azdave

I have power door locks with a remote and love it. If you manually lock or unlock the driver's door from inside (without using the remote) all the other door lock and unlock as well. I used the same kits in my 87 Mazda B2000 and several of my Corvairs too. Hardly any of my cars have power widows so I don't really mind the manual window cranks. I just added a cargo carrier so I can look the part around town and off road but it's kind of big so I might swap it out to a roof top basket and reduce the wind resistance as well.

It was a Rock Auto deal. I think most of them are from the same vendor with different labels added by the sellers. It had a warranty until I was carrying it into the garage and snapped off the overflow tube when I hit it on the door frame. I was able to fix the overflow tube and then un-crimp, reset the gasket and re-crimp the tank tabs and it has held 15 PSI for over a week so I'll have it as a spare for now. Good price! I appreciate the offer but with my solder repairs holding after several hundred miles and the new "defective" radiator seemingly repaired, I'll go with what I have for now but thanks.

I'm stopping in this thread to say thanks to KiwiGL for posting about his repairs and mods. It keeps me inspired to work on mine. I added central locking to all the doors on my 87 DL wagon as well as added a hidden switch to disable the fuel pump. As for being crazy to repair a EA82? Well, I've been called worse. I actually enjoy the challenge to daily drive a 35 year old import which is easier to deal with since I have a backup vehicle available. Everything has limits of course but so far, I'm still rocking the EA82 and enjoying it so far.

That will be my next move if this one leaks to the point where I can't repair it or if it can't handle the A/C heat load next summer. I have no idea if modern tube and fin cores would match up or cause fitment issues. I have a shop down the street that builds them but they aren't cheap.

At 35 years old and 250,000 miles, I know there will always be something on my 87 DL wagon that needs some attention but it sure gets old fixing the new stuff I just installed. I don't mind repairing old, worn out parts but it is so irritating when new parts fail after only a few months. I went through at least 3 electric fuel pumps before I found one that was reliable. Now this week it was my 4 month old plastic/aluminum radiator that puked its guts. It cooled better than the very old, leaky brass radiator that came with the car so I was happy I changed it out. Unfortunately, the compression seal on the passenger side tank let go and it opened up a seam about 5'' long and dumped plenty of antifreeze down my driveway. It wasn't an over-pressure issue as the relief cap was new and also tested properly on the bench. I suspect that the rubber seal is low quality and it slowly squeezed out of the joint over time. It could also be that the compression seal was not up to snuff. I ended up repairing the old brass radiator that came with the car and so far, so good. It had 3 small tank leaks that I was able to silver-solder. It passed an overnight pressure test at 15 PSI. The winter season here should be no challenge for any radiator but we'll see in the summer how it does(if it makes it that far). The aftermarket radiator did seem much better at running cooler. My other repair this week was the driver's window crank. I recently became that guy at the drive-through who has to open the door to order and pick up food. I suddenly could not get the window up or down and the crank handle was now at a suspicious angle. That kind of failure is not unexpected with old cars. I was able to remove the window regulator assembly and repair the bushing on the back side of the crank housing with a small steel bushing cap I turned out on the lathe. I was not able to crank the window at all because the coiled spring hidden inside the crank (which helps holds the window in the desired position) had slipped and become wedged tightly between the housing and the crank. I got it all repaired, cleaned, greased and back together late last night. I'll bet the window mechanism hasn't work that well in many years. I'm back to daily driving it to work so we'll see how long until the next adventure begins.

I think I'm still representing the "manly men" category well enough but there will come a time (for me anyway) when it is just not practical to daily-drive some of these old relics. I own 9 cars that are nearly 60 years old and drive 5 of those quite often. I also drive and maintain my 87 DL wagon of course plus an 87 Mazda B2000. Back on the topic of finding 87 wagon struts, they are still out there if you get lucky. After this thread was started I began watching eBay for a spare front set for my 87 wagon and found two new Monroes from two different sellers. They were both NIB in original packaging and indicate they were made in England. Total cost deliver to my door was $70 for both so those may come in handy some day or will go to the next person who owns my wagon.

RE: New transmission? Sorry. I apparently misread your sentence quoted above. I thought it said you were glad the failure didn't grenade your new transmission.

If you had tranny work done in the past I'll bet the axle was never fully installed in the socket and all this time it has wiggled further and further out until it finally put too much load on the very end section which cause a metal fatigue failure in the last few days before it happened. Very odd failure for sure.

I'm lazy but I like a clean driveway. I would not do anything for a small oil drip on an engine approaching 300K except put a diaper on it and drive. My original 2003 WRX engine is at over 200K now but has a small drip. I fold up multiple layers of toilet paper or paper towel into a small square and place it at the drip point, held up with neodymium magnets or other clips/wires to keep it in place. That absorbs any drips between maintenance intervals and I put in a new absorber with each oil change. I know it's a ghetto fix but it works for me until it gets really bad (and then I get out the duct tape). Ha!

When I lived in the rust belt Midwest we only used Fluid Film by the gallons each fall. It was an annual autumn ritual in late September that we pulled each car into the garage and gave them all a good shot of Fluid Film misted anywhere we could snake a hose. It made a very noticeable difference over the years. I later moved to Phoenix and left all of that nonsense behind. I still use Fluid Film in the small rattle cans if I'm storing engine bits for the long-term.

A 10-amp fuse should be more than ample reserve for running the size pumps we use but the fuse is there to protect the wiring so don't run a 15 amp if the wire isn't rated for more than 10. My pump pulls about 4 amps. As for safety after a mishap, I often find it simpler to use an inertia switch to disable the pump in a crash. They are all over eBay for $10-$20. Just don't mount the switch where no one will ever think to look for it like Ford did for many years. In more modern vehicles, those impact switches are all part of the airbag/crash protection modules and can't easily be used like the style below.

Heater output instantly going on and off can pretty much only be caused by low coolant levels. Either you still have a big air pocket in the system or you are loosing coolant. When you completed the last water pump repair, did you have good heat for multiple days in a row but now the heat is once again intermittent? If so, you have to be loosing coolant somewhere and if it's not on the ground and not soaked into the carpet inside the car then are you burning it in a cylinder? I was going to suggest the same thing but be careful. If there is a head gasket leak, you could accidentally fill a cylinder with coolant and then the next time you try to start the engine it may hydro-lock and bend a rod. If you perform a pressure test and have any concerns afterwards that coolant might be leaked inside a cylinder, either manually turn the engine over several times slowly using a wrench on crank or pull the spark plugs before you ever touch the starter.

My first guess would be that the timing belt notches were rubbing a tiny bit on something but soon wore down so no noise after that. Noise from a bad bearing would usually get worse, not go away.

Yup. I know I've not invented something unique here. I'm just applying it here to hopefully get some better reliability and less noise. Filter before the pump? Certainly. I installed one of those when I installed the first new pump. The tank appeared quite clean inside when I originally drained it but no harm adding a pre-filter just in case. After the first few pumps failed (including one from an F-150 application) I began to wonder if the tank pickup tube feeding the pump was clogged (such as from sediment in the tank). I temporarily installed a low-range vacuum gauge on a T-fitting at the inlet to the pump so I could see if the pump was being starved of fuel and maybe that was causing them to become loud and fail. That was not the issue. I even cut open the first fuel filter after about 100 miles to inspect the pleats and found very little junk so I'm certainly getting plenty of clean fuel to the pump. I find great satisfaction in repairing old things, especially somewhat forgotten vehicles. We also have a 1987 Mazda B2000 and five 1965-66 Corvairs in our family fleet that all get regular use so not really something out of the ordinary for me to keep these on the road. Since I'm using cheap, off the shelf parts from Amazon and love to do electronics it's a fun project but certainly not something a normal mechanic would do, especially with a customer's car. I might do a quick block diagram to show the basics. If you've ever needed to control the speed of a small DC motor then you'll have done this all before. Here's a link to a video that shows pretty much what I did with the PWM controller.

I've had a spell of bad electric fuel pumps in the short time I've had my 87 DL SPFI and unfortunately, it also applies to some of my other classic cars as well so it's not an isolated issue with just one car. They just aren't making quality pumps these days, especially in the pressure ranges that are close to our needs. I found a pump that I trust so far but it puts out way more pressure than I need, which in my opinion, just makes the pumps loud for no good reason and wears them out even faster. I really hate to hear the pumps whining, especially when I have the turn signal blinking and the pump noise jumps up and down with each activation of the bulbs. I was not ready to pioneer an in-tank pump installation so I looked for a better way to skin this cat. My solution? I first installed a simple, fixed voltage 12-volt regulator so that the voltage swings were gone and the whining noise at least stayed steady, That was step one. The next step was a pulse width modulator (aka, DC motor speed controller) so I could dial down the pump power by using the duty-cycle setting while still feeding it 12 volts. The end result has been great. I now have a pump that I can barely hear with no more rising and falling pump whine when idling in a turn lane. Bonus feature is that the pump should last much longer as it's no longer trying to put out 50-60 PSI when I only need about 30 PSI for the regulator to maintain a steady 22 PSI at all engine speeds. Anyone else doing anything like this or am I the only nut case here?

I would first try to identify what is hitting the cat and smoking. I've wrapped fresh aluminum foil sheets (no fires) around or near parts like that and then did a short freeway drive to look for early signs of what fluid I'm dealing with. Could there be a pin hole or tiny slit in the CV boot where grease is flinging out but only when under high RPMS so hidden otherwise?

Sounds like you still might have some air in the system which could account for the recent cold/hot heater output but where did all that initial antifreeze go if you had to add 1/3 of a gallon and then top it off again a few day later? Keep driving and burping it and make sure the overflow hose is not sucking air instead of coolant each time the car cools off at night. Is the coolant level in the overflow bottle staying the same, rising or falling? The radiator hoses should become hard when hot as it is under pressure but if it was too much pressure, the cap would vent it to the overflow bottle. If you are able to keep adding fluid every few days at a regulars rate and can't see it visually leaking anywhere then you might have a HG issue but don't jump to quickly to that conclusion. I've had coolant leaks that were small enough to not drip on the ground but puddle and evaporate.

