wagonist

Speaking of horns, really don't like that you need to remove the front bumper just to see them... There's still some space between the grill & A/C core

Considering that you've got something that can lift as well as manoeuvre: I'd swap engine crossmember first as the front suspension bolts to it. Then lift the car up and put the front wheels on ramps, logs, bricks, whatever to lift it up for clearance underneath. Install the engine & trans together as a unit (without any crossmembers bolted on, and considering how the power steer bracket is bolted on, leave that attached. fit the gearbox crossmember from underneath.

I haven't had that many cos I'm too much of an anal bastard But I've replaced the clutch in a FWD Toyota I owned. Being a turbo diesel, the engine was backwards to most engines of the time with intake on the front & exhaust on the back. And the oil filter (which was the same part as a Landcruiser, so HUGE) was fitted sideways above the driveshafts & below the exhaust on the back of the motor (I had to dismantle half the intake to even see it). Anyway, I'd pulled it off to remove the transmission. Finished the job late about 9:45pm, started the car to try to check it & found a flood of oil running down the driveway. Supermarkets usually close at 10pm, so dashed to the local absolutely covered to try to buy the largest bag of kitty litter I could find. The shop staff certainly looked at me (I was covered in black)

The whole "US" type heater setup is a quirk. Well, at least to rest of us outside the American continent I still can't figure it out after seeing the buttons...

That fan is always spinning when the engine is on. It's attached to the water pump which is turning, so how could it not spin? there is a viscous liquid inside which determines whether the fan is free spinning or got load on it. All cars should have an electric fan, it was the other fan that was only fitted to cars with aircon.

No matter if you use an EA82 or EJ trans, you'll have to modify the crossmember and shifter linkages anyway. To fit the EA trans, you'll either need an adaptor plate, or transplant the internals into a dual range EJ case (which are impossible to find in North America from what I've seen on here).

Multimeter won't show this problem. Similar to why a relay needs to be put onto starter motors after so many years. You could go a simple check and dummy up some wires directly from the battery to the lights & see fi there's any difference.

The wiring for the headlights is so long that they lose current after a while. Have you thought about installing new relays in the engine bays. Use the existing plugs on the back of the headlights to trigger relays, but then power the relays directly from the battery to the headlights.

Heater & ventilation air control (or something similar). Completely different setup to Aus models, so I don't think we're going to be able to help but as Jono said, can you get under there & move the flaps manually? The one for the demister is right up the top. It's not unusual for leaves & other debris to somehow make their way into the heater box, especially if you don't have aircon.

Been busy. Gutted the interior of the new wagon, so I can get it cleaned better & see if the stains come out. Removed the radiator & found out that the seal on the drain port was broken. hopefully, this was the reason there was no coolant and not because of an engine issue.

A pic would help so there's no confusion about what you're talking about. Bit difficult to go stick a head under the car. I know the reverse switch & the neutral switch are on the left side. Confused about why there's 3 (but we didn't get too many single range 4wd boxes here). I think all of the switches are the same except they're got different plugs & terminals on the end so you can't plug them in wrong. You can remove them to check how far the pin sticks out. Then you might be able to replace with any switch just by changing the wires.

Except the 3spd auto is a hydraulically controlled box, not electronic. If yours was an Oz delivered GLTA, then it also ran the black cased ECU, not the gold case, and would've had the separate ignition advance module beside the glovebox. My first turbo conversion was using an 85 3spd auto cut which I changed to manual, so I know about that one. The 4 spd is a different kettle of fish. Will cross the bridge about the wife using the 3rd pedal later

So the 4EAT is rare here behind the EA82. I now have one in a 90 JDM turbo wagon with digi dash, cruise (was a bit surprised it doesn't have the outside air temp as my 85 digi dash did). Anyway, my plan is to teach my wife to drive with the auto & then convert to fulltime 4wd manual. I've been told that despite there being 2 computers (ie the engine ECU under the steering column) & the auto gearbox computer (in the rear left quarter) that they talk to each other & you can get any fault codes from the auto computer showing up on the engine's ECU LED. How much of this is true? (my source isn't that reliable ) Are there going to be any major problems converting it to a manual later? I know about things like the neutral cutoff switch in the shifter, and also the reverse lights.

At least it's a door chime for the US model. Aus never got it, but JDM models use it as an overspeed warning. Which for their cars is 100km/h. Damn annoying when you've got a 110km/h limit in your country To work it, the back of the speedo had an extra ring around the outside, with a sensor that activate when the ring wasn't in between any more. I initially disconnected the plug, but then managed to trim the ring back so it only came on at 120

An A/C system is just a set of pipe with gas inside instead of fluid like the radiator/heater, so the same rules apply except that it should be under pressure all the time, not just when hot. First thing to check with A/C is "does it have gas"? Find 1 of the 2 points where it gets filled, & very quickly push the little valve in (it looks like the valve in a tyre) to see if there's any pressure in there. If it's got gas, then take it to any decent auto A/C shop (it doesn't matter if they're subie specialist or not) & get them to put a dye in. They can then run it up & check for leaks. If it doesn't have gas, I'd take the chance to change all of the seals. This is a fiddly job that's time consuming but has very little parts cost, and the reason that a shop will charge a lot to do. Basically, just undo all of the pipes & even remove them from the car. Then take them to shop & ask to buy the seals that suit. Should cost you less than $10. Buy a new receiver dryer while you're there. A lot of shops won't do this, but there are also 2 seals inside the box behind the dash (can someone confirm this is true for LHD models, because it is for RHD). This becomes painful because you need to remove the dash to get the box out. Be careful prising the spring clips off the box because the plastic can go brittle after so many years. Refit everything yourself back into the car, and then book it into a shop for a regas. This job will cost a couple of hundred for a shop to do, so it's very worthwhile to learn to do yourself, and you'll do it better if you also do the seals behind the dash.

What do you mean driver's side first & then passenger side. It's the other way around Don't forget these were designed as a RHD car first I'm surprised no one from over there has complained about the hard A/C line across the firewall. Meaning you have to be super careful removing the engine/trans. Not a problem we have on RHD cars, although having the A/C line come back across the front of the condenser makes it hard to fit any extra external coolers. Although my RHD complaint comes from having the uni joint on the steering shaft right next to the turbo... Hill holder on diagonal wheels when trying to do serious 4wding. Usually the first thing that gets disconnected. I've had some newer subies as company cars, and my parents own an 09 Outback. I've never own any subie after 2000. They just haven't kept up with the technology of others. The 4EAT transmission used from the Loyale all the way through to 09 (when others had gone to 5 & 6 speed autos much earlier), poor fuel economy vs power for the engine size, poor torque at lower revs compared with the engines of others of the same size (eg Subie needing a 2.5L turbo engine to keep up with the 2.0L turbos of Mitsubishi & Toyota)

auto and manual rads are different also. the auto has a cooler in the left end tank. You can use auto one in a manual, but not the other way around unless you've got an external cooler

Do you know what colour the ECU is? gold or black case. It should be bolted to the bottom of the steering column. Try to connect a battery directly to the fuel pump (both power & earth side) to check the pump still works. The earlier black computers earth out the fuel pump via an internal circuit. It's well known for this circuit to fail. The fix is to connect the earth side of the fuel pump directly to the car body. The fuel pump relay for the positive side is still controlled by the ECU.

Another trick is to get an old fork, remove the middle 2 prongs and flatten it out as much as possible. The specialty tolls look very similar to this. The clip should come off in line with the handle, but it depends which way it was installed whether you need to push from under the handle, or from the other side towards the handle. BTW, EFI cars don't have a choke. It's just the sensors telling the ECU the coolant is cold so it increases the idle. Same function, just different method

I picked up a JDM GTII Touring wagon on the weekend which has the 4EAT automatic gearbox. Aus never received this box as standard, but we got the 4EAT in the 1st Gen Legacy. This car was bought by the previous owner with a blown engine and that was at least 4 years ago, so I'd like to do a service on the trans, but would like to know if I can get the parts to suit the Legacy box as this will be much less confusing to the parts people here.

