release lever or the clutch disc / pressure plate. Has anyone else out there had a similar problem before?

Winter in Fairbanks, a Subaru's natural environment: Flaunt it by Jason Ahrns, on Flickr 1977 Subaru Wagon by Jason Ahrns, on Flickr 1977 Subaru Wagon by Jason Ahrns, on Flickr

When I left work today it was back to its normal (relatively) smooth-shifting self, so I'm not sure what to think of it. The gear oil of unknown age and condition probably isn't doing me any favors in this weather, so I should probably change it out.

I was driving my 1977 wagon around the last few nights and it was shifting nice and smooth, then last night it started getting harder, as if the clutch wasn't fully disengaging. I thought the underhood cable adjustment must have loosened up a bit so I tightened it a turn or so, which made little difference. I get in the car to drive today and it's worse, I basically have to just ram it into gear and grind any time I go into 1st or reverse, the others I can usually get with a little rev matching, as if it's still a clutch adjustment problem. But I started tightening the adjustment screw and still no difference, so for an experiment I tightened it ALL the way until it bottomed out, which was around 6 full turns in from where I was previously, and it still made no difference. Any idea what's going on here? Today is the coldest weather I've driven the car in so far (~5F), is it maybe just a known problem with these cars and cold weather shifting?

That seems likely. It was a tight fit and I used a hammer and punch tapping around the edges to get it seated, and accidentally seated it too far and had to tap it back out a bit too. Maybe when I get it back out I'll just take it to a shop with a press and pay a few bucks to have them swap the bearing.

Now there's a horrible squealing noise coming from the bellhousing. It goes away when the clutch cable is slack but starts if I tighten it up, and changes when I hit the clutch pedal. Throwout bearing? It's a new bearing though. Maybe it didn't get seated correctly?

Well this is embarrassing. It turns out there was nothing wrong with the alternator at all, I just forgot to plug it back in after reinstalling the engine.

^^^that's a pretty coupe... I had my hubs redrilled to 4x114 and fit these Enkei Apache II wheels, along with a set of the smallest Blizzaks that Bridgestone sells. So that's a 15x7 wheel with 38mm offset , and 185/55r15 tires. They seem to fit but it's pretty tight on the inside edge of the rear. I've got some 14mm spacers I can throw on the rear if I have problems but I'm going to see if I can get by without them. Wagon build log 30 by Jason Ahrns, on Flickr

Well she runs just fine with a hotwired fuel pump, but the 'charge' light on the dash stays lit. I guess that confirms it's new alternator time. I also found a lot of arcing from the coil tower to the +/- terminals on the coil. I'm actually really impressed though. The car hasn't run in more than a month and it's been pretty cold here lately - around 5F last night and today's high was still below freezing - but it started up pretty much instantly.

I don't think I'll have time to diagnose tonight, but tomorrow I'll get back to it and figure out if it's the alternator or possibly the pump. Are there any alternators that tend to last longer, or should I just buy whatever I can get and expect to replace it often?

I've been searching and I found some posts saying the fuel pump might be shutting off because either the alternator or the voltage regulator is bad. Both of those parts were replaced this summer but I guess I could try hotwiring the fuel pump and see if the problem goes away.

I'm having a problem with the EA71 in my 1977 wagon. I had the car running on a new Weber carb and was using it as a daily driver for about two weeks. The clutch was slipping and there was some oil leaking so I pulled the engine to install a new clutch and oil seals, now since reinstalling the engine I can't get it running again. When I try to start it, it fires right up as if there's no problem, then somewhere within 5 to 20 seconds it suddenly slows down and dies. It kind of sounds like it's running out of fuel, but there is fuel in the tank. The only other thing I did while the engine was out, is remove the EGR pipe and cap the vacuum port on the EGR valve, and I removed the 'vacuum control valve' because I think it only was used for EGR. I have just enough time to check the timing with a light before it dies and the timing looks good. Any ideas what my problem might be?

I don't really have any good engine bay pics yet, I still have a few hoses left over from the Weber swap that I need to take care of, and clean everything in there up, then I'll get some good shots of it. It's a lot easier to cold start now with the MSD installed. I used to have to crank it for 10 seconds, now it turns over almost instantly. I'm not sure how much it really helped beyond that. I had issues with misfiring under load and I think the MSD helped a little there, but the Weber made the biggest difference there. Cleaning and rebuilding the stock carb probably would have helped a lot too, but I decided to just go for the Weber.

I did paint it myself, my first time painting a car. I was expecting it to be not so good but it came out pretty nice.

I hope nobody minds if I start posting a lot in this thread now Wagon at Murphy Dome by Jason Ahrns, on Flickr Wagon at Murphy Dome by Jason Ahrns, on Flickr Wagon at Murphy Dome by Jason Ahrns, on Flickr

In the past three months my 1977 wagon has come a long way. Look three posts up in this thread to see where I started! It's undergone some cutting and filling of rust holes, a new paint job, coaxing the old engine back into running shape, and it's registered and street legal for the first time since 1984. I've been daily driving it for the last week and it's great. This weekend I installed a Weber and an MSD ignition. I'm still trying to track down the cause of a part-throttle miss/stumble and occasional backfire; I'm hoping that will be solved once I've tracked down all the vacuum leaks and get a new exhaust built, the current exhaust is rusted through and falling apart in many places. And I've got a few boxes with new brake parts ready to go on when I have the time, plus I still have some aftermarket wheels in the plans. First time on the road by Jason Ahrns, on Flickr First time on the road by Jason Ahrns, on Flickr First time on the road by Jason Ahrns, on Flickr First time on the road by Jason Ahrns, on Flickr

I have a 1977 I'm trying to put back on the road after years of neglect. I have it running and driving but it needs brakes. I've read a little bit about using the calipers and vented rotors from a 1983+ car. Since I'm going to be replacing rotors and calipers anyway and those have better availability, this seems like what I want to do. Can anyone confirm what I need for this conversion? I've read just calipers/rotors on a 'stage 2' first gen but the info seems unclear on 'stage 1'. I think my 1977 with dual headlights is a stage 1, right? I read something about swapping on EA81 knuckles to make the calipers work. Has anyone here done that?

el_freddo is exactly right, it's mostly accomplished via using the lift blocks as adapters. I did it because EA82 replacement parts are a bit easier to find, and the wider stance of the EA82 front end with the strut tops in the narrower EA81 strut towers is effectively like running a camber plate and gives me a couple of degrees of negative camber in the front. Not 'stance' style but just enough to be able to see it. I like it a lot more than the normal positive camber these old Subarus seem to have. Details on how the front end fit together are in these two videos: