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Things are moving well but could be doing better making space faster. Another call out to the masses. If you can make it by Milford CT you’d do well. Other guys have driven over 11 1/2 hours to get here in the past. This is IT. We are ending our involvement with that stage and devoting all efforts to 1972-77 stage one. Lots of 1977 stage two through 1979 parts and Gen One Brat.

Welcome. All I can say is my friend has a 2017 same as yours and he loves it. Took a deer strike with bad damage and they made it like new. He and I are long time Subaru owners going back decades. We’ve have them all, pretty much. And of the current later models we don’t see ourselves jumping into a Legacy.

Just a suggestion for the tank if you take it serious and want it around for maybe the next generation or so. Moyer in PA does an awesome job. If I could post pics easily I’d show you. They blast is rust free inside and out, do repairs if necessary, and treat it with their own patented formula which is NOT epoxy and good for all fuels. Tank looks ready for another 50 years. Good luck with it.

Updates... Was able to get it started again. Yes it's the old varnish gasoline that created that slick coating on the cylinder. Reason I know is cause I drain the 4 gallons of gasoline and filter it back to my Suzuki Samurai to burn it off. The next day I went to start my Suzuki. I got the same slick no start issue. Took some starting fluid to crank the engine on. Crazy that fuel would cause that. Gave me reason to take a trip to the mountains to completely burn off the fuel. The Subaru fuel tank has come out and discover a huge layer of sludge and rust. Drop it off at a radiator shop and see if it could be saved.Updates… I managed to get it started again. Turns out the old varnished gasoline was creating a slick coating on the cylinder. I figured it out after draining 4 gallons and filtering it into my Suzuki Samurai to burn off. The next day, when I tried starting the Suzuki, I ran into the same slick no-start issue. A little starting fluid finally got the engine to crank. Crazy that the fuel I added just days prior could varnish so quickly! At least it gave me an excuse to take a mountain trip to burn it off completely. As for the Subaru, I pulled the fuel tank and found a thick layer of sludge and rust, so I dropped it off at a radiator shop to see if it can be saved. Bushytails you were smack on on the that issue.

I ended up with a brand new 00-04 Outback H6 power steering rack, part number 34110AE20A. Curious to know if I would run into any issues installing this into my 4-cyl 2003 Outback, as I found a bit of steering fluid pooled up in my rack bellow when I went to swap an end link out. If I could just throw this rack in and align the thing, that would be awesome. Thanks for any/all help!

Fair enough if the maintenance work is becoming a challenge for you, can’t stay young and nimble forever! Thanks for verifying what was done.

What I've learned refurbishing my 3rd gen wagon (89 GL). Parts: Hoard them. Buy yourself an ultrasonic cleaner because there's gonna be a lot of greasy used parts you'll need to clean if you intend to run this car for any period of time. Engine: EA82's are simple to teardown. However, aluminum threads don't like to be abused. Be careful with exhaust flanges and intake manifold bolts. They tend to strip or corrode in some form or another. Pistons, connecting rods, valve springs, valves, valve retainers, oil pumps, OEM water pumps, cylinder heads without deep cracks, oil pickups, and more can be difficult to find. Luckily you're in the right place to find them but still. There's a reason EA82's have gone the way of the dodo. Buying a good parts engine (if you can find one) isn't a bad idea. Suspension: Front struts and good quality front strut mounts are difficult to find. The chinesium parts that makes up 80% of the parts market for these cars usually aren't worth giving the time of day. Look at DRW Bushings for suspension bushings. I've been very impressed with the bushings and the owner's communication, I'd highly recommend. Springs can be hard to find, there are overload springs out there. Wheels & Bearings: 4x140 is going to be your biggest hurdle. Looks like you've got a set of shallow wagon wheels (I'm jealous). It's just difficult to find known good wheels, new 4x140 wheels are quite obscure. Bearings aren't too bad if you have a bearing puller. Honestly the seals can put up more of a fight than the bearings. Remember to replace your axle nut spring washers. Axles: If they're not rusty and crusty, clean them and reboot them. Buy neoprene boots, I recommend EMPI. I use Yamalube ACC-MOLDM-GS-05. Use what you like but it's good grease. You may find out, if you haven't already, that if you do need to replace an axle, it's difficult to buy "the right one". There are multiple different axles (4 or 5, I can't remember) that are used depending on the cars drivetrain and fuel delivery system. Stay away from most cheap axles. Sometimes remans are okay but your best bet is used OEM that have been cleaned and rebooted. Get familiar with the identification bands on the axle shafts near the outer boot and your axle spline count. Outer axle joints cannot be disassembled, to clean wipe the grease off and pour a cleaning solvent into the joint. Pour out the sludge and wipe away the rest. Let the solvent off gas and repack with grease. Interior: Speedometer cables and throttle cables can be difficult to find. Yes there are cheap parts put there, but those are always a crap shoot. The foam on the HVAC blend doors has probably severely degraded and that will cause issues with actually feeling the full effect of your HVAC system. I'd recommend replacing the foam. Once you've torn the dash off, its easy to do again. Getting it back together can be a pain with the HVAC controls (4 vacuum hoses and a cable). Plastic trim pieces are NLA and will have to be a junkyard, craigslist, or eBay find. If you decide to manual swap the car, get a pedal box from a later GL or a Loyale. Older pedal boxes are prone to cracking. Glass: Junkyard. Literature: Get a copy of a parts manual and I'd also recommend a hardcopy of the factory service manual set. Yes you can find them mostly online but having a hardcopy is very helpful. Good luck :]

Lots of thoughts on going forward. But in general for now to just rehabilitate the carb’d EA82 that’ll be a bit of a project. Not so bad really but these days we see most folks immediately ditch the old power plant and sometimes as needed the drivetrain too. You have the last of the carb’d engines. In 1987 it’s a split year. You’ll find DL wagons and sedans with the carb until a certain production date. Then they’re SPFI. You can swap blocks and blank off the EGR ports in the exhaust should you want to try making it SPFI. Been ages for me since I’ve had that era but we had so many between parts cars and drivers. Pretty much all my stash is gone from that era. I never had any real trouble with the Hitachi in general from the 70s through the last of them. But those last run carbs have more emission crap and can in my opinion be more finicky. Less manageable. But they’re carbs so it’s always a little bit of luck and black magic. lol EA82 engine parts - the timing belts are hard to find or at least the drivers side which is the one that typically craps out. Oil pump. Reseal kits, you can imagine what it’s like now. There is zero support with very little exception. Carl Porter has some NOS from that era. He might see this here or find him on FB with the usual old school Subaru groups. West coast dealers you might get lucky. This era unfortunately comes with the New Subaru World Order when they made lots of threats to the new wave of dealers to scrap outgoing inventory and damage panels, components, etc so nobody could dumpster dive. So the spares left or much harder to come by than the 70s. It’s a sad story but at least parts lived on. History story: when the Subaru finally caught on here the kind folks at SOA headquarters decided that no longer would their cars be dealt out of mom n pop corner garages and such but they’d have to have a large parcel and big $ to invest. So many mom n pop dealerships closed up and we NOT allowed to sell their parts to the new dealers or back to SOA. Seversl large lots of NOS came to the public. I’m still selling off some of mine. But come the 80s it’s corporate control. Hope you enjoyed the read and enjoy that wagon. Took my young family on many vacations and romps in those. Another several paragraphs of stories there at least. Cheers!

They replaced the slave. If they give me the old one, I might investigate rebuilding it and keep it with the other spares I have for the car. With fresh fluid and a bleed, maybe the master will be ok, if not, it's the onley thing left so, I might tackle it myself but really guys, maintenance and repair work is getting to be a challenge for me nowadays.

That's a lot cleaner than any you see here! Good choice for a project. Stuck thermostat also can cause overheating and foaming, but head gasket isn't too bad of a project. The stock carbs aren't terrible, and often can be fixed with just a cleaning, being careful not to tear gaskets. Brake booster and master cylinder are usually reliable; no need to replace them unless you have issues. Try ebay or junkyards for better headlights.

