1984 GL Hatchback - my own maintenance log, plus looking for general repair wisdom (rust, oil, etc)

[BioPunk]

To y'all with the EA81 wisdom out there,

 

I've got a 1984 GL Hatchback which I bought back in July and haven't been driving a ton since, because I'm a college student and bike/walk/bus almost everywhere in town on a day-to-day basis. I basically start the car often enough to keep the carbs clean, plus the occasional grocery haul or similar large purchase. She's running, and I've already repaired the windshield and muffler to get 'er up to safety inspection standard. Now comes the part where I start doing repairs on the car more as preventative maintenance than scrambling to keep her road legal. I don't need my car to be a performance machine, or in perfect condition, but she's ten years older than I am and I'd like to keep her around and working well as long as I can because she's really fun to drive.

 

Here's what I definitely know: The trans isn't slipping, and she's doing about 25-28 mpg city which is a teeny bit low compared to estimated, but then to be honest because of living in the mountains I tend to keep her in lower gears and rev to 3600 for uphill torque, instead of driving as efficiently as humanly possible. I'm sure if I shifted perfectly, used ethanol-free on every single tank, and drove in a less hilly place I'd be doing alright for gas mileage. Interior is cozy. Superficially she looks great and everything is where it should be. The good news is, she's not *super rusty* or otherwise beaten up due to being a west coast car for 28 of the last 32 years - only about 140k miles, and the frame and engine bay are pretty good looking. The car has made its way to Virginia now, hence why preventative maintenance is a bigger deal. We're not midwestern levels of road salty out here but the season is steadily approaching...

 

I've done some looking around this forum and others to find wisdom on these topics but this is more my personal log of my own car and its questions to be asked and answered. Every Subaru is its own machine with its own quirks!

 

Anyway, here's what I've got for questions and/or things to do:

 

I've been doing what I can to get ethanol-free gasoline but sometimes I have to take E10 because I just can't reach a station immediately. Previous owners weren't exactly great about this either. I've heard older Subarus are pretty okay with ethanol relative to other cars of the same era, but are there any things like fuel lines i should think to check?

 

The bad news is, there definitely is a good deal of rust in the pinch welds on the driver's side plus some in the passenger's side (not as badly, though), and the driver's side rear wheel well has definitely seen better days. How do I assess the depth of the rust, and how bad it is? I know the pinch weld in the front driver's side is strong enough to support a jack if need be from having done it myself (though I feel much safer using the frame rails, which are solid), so she's not totally f***ed yet. The body doesn't appear to be askew, so it's not like the rear panel is falling off. Yet. I'll also get some pictures soon when I'm poking around. I'd rather have to pay $100 for a few buckets of rust remover/sealer/whatever product than $1250 for rebuilding the entire pinch weld, so here's hoping that'll be the case. I may also see how hard it is to remove the interior carpeting from the location above the pinch weld and see if any rust has crept up into the cabin. That would be a definite cause for concern.

 

I also definitely have an oil pan gasket leak, and maybe a valve cover gasket leak? I've already found a nasioc forum thread going over most of that and I'll poke around at the motor soon to get those gaskets and o-rings looked at as necessary. Maybe a coolant leak? [don't need a whole ton of advice there unless there's any useful part numbers, or big warnings I may need]

 

The shifter linkages also certainly need tightening. 3rd gear in particular feels almost as wiggly as neutral. [see above - don't need a ton of advice unless there is a set of bushings I may need, or a warning as to other problems this may involve}

 

What rubber bits in the suspension or steering rack might need poking at? The rubber around the original windshield was brittle, and the dashboard has cracks, and so I figure other original '84 plastics might need some work. Also, any useful replacement parts, or cases where aftermarket actually beats OEM?

 

 

So here is my to-do list for the next week or so, starting today:

clean the motor off to check for leaks

check oil and maybe coolant levels

find part numbers for gaskets

get photos of the rust

find products to mitigate rust

figure out if I need any new bushings for shifter linkage, or if it's just a matter of tightening up what's already there

go over the maintenance logs that the previous owner gave me, decipher the handwriting, figure out if any big things were ever missed in the last few years

 

My to-do list for the longer term:

fix oil leak

fix up anything that E10 gas has messed with

find any weakened bushings or other plastics

tighten shifter linkages

remove/mitigate all surface rust

prevent any new deeper rust from forming

solve issues with any deep rust that already exists, and especially any that threatens the car's structural stability

 

[BioPunk]

Poked at the pinch welds some just now. I think they're actually way better than i was worrying for the most part. Still gonna get in there and chip out some of the major flakes, put on some rust bullet, give 'er a few days, and then hit the whole seam with a coat of rust preventer. The rear driver's side wheel well is pretty bad though - one of the points where the body panel is connected to the suspension is basically being held there by a formality's worth of iron. The good news is, that chunk of suspension is also still very well connected to the frame, which is looking pretty solid. I also don't seem to have any real rust around where the rear struts meet the wheel well (as seen so often in BRATs especially), which is good. Still want to peel back some of the interior and triple check, though.

