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Colorado and Hawaii. Welcome in both.

Thanks for this tip about the pitch stop. I was having the same issue and adjusting it on my 1982 EA81 gen 2 wagon helped get enough clearance to my CVs to stop them from rubbing.

I've done a few different restoration techniques. None of them terribly difficult, and look great at first. But I generally see them start to cloud again within a year. I did one that involved protecting them with Spar Urethane, which I think lasted 2 or 3. Lately I just put some fine polishing compound on my buffer, and do a couple passes on them. I try to do this for our daily drivers every fall so they're perfect for the dark winter. The hardest part is finding the tote of car wash stuff and getting it out and an extension cord out to the cars. It's about 1 minute of actual buffing per car.

Yes. There is a calibration procedure for the Eyesight cameras. I think many glass companies can do it themselves (or maybe most of them just send it without calibrating....), but we do get them coming into the shop just for the calibration.

Yes, anything with an electronic parking brake (Subaru or otherwise) needs to have the system reset with new pads. The parking brake actuator is a stepper motor, and it needs to relearn where "home" is again. Just like turning the piston in on an EA82 front, or the self adjusters on a drum brake car, but electronically. I have a couple mid level ($100-200) scan tools that have an option for EPB relearn. I don't have any cars that need it, so I can't say how well it actually works. If you're doing any repair/diagnostic on a CAN OBD car yourself, you need a scan tool that can interface with other modules on the car.

My cables start breaking strands at random points, then snap... just shitty aftermarket cables, combined with my doing a lot of city miles every day.

No I meant you. That’s kind of a lot of cable changing. Common problem with the pedal box flexing.

I think you meant to quote someone else?

I need to do this for our Gen3 Liberty - the cruise control no longer works. Not complaining at 500,000km. My thought was to pull one from a lower km unit at a wreckers and swap them over - let the airbag power down for several hours before pulling the airbag out to access the steering wheel retainer nut. @lmdew - are you based in Hawaii? For some reason I thought you were on the mainland… Cheers Bennie

Sounds about right. You’ll find many circuits on the L series are earth switched. If you wire up some driving lights “the normal way” you’ll find your driving lights turn on when the ignition is off and the cab switch that controls them is on. Cheers Bennie

Well, enough to get the horn to work, which was needed to pass the Safety Inspection. They had failed my 2002 Impreza wagon for no horn. I provided a ground at the under dash connector and it worked fine, so continued up to the steering wheel. No continuity between the lower dash connector and the horn wire. That pointed to the clock-spring. Being in Hawaii and with limited parts I pulled it apart. careful taking it apart gave me access to the spool of wire ribbon that makes up the clock-spring. Sure enough close to one end it was toast. I cut it back a couple of inches and stripped off the insulation with a razor blade. That allowed me to tuck the copper leads into the connector for the horn. The airbag was out of it already and I sure would not have done this repair if I wanted the airbag to work. I just needed a horn for the island beater.

Are you sure you don’t have a crack in the pedal box around the pivot pin area on the left side?

An '89 GL wagon. The switch was wired to terminal 86 on the AC fan relay (switched to Bosch 5-pin from the original). This pin, from what I understand, is the relay ground. So all I should be doing when I flip the switch is connecting the relay to ground, thus completing the circuit.

The EA81 AC fan circuit is a satanic unholy mess that includes, among other things, whether the headlights are on.... What vehicle are you working on?

I hate doing clutch cables. I've been tempted to stick in an ea82 pedal rack just for the easier clutch cable jobs, which I seem to do every year or two...

Bit of a side question. For the operation of the A.C. fan the relay is shorted to ground? All the thermo switch does is short the relay to ground? Electronics aren't my thing. Thanks :]

Here it is 2025. Link http://home.comcast.net/~trilinear/clutch.html no longer works. I am working on replacing the clutch cable in my 1984 GL wagon. Having a battle with the pedal e-clip. The screwdriver just jumps out and I was going to try to nudge it with a gasket scraper, but I stopped for now. Eyesight, lenses and lighting, now the heat, it'll take a while...

ww.car-part.com good source for parts.

Hello thanks for reading! I have a 07 Outback with an ej25 that has bad crank bearings. I picked the car up for 300 bucks and want to get it going. I found a avls sohc non turbo jdm that u want to put in it. Anyone have any tips or suggestions? I’ve searched the web but haven’t had much luck. The car is in beautiful shape for the age and mileage, would like to see it running instead of going to scrap. Thanks again!

You wouldn’t happen to have a link to the tailgate glass replacement rubber seal? If someone made the rear fixed glass rubber seals for the MY wagons I reckon they’d make a killing. I’d definitely take one for each side, maybe two if another project comes through. Cheers Bennie

Well they aren't upgraded like I was hoping to get, but rockauto has sachi struts under 86 GL 1.8 OHV. Only right hand, but the spring cup isn't offset, so it should fit both sides. I've ordered two while we conduct further research into aftermarket alternatives.

I purchased for my front windshield on Australia website. https://www.autoglasswarehouse.com.au/subaru-leone-10-1979-to-7-1984-and-brumby-1-1982-t For rear wagon hatch glass I got lucky and found it on Ebay Australia.

Yes, L-Series I was referring to any of the Leones/Loyales/DL/GL, etc. I didn't know the wagon shared suspension components. It makes sense. One thing you could try, and it's helped me track down parts before, is searching for what you want on eBay and changing what model nomenclature you use. For instance try "Subaru Brat Strut", then "Subaru L-Series strut", then "Subaru Leone strut", then "Subaru Reone strut" (not a typo, on Japanese sites, they call it a Reone, my guess is this is for linguistic differences). You or anyone searching may get lucky. These vehicles were known as so many things that depending on where the listing is from, the regional model names may differ while referencing the same model. :]

@SuspiciousPizza I'm not sure about an L series, as I'm not sure what you're refering to. If you mean a loyale, then no it won't fit a BRAT. The BRAT along with the Leone Sedan, wagon, and hardtop all shared the same suspension mounting through the 80s as far as I know. Even the XT (minus the XT6 which was different thanks to its 5 bolt hubs and the three bolt top hat of the XT4) had the same suspension mounting style as the Leone line. This stems from the BRAT not actually being its own thing, but rather being built off the 4WD Leone wagon, and sharing its underpinnings.

Forgive my ignorance, I'm not yet fortunate enough to own a BRAT. Are the BRAT struts different from the L-Series struts? I know there were a few different mounting styles throughout the years. With the BRAT being it's own standalone body style I could see there being different mounting requirements. But from a financial perspective, why would Subaru use a different strut? It's easier to make cheaper cars when they all share parts. Thanks :]