SakoTGrimes

For those of you who don't know, a few weeks ago I bought an 82 wagon that had been sitting in some guy's backyard for 8 months but "ran fine" for $50. Upon pouring water into the radiator it spilled out of every imaginable orifice, indicating a blown headgasket. The oil pan being filled with chocolate pudding (water/oil puree) further reinforced that idea. Plus, the engine wouldn't turn over more than twice. Fast f1orward to yesterday when I decide to de-emission the engine and lose lots of other crap it doesn't need in preperation to yank it out and fix stuff. I pulled off the valve cover breathers (one was capped off, duh!) and turned the engine over by hand. Chocolate pudding litterally poured out of them in big nasty gobs every rotation for many rotations. Then I realized the 3rd eye wasn't plugged in, so for kicks I plugged it in and borrowed the Brat's battery to see if it worked. It didn't.... but the engine did. Defying several laws of physics and amazing the crap out of me, the spark plugs which were terribly fouled caused explosions in the cylinders which had been full of pudding for eight months. She ran like crap blowing smoke with 2 blown headgaskets, no radiator and no alternator for about 30 seconds, but she did indeed run. I am in complete disbelief. SUBARU FTW!

Normally when one of us wants to swap in a diesel it's into our 4WD EA car for offroad use, and the problem is figuring how to hook up the new engine to our weird Subaru transaxles. But if all you wanna do is paved driving and get really good milage / burn veggie then you can just use the FWD trans that the VW came with - all you'd really have to do is find places to mount all the peices. On a somewhat related note.... it seems like every RWD American car ever built can accept just about any other American L6, V6 or V8... are American automakers more consistant with their engine/transmission bolt pattern or is it that there's just a huge aftermarket for conversions?

Other things to not use JB Weld on: radiator to hose connections and plastic fan blades:dead:

My stepdad and I were working with it and he pulled off the sliders. We tried and tried but couldn't get them back on at all, not with the little angled things in them anyway. But even if I could get them back on the piston is still way way out; it touches the rotor if I bolt the caliper on and using a clamp and crowbar didn't budge it (may have helped if that resevoir thing in the back was cast instead of rubber). I'm not sure if it's all original but I want to replace it anyways. To get home I tied the caliper to the inside of the wheel out of the axles way and put the wheel on backwards so it wouln't hit the brakes. Ultra ghetto, I know but it worked. Thanks for the info, I'll mess with it some more and get some new parts.

"To remove the pads you need to take the cap off the master cylinder, and use a big C clamp OR a long screwdriver to start to pry apart the pads. Somone here will have more detailed information on how to do it properly. Once you can get the caliper off (which is held on by a single bolt at the bottom of the caliper) you can swing the calipeer up and screw the piston in." Odd. All I had to do was unscrew the 2 17mm bolts on the back of the caliper and the 2 pads came out easily. I'm guessing the piston is the white thing that phisically pushes the pad onto the rotor right? Can I lubricate that or is it not worth trying to fix?

A couple weeks ago I noticed my Brat was really hard to move and something was dragging so I went right back home. Jacked er up and pulled off the wheel to find the brake pads clamped down on the rotor and I could barely turn the wheel by hand (I had to wait about an hour just to touch them they were so hot) So just to get the car around I've taken out the pads (which have tons of life left in them) which isn't really that safe. Problem is I couldn't tell what to turn/tighten/loosen or whatever to get the pads to retract so they won't drag on the rotor. What am I supposed to do?

Exactly. I buy and accept free cars I don't want if only to use for parts or pass on to other enthusiasts. Zebisko, you'll get first dibs on the third eye if I part it. I'm pretty sure all I have to do is have the guy I got it from sign a paper that says I bought it from him and apply for a lost title.

They look like the wrong pattern - 4x100 instead of 4x140

For 360s - blue For Gen-1 wagons, Brats - cream white, light yellow or red - orange for coupes For Gen-2 and 3 wagons - moss and sage green, light metallic blue For EA81 sedans - white But whatever the color, a Subaru is still a Subaru and still rocks (how disgustingly politician of me)

Note: this is not the same Ru I just posted in for sale. Craigslist: Dodge Neon and Subaru wagon, take both for $200. When I got ahold of him he had sold the Neon for $150 and I said I could take the Ru for fiddy bucks. SOLD! The good: Third eye, plaid seats, 4 speed d/r, straight white body, 2 BRAND NEW tires, spiffy 4 spoke steering wheel, doors lock and windows go up/down, ultra downforce wing on hatch The bad: "Owner" got in a fight with his room mate and headed east. Room mate sold car to friend for $50 and friend sold it to me. Translation: registration might be difficult or impossible. Needs battery, possible blown head gasket (oil looks like chocolate syrup), needs upper radiator hose seal, torn seats, some jerry rigged and hacked wires, no radio My neighbor/buddy/former USMBer Sean and me towed it to my place about an hour ago in the dark with no lights which was pretty hilarious. I might give it to him cause he helps me a ton with my Brat. I'm stoked. Woot!