There are times where I have used tranny fluid as a manual flush (cheap Walmart brand) in a situation where I want to clean out inaccessible areas somewhat. I do so by removing the engine oil, changing the filter, pouring in a gallon of tranny fluid instead of motor oil and then manually running the oil pump with a drill motor. I do this until I build pressure in the galleys and then rotate the engine slowly so that all the bearing and passages get a good drink. This is a handy time to have a friend run the drill while you turn the crank by hand. I let it sit like that overnight and do the same thing over and over for several days while I work on other details. No rush. Let the tranny fluid dissolve some of the old oil deposits and swell the seals. Drain it when you are done and then open the engine as far as you can and manually clean and flush as you can. On the 240K miles EA82 I refreshed recently (did not split the case) I disassembled just up to the point of pulling the pistons. I then flushed the case internals with mineral spirits, brake clean, carb cleaner, etc. I soaked the loose lifters in tranny fluid after they were out. I used a drill press while the lifters were down inside a soup can and slowly forced the old oil out and the tranny fluid in. I let them sit like that over night and did that routine 3 more times over several days. Quite a bit of junk came out as they bled down. I installed them while still filled with tranny fluid and to this day have not heard a single lifter tap ever.

Seems like a great price considering most companies could care less about making parts for old Subarus. I'd probably buy in too if I had a gen one.

I don't recommend that either (without good reason) however, it would be completely within the safety limits of the tire if you did. My point in posting was to add clarity your two comments that at no time should hot tire pressures ever exceed max pressure indicated on the tire. It is more correct to say you should never exceed that pressure when the tire is cold but you don't have to worry about the pressure rise when the tire becomes hot while driving. So, back to the topic. Could the TPMS in the OP's situation be calibrated to a new range or is it a fixed setting that even the dealer cannot adjust? I do not know but am curious. I'm fortunate that my newest vehicle is over 17 years old so I don' have those TPMS devices but may someday.

Search for the same item on Amazon for better info about the pump. You might not get a better price but you will often find more honest reviews, Q&A section for buyers/users and photos from actual customers to help you make a decision.

Manufacturers allow for tire heating with an ample safety margin so if you inflate to the maximum pressure shown on the tire when the tread is cold it will not be a concern when you go driving later and the tire heats up. Of course most times, there is no need to run at the max pressure indicated on the tire. That decision depends upon the conditions you plan to encounter or loads you may carry. Good info here. https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=196

Thanks Captain Obvious! Rebuilding struts? There are some manufacturers that offer a service to refurbish their own older lines of struts but none of these that I am aware of. Could someone else rebuild them? Probably, but not at a price you or think is reasonable. The demand is far too low which is why you can't find much in replacements. Many of the parts I've found since I got my wagon are very old aftermarket stock manufactured 8-10 years ago that is still lurking in the basements of dirty parts warehouses. I still enjoy driving my DL but the day will come where the cost and effort to keep it on the road will exceed my limits and it will get parted out. Hopefully, someone else will drive their 3rd gen a few more years from the parts I offer up when that day comes. The best thing I found at the time I needed front struts was the Sachs mentioned earlier in this thread. I don't need the rears as the fell good and don't look that old. I'm not going to buy them "just in case" either.

I have not changed them out but someone before me did. I've only had this DL since last spring and have only been driving it for a few months. I've got under 800 miles on it since my purchase but it has 241K miles in total. I can check for part numbers if I see any on them. They feel fine so I won't change them out until I know there is an issue.

I just replaced the fronts struts on my 87 DL after an odd failure where one of them where it would retract but then lock in the compressed position for several hours. It gave me a low front left and a high right rear and rode really badly. If I jounced it up and down it would finally release back to normal ride height. I bought the same Sachs numbers you listed for the fronts and the labels show they were made on Mexico but I'm guessing many years ago based upon the amount of dust and dirt on the boxes. In my case these struts were not drop-in substitutes. The brake hose retainer tab was in the incorrect position on the right side strut and the spring perch on both is higher by about 1" compared to what was on my car when I bought it (which appeared to be correct for the application but not OEM). I ended up ordering a second pair from a different vendor thinking I had some factory mistakes on my first set but the second set had the same issues so I figured that is what I had to work with and did so. The lower barrel on all struts were a very tight fit into the collar clamp but by sanding off the powdercoat and weld blobs on the strut OD and fully sanding the socket ID of the collar, I was able to get them to just slip in after also wedging the slit open a slight bit with a flat blade chisel. The higher spring perch location was a bigger problem because the spring compressor I rented was pretty much at the compression limit getting the springs safely compressed almost an inch further to have enough threads exposed to get the nut onto the top. Those spring compressors are scary under that much tension. I probably should have found a shop with a better tool to do that job. As for the ride height, I actually am happy it sits a little higher in the front now. To me, it always looked a little nose down but now the wagon sits level and looks the part of a factory 4WD wagon. The ride is great compared to what I had of course. I have not done much to test them except some dirt roads and speed bumps so I can't comment on the real off-roading feel or action.