Good morning to everyone on this beautiful Sunday, I'm posting here because this is the first time I've ever purchased a Subaru in my life. I completed the purchase of 2016 Subaru Impreza on Friday, after my 2019 Mitsubishi Mirage G4 ES was totaled on 8/20. I wasn't in the vehicle. It was parked and I was already in bed when I heard the crash, so I went outside only to discover that my car was sitting in the street, plowed into a Mercedes-Benz. I came across the Subaru after two weeks of search and used Cars.com. It came from Emerson, NJ and I drove it home this weekend. I rented a car, one-way rental, and drove the Subaru almost 400 miles over the weekend, back home. I admit, I'm taken with this car. 91K miles, one owner, no accidents, no rust, immaculate interior, except for the boot around the emergency brake that has to be replaced since it's ripped, mostly due to age, but what a car! Jade Green, 2.0L engine, 5 speed manual transmission. It had been sitting on the lot since July 18th because no one wants a car with a manual transmission anymore, but I did, so here we are. Thanks for entry into the forum, Steve

Hello. I apologize if this is the wrong place to post this. I recently acquired this 1986 Subaru GL Wagon AWD/3spd auto. I made an account here a few years back while helping a friend with his '87 Brat. If I'd never worked on that Brat I wouldn't have given this $500 listing the time of day. The car is relatively clean for sitting in field in Odessa, TX exposed for a decade. Some rust under the cowl visible from the engine bay from debris sitting in it. Then some from a failed brake booster or master cylinder that was leaking. I'm technically the second owner since the guy I bought it from didn't register it, tried getting it to run off the fuel tank, failed, and gave up on it. Today I got around to setting up a Home Depot bucket fuel pump setup and ran it straight to the carb. I changed the oil and filter because the filter looked ancient, topped the radiator and reservoir off with some distilled water, and charged up the battery. I was surprised when the car eventually was able to run on it's own at about 1200-1500rpm. The carb was dripping fuel so I didn't want to run it long. The temp gauge climbed up a bit past halfway, so I quickly set some bricks around the tires to test the transmission without rolling away. I was able to roll forward and backward so I called that a success and shut it down. I noticed a burp in the coolant reservoir and some bubbles inside for about a minute after shutoff. I'll do a combustion leak test on it to verify. I'm going to list some major items that will need to be addressed before it even goes on a test drive. Engine - Verify if this engine needs head gaskets. Then go through cooling system and timing belt. Carburetor - Weber swap or try and work on this stock Hitachi Complete braking system refresh - Including the booster, master cylinder, and rubber lines. Transmission Drain/Fill and filter. Some less major items that will need to be addressed. Headlights housings are rusted through and don't work (I guess from filling up with water?) I'd probably try and find some sealed beam DL headlights and grille. CV Axles - All 4 CV boots are leaking and they'll probably fail pretty quickly. Suspension looks original. Door locks don't work and the passenger rear door is stuck shut. Rear hatch struts. left turn signal works with hazards but not stalk. No spare tire. But I have all the hardware that retained it. I think the battle going forward is going to be parts availability. I'm spoiled from working on Toyotas. I remember struggling to even find shocks for my friend's '87 Brat. The automatic transmission is also a downside if it ends up having issues. I've found a number of great write-ups on this forum and some other websites so I have that on my side. Here are some pictures and videos to go with my random assortment of thoughts.

The socket itself is amazingly good. One of the electrical contacts has a hole for wire to run through it. I re-stripped the wire, threaded it through the hole and it is working for now.

When you say the master cylinder was done - what was done? Replaced or flushed and bled? If replacing I hope they replaced the slave cylinder too. It’s a lot of work for not much more effort. And typically if the master cylinder needs attention the slave will most likely go shortly after…

Dam Turbos! :>)

slave cylinder I had the mechanic do it since it was in for its inspection sticker. pricey, intercooler had to come off. thanks everybody

Belated follow up: I did the battery disconnect thing several times with no effect. I did the key on/engine off and cycle the throttle 3 times slowly with no effect. I took off the cover to check the TPS. I removed ~1/8 slack from both throttle cables. I disconnected the TPS and checked the system voltage and ground connections. I did not check the TPS action since I didn't have time to take off the air box to access it's pins. I noticed when I had the TPS disconnected and ignition on that here was a continuous low buzzing sound going on some where in the engine compartment. I disconnected the battery again, pressed the brake, turned the ignition on and off. After hooking it all back up I found that it had greatly improved. It's like a new car taking off or trying to accelerate into traffic. Not sure exactly what did it, but the only real new thing I did was disconnect the TPS for a while and take the slack out of the cables. I would have thought the cable slack would only cause some initial dead action at the beginning of throttle application. Cruise control engagement is also much quicker and I don't have to hold the throttle set for a few seconds waiting for it to pick up the slack anymore. Hope this helps someone else.

Stop by an auto store and ask them to try reading it with their scanner. If they can, at least you know the wiring is good.

What year is the donor vehicle and engine management system from?