True dat. Just wave whatever YOU want to pay in front of them and say "x$, take it or leave it." Even an idiot wouldn't pay $1900 for a 380K car and the dealership probably doesn't know what they have anyway.

Bump?

You realize that's $400 a guage..... right? You crazy jeebus.

I found the two things I think are fusible links - a red and a green cloth covered wire right? They looked OK, but... Say I wanted to make myself a temporary jerry rig fix... could I run a wire from the battery directly to the ignition switch or something else? Just to get the car going for now?

I'm pretty sure the splines grooves getting stripped was my doing because of how I didn't tighten the lugnuts and castle nut before and the wheel got all wobbly. The spindle splines on the left rear wheel (the troublesome one) are somewhat more worn down than the right side, but the new drum fits very snugly on it with no wobbling. I did not adjust my brake shoes or anything, I just put the new drums on. Don't know how to "adjust" them but my shoes are unevenly worn and I need to get new ones anyway, it's on my list of things to do. What's strange is that it sounds and feels like something is lightly hitting something else every wheel rotation when braking, like something is "stuck" on the drum or shoe. My car's not going anywhere til I take care of the ignition thing so I will pull off all the wheels in a while and check for foreign objects.

The other day I tried to pull out my instrument cluster to figure out why the dash lights (for the gauges) don't come on. I couldn't get it out because of the speedo cable but I did unplug a few things and put them back where they were. Now when I turn the key nothing happens. No oil or brake lights, no cranking, nothing. All my fuses are good, I couldn't seem to find anything that looked like a fusible link under the hood... There was a wire that someone had cut before so I connected it back to where it was from the factory. I'm at a loss to what I could have done to cause this. I didn't cut or modify anything.......

I just put on my new drums (still need new shoes) I made sure everything, king nut and all are tightened down extra good, but there's a knock sound that I can feel in the pedal when I brake harder than lightly. It happens once per wheel rotation and I think it's coming from the wheel that stripped the old drum. What's going on back there?

That thing looks brand new! Did you paint it? And does the rest of your Brat look that good?

Good to hear your wife's going to be OK. She is OK, right? I think the Soob should have done a little more in the way of protecting her, it doesn't look as beat up as it should to me.:-\

Using my favorite new toy, Google Earth, I've found a picture of the hellhole I got lost in and made a map. Of course I started at "Brat" I ran along the red line til I got picked up by some nice ladies where the blue starts and they drove me to Autozone. The moment I leave the store is when I became lost, so I run along the other red line to the fire station, and run/walk to the second blue line where I got picked up by a guy in a truck. I know it looks like a short ride (that distance is a guess too) but he drove me several miles. The end of the last red line is where the bar is, and where I headed back to the 7-Eleven where I finially figured out where I was and took a cab back to the Brat. Fun, huh? BTW, I am 99% sure the placement of landmarks are correct, I worked on this for at least 2 hours.

You'll be back! THEY ALWAYS COME BACK!

Nah, ghetto is having a carburetor cleaner can cut off on one end, a hole poked in the other and stuffed with (what's that wire that comes in soft clumps?) hose clamped to your exhaust pipe that gets ripped off the day after you get it on there!

This is my fault. I didn't tighten down all the lugnuts when I got the car, so they came loose and the wheel dulled the stud threads. In order to put on the new studs I took off the brake drum. I didn't get that on tight enough and there was no cotter pin to hold it in so it came loose. Drove on the freeway with a wobbly wheel and totally stripped all the spline grooves out of the hub, looks like a 2WD hub now very smooth. (splines on the spindle are fine though) I still need to drive until my new hubs arrive and I re-tighten the hub nut often since it comes loose just from driving. Anyway when I'm driving it makes loud clunking noises, especially in reverse, braking makes it worse. Am I going to have to change more than the hub? Nothing else looks worn out or broken. And somewhat related, what tool/size do I use to get the plugs out of the rear diff so I can make sure it's full? That being dry would make noise too.

When I am cursed with driving an automatic... I stick it in neutral if I have a long hill to coast down or if I'm going to be stuck in traffic for more than 30 seconds or so. According to owners manuals, you should only do it when you're going to be stopped for several minutes, but some of us don't like keeping our foot on the brake. It's fine to do, just don't treat it like a clutch if that's what you're used to driving, putting it in neutral at every stop or anything.

I think the lug holes on alloys are bigger and reverse cone shaped, so a flat nut would damage the edges. I think. Your wagon is alloy'd right?