ok, been tracing some wires & confirming that the US wiring diagram matches the JDM engine. almost there, but concerned about how to check the ECU coolant sensor wires & the knock sensor wires because the sensors are down underneath. Worked out what I thought was the idle control motor is actually an Aircon advance (and the idle control is tucked under the manifold). Is the wire that controls simply in parallel with the A/C compressor clutch wire? Also, does anyone have the part number for the spider manifold 4 pin TPS? And can you still get them? The engine I've got has had an early 3 pin TPS fitted but I'm confused how because it turns the opposite way to the normal engine's TPS...

as others have said, the heads are different between the MPFI & carb engines fuel differences: MPFI cars have bigger fuel feed & return lines. Subaru did this by removing the carb return line (up the top near the strut tower) & replacing it with a much larger line that becomes the feed line. The carb feed line down on the chassis rail becomes the MPFI return line. Therefore, the 1 fuel line throughout the car should be replaced. I'm not sure if the SPFI cars had the same fuel line setup as the MPFI, but the XT lines are different. the MPFI tank has a bigger port to suit the larger feed line, plus a swirl pot (not sure what you call them over there) inside the tank to reduce sloshing of the fuel. The XT tank should bolt up directly but check whether it's a FWD or 4wd tank with a hump over the rear diff. fuel pumps are different, but bolt up in the same place, just swap over with the bracket engine accessories: XT's run a multi rib belt, everything else runs 1 or 2 v belts. You can just run the multi-rib stuff throughout, but check that the alternator wiring & A/C lines bolt up. If you go this way, you'll need to recharge any A/C gas. You can swap over your V belt accessories. swap the brackets over also as the engine blocks are the same. You'll need to swap the water pump also as the shafts are different wiring: The XT engine loom goes backwards from the engine & directly through the middle of the firewall. The rest go off to the right side, into the fender, and then into the cabin behind the wheel. Personally, I'd remove the injectors & block off the ports (or just leave the injectors in unplugged) and make an adaptor for a carb where the throttle body should be. crazyeights, do you mind checking out the "Spider manifold advantage" thread (I tried to add a link, but it's not working for me...)? Seems you've done some work with a spider manifold & I'm trying to replace a normal turbo engine with a spider manifold turbo & need some help

So, now that's its starting to stay daylight for longer, I managed to get a better look at the Spider engine in my car. I will need to have a better look at the normal turbo engine in the wagon I'm getting to compare, as so far, I've only got another NA XT non spider engine here. So the things I have found are: 1. knock sensor (very hard to see) on top of the engine under the throttle body 2. idle motor with 2 wires (normal engine only has single wire). is the 2nd one an earth? 3. ECU coolant temp sensor on the left side rear (normal one is right side rear) 4. a vacuum solenoid behind the power steer pump. Is this EGR? 5. TPS is 4 wire. The engine has an early 3 wire fitted as it was being run by a black ECU, but I know that the NA 5 wire TPS I have spare is the same as the 4 wire because 2 of the pins are joined. But how do I find out which pin is which for the 4 wire? (found a schematic for this, so all good) 6. other wires are oil pressure, coolant temp gauge, wires for injectors 7. what about the 2 pin plug that's on top of the thermostat on the "normal" engine but doesn't exist on the spider manifold? Have I missed anything? I've got spare engine loom plugs so my aim is to make up a patch loom to extend the rear facing loom of the Spider XT engine across to the side to join the wagon loom. Though this will go close to the turbo, so not sure how I'm going to protect it from the heat.

Just catching up on a bit of light reading About how long did it take you grind the glass on the inside of your lights? I've wanted to make a "quad" round light setup for a long time. Seeing as I've got the plastic backed lights, this is probably a bit easier. My original thought was to reproduce the front of the lights in fibreglass with holes for the lights, but now I think your idea has merit. I've a few spare lights around to play with. Also, where did you get the headlight protectors (though whether they'll fit plastic backed lights is another question...)? Because our corner lights here include a raised blinker in the side, ours stop short where they wrap around. I'm currently trying to make US versions fit instead because they look neater.

Get another person (ie, a second person) to hold the lever, then get a plastic knife to lever the door open from the back. you can bend the spring piece wider to make the door pop open more.