@itb482 - what’s your dizzy doing or not doing that requires it to be replaced? My first thought was to have the cam belts checked to make sure they’re not broken. If the LHS belt is broken your dizzy and cam won’t spin when cranking. I doubt you’ll find a turbo any better than the one you have now. You might be able to adapt a new one from a turbo ATV, they’re probably about the right size. Cheers Bennie

I have a parts guy, we're going to get in contact this weekend (he's busy out of town at the moment) to see when we can meet. I need to get over there asap to pick up an engine while mine out of my GL is being rebuilt (6 months at this point). I know he's got a turbo car, no clue on his prices. If you PM me a list of parts (stuff you'd want for the future?), I'll ask. I know he's got a turbo car sitting there. I also have a turbo cylinder head I'm not going to use since mine is N/A. I just got it for a really good price. If you're interested PM me and lmk. :] P.S. https://turbochargersdirect.com/turbochargers-direct-remanufactured-oem-turbo-for-subaru-gl-xt-rx-and-loyale-1-8l-tur-106018-tdr/?srsltid=AfmBOoqOzF6v587m_TyQszG6yslhtNdmZ1ZJRiWPfLog9jMkZBbPHLPI

Heyo everybody! Recently joined the Subaru clan back in 2023 with a 6mt Crosstrek I got the manual with the goal of drivetrain modifications (CVTs, Eyesight, and other modern Subaru features don't always lend itself well to modifications). I started with a 2 inch lift and changing tires/wheels to 235/75/r15s and have slowly added upgrades from there. Last summer I put in a dual range 5mt with the 1.447 reduction with a torsen LSD in the front diff. The 6mt came with the diffs with the 4.44 final drive, with the dual range lo gearing it gets me a 23:1 crawl ratio Custom fabrication that I've done to upgrade my rig: rear tire swing out, high clearance front bumper, dual range shift lever with a Polaris side-by-side shift cable. Currently upgrade I'm putting in is a Torq locker in the rear diff, I'm curious to see how that helps with traction My long term plan is to get a divorced tcase setup running. I think this will be fun to do on a modern Subaru.

I have a 1982 VW Vanagon with a 2.5 Subaru conversion. Need some help getting my OBD 2 scan tool/Veepeak dongle to connect with the ECU. The van came with a Veepeak OBDCheck BLE and on my phone I am using Car Scanner. Given the van came with the Veepeak dongle, I am presuming that at one time it all worked. The Veepeak dongle does work fine on my 2011 Dodge Ram. I have checked for 12V at pin 16 and ground at pins 4 and 5, all good. I do have an aftermarket radio but I can’t see it connected to any K Line; my voltage at pin 7 is less than 9 V so even if that was the case it would apparently be fine. I have replaced the OBD 2 port with a new one to ensure the pins are connecting well. Would really like to get this working for both diagnostics and dashboard instrumentation. Any thoughts?

Hello all! I have a new to me 1986 GL10 Turbo that I attempt to daily for work. It was working and then it wasn’t (the story of all things great). I work in EMS so my mechanical knowledge is pretty 101 level. it does while driving and then was dead at the key. I check all of the obvious stuff and tried jumping it. No dice. Had it flat bed towed to the shop we take our cars to and they said that the distributor and corresponding parts needs replaced. The mechanic was a former Porsche/Subaru guy so generally what I’d call reliable. the problem is that it’s old and parts are super hard to find. The ones found online didn’t match the ones in the car (rock auto for example). I’ve tried reaching out to a local shop in Salisbury (Higgins) that deal in old Subarus since they often keep old cars on site. They have insisted that they will get to the old cars that might have the part but those cars are buried on their lot and I’ve waited five weeks. I just want my car back and working. It was also suggested to me to start looking for another turbo for replacement. Not critical to the function of the car but would be strongly advised. where can I find these parts? Does this forum have folks who are selling this stuff? I’m sort of at the end of my rope and don’t want to sell a non functioning car that I know would work with the correct part. thanks in advance. point of clarity. My Subaru is at my shop- not Higgins.

I have a 2001 Subaru Forester L trim automatic, last owner put ej253 from 2005 outback. Both are SOHC but new engine is cam actuators (left unplugged as ej251 wiring doesn't have plug) Engine block is ej253 (with cam actuator) and everything else including timing gear is from 2001 forester (ej251) Now i am facing CEL light with P0341. I have checked and done diagnostic as per subaru repair manual. Link to photo and video gallery for reference