 

Definitely have the worst oil leak as the oil pan gasket, but the valve heads do have their own tiny leaks. My oil itself is also looking pretty nasty, albeit holding at surprisingly good levels. I'll probably just do a full oil change with some good winter-weight oil and swap the oil pan gasket at the same time. Remind me to get some good RTV sealant, too...

 

Coolant is holding steady.

 

Starting the car up for the first time in a week or two, it did take me a couple turns of the key to get a good idle. But once the motor warmed up she was good. I'll give her another start in a few hours when the motor's cooled off to make sure all is well on that front. I took a peek into the carb and she could probably use a quick cleaning. No major deposits of crud, or visible oxidation, at least.

 

Will upload those pics soon for a visual on the pinch welds and whatnot

Edited October 16, 2016 by BioPunk

[DaveT]

For the rust, in places where you cannot get at all the faces / surfaces. Hammerite Waxoyl is what I use. Knock off loose rust, get the dust out, and soak everything with it. It will wick into places you can't see or get a brush or spray onto. The fancier kit comes with a spray tube you can use to apply it inside of rocker panels, etc. Thus stuff is the most effective way to stop rust that I have found.

[BioPunk]

I'll add that to the shopping list, for sure. Thanks. I'm glad the GL is as rust-free overall as she is, but for those places I can't quite get a visual on, that'll be some peace of mind.

[bratman2]

For sloppy shifter I did what a older forum member named "Hassey" recommended maybe 15 years ago or more. It has still held tight to this day. I pulled the shifter linkage were it connected onto the shaft on the transmission. Split it just past the hole and drilled the hole out bigger. Ran a small bolt and tightened down. I am going to be changing the oil soon and see if I can get you a picture. Minimal cost (a bolt, washer and nut) and removed all play.

[BioPunk]

Ran my car for an extended period of time on the highway for the first
time this weekend. Besides one major fueling hiccup, the little Subaru
did pretty well!

Finally got my debit card unfucked so now I'm good to go on building a
shopping cart of EA81 Subaru bits. Particularly need a new fuel filter
now, as some ethanol/water/sludge mixture wormed its way into my fuel
lines and I had to spend a couple hours surreptitiously cleaning out the
fuel line in a convenience store parking lot. Never buying ethanolized
fuel again with this car if I can avoid it, and throwing a backup bottle
or two of some fuel stabilizer in the hatch for those times when I
can't.

Car runs perfectly fine now over 1k revs, but I think the idle jet has
some blockage, or there's some valve gunked up (perhaps the EGR), or
perhaps a vacuum leak (those rubber hoses are mostly over 30 years old
by now!), because the idle is rough (jumps between 1k and 300, averaging
the usual of 600ish) to the point where I worry the leaner end of the
idle cycle might risk lugging the motor a bit. It got worse after the
fuel line incident, hence why I think it's the carb. Could still use a
look at the vacuum lines.

I intend on running some Seafoam or similar cleaner through the oil
system when I do the oil change, and maybe also through the top end of
the motor via a vacuum line. May also toss some 44k or Techron, or
whatever the cool kids are using these days, into the gas tank too.

Oh also my battery is reading as overcharging? It drops to
acceptable levels once I have lights, ventilation, etc, on but holy hell
did that voltage climb once I put in 85 miles at 3k rpm

[DaveT]

Put a real voltmeter on the battery, what is it reading? Probes right on the terminals. That is how to check for more clarity.

 

If the voltage apparently changes by adding more loads while driving a steady speed, the regulator may not be working. Overcharge like that will hurt the battery.

 

Gas here has ethanol, iirc 10%. NEVER had a problem with it, but I'm running EA82 engines. Get some water in there, and you have trouble , yes.

[BioPunk]

OK yeah it looks like the battery itself is fine - guess the readout while actually driving comes off of the alternator system or something. Idle seems more consistent today, curiously enough. Still gonna poke at those vacuum lines though.

[BioPunk]

I'm not super worried about the fuel lines themselves but I will probably poke around at the carburetor and the fuel filter when I have a chance.