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OEM EJ front struts mounts rarely fail. So if you find yourself stuck thinking you wouldn’t need to replace it but the bearing isn’t good - you’ve got an option. If it’s not rusted terribly and the bushing/mount material is good and only the bearing is an issue, you can regrease the bearings. Today I did one on a 190,000 mile Outback strut that’s sat outside for a while and the bearing was seized, then hard to turn, very lumpy and catching. Doing the following, it was perfectly usable by my standards when I was done. For practice and to get a feel for what you’ll be doing you can use a tiny pick or spludger device to pry the edge of the face seal up on the under side of the mount where the face seal meets the inner race. I’m not all that delicate with these, the OEM ones I’ve done the seal materials are highly pliable and resilient. Use a needle fitting for a grease gun and insert it very roughly about 30 degrees incline from the seal face and between the inner race and the face seal. It’ll take a few times to get it to actually go down into the bearings. It often “stops” right away and you can’t push it in. If it stops - Pull back. Slide down the race a little or pull it all the way and rotate and try again. Eventually the needle slides in a solid 1/2” and notably goes down into the bearing. Before you pump grease press down where the needle enters and “seal” that entrance up with a finger so less grease just comes back out of that area when you squeeze the grease gun Give it some grease and pull the fitting out. rotate the bearings a few/couple dozen times by hand. Wipe up any external grease. repeat those steps 2-7 times depending how much grease you put in. Smaller shots of grease multiple times would be ideal and best. dont overfill the bearing or pump quickly or the face seal can be push out If that happens just press the face seal back down by hand after a few times the bearing will feel much better. Every other bearing I’ve done (timing pulleys and others) feels indistinguishable from new after doing this - tight and smooth just like a new bearing , strut mounts seem to retain a little less smooth feeling but still feel much better, turn freely, feels greased, and good enough for me for a strut mount. Ive done this to timing pulleys?and they do just fine even after 50,000 miles of high rotational speeds and localized temps. And I’ve done it to older subarus with unavailable pulleys and unavailable bearings where the face seal cracks and gets more damaged than normal due to age/design - not ideal but options are limited - and still no problems 10’s of thousands of miles on probably 10-20 bearings like that. So it seems like this should be a reasonable option in some cases for EJ strut mounts

Hey everyone. So I have been dealing with this Weber problem for some time. I have an 88 Rx that of course the Ea82T is junk and I got rid of it. I put a completely rebuilt Ea-81 into just for the reliability of having it run like all the Ea-81's. But with the Weber, every time I shut her off for more than say 10-15 minutes, she is hard to start and you have to be precise with your foot and the gas to get her to start. Once started she is fine. Well, I found some info online today that I wanted to share. One guy I found, FINALLY, had the same issues I was having, yet it was on a Mazda truck that had the weber. He would drive 5 miles down the road to the parts store and if he was in the store for more that 10-15 minutes, it was hard to start. Well, he found out, while experimenting, that the intake was getting so hot that it was transferring to the carb and atomizing the fuel while the car was off, and basically flooding it. They make a spacer made out of Phenolic/ Bakelite that is like $30 with the shipping that keeps the carb cooler. It fixed his problem and he even gained a little from having more space to atomize the fuel before ignition. Before he said he couldn't touch the carb it was so hot, but now, it keeps it way cooler, to even touch after a long drive. So I ordered one today. I wanted to share with you guys. I have been dealing with this for some time. I hope this fixes my problem. I will post what comes of it.

When or IF it needs a new oil pump? I don't know what you do to oil pumps GD I have never needed a new one, nor needed to order one for a Subaru of this era. 500,000 , 800,000 km and more on the original oil pumps down here mate!

Thanks all for your guidance and I really appreciate learning about this. I bought the 800 page service manual on ebay last year, but I feel like a need a reading specialist to navigate it most of the time. That being said, yes this wire in question is a noise condensor for the radio signal. With the guidance of the specialists, I figured out what to look for in the manual!!!

All the 97s I’ve seen have the newer style tensioner. yes they slap and sound an awful lot like rod knock. 97 EJ22 is an interference engine and usually bends a majority of valves if the belt breaks or, more commonly, the pulleys fail. If you didn’t install a complete tikknf belt kit and it’s not rod knock then ideally it should get a Subaru or Aisin timing kit Where did you get the engine? Reputable source or cheapest available? If you did an EA to EJ swap you can diagnose the tesnioner in minutes. Pull the timing covers and start the engine and watch the tensioner. It’s either flopping around or its not. Or try a mechanics sterhoscope or pulling onky the drivers side cover which is really easy but I can’t recall if it can be seen from there.

97 should be the new style tensioner. Could be bad. Check the oil, then check the tensioner. GD

This is How the Instrument Cluster ended up, after the Deep Cleansing and New LED Bulbs Retrofitted, just Before to put it Back in my BumbleBeast: Now to put everything Back together. To put Back the Four Vacuum Hoses for the A/C Control Buttons is Easy, because Subaru Marked each one with Numbers... #1, #2 and #4 ...No Number three! ... ... but the last one is unmarked, as the last Vacuum Plug, so No problem at all. The Problem is to Keep them in Place, because with Age, those becomes Loose and the Tiny metallic plate that goes in their back, attached to the side's screws, isn't enough to keep 'em Hooked. So, I Used four tiny Zip ties, one for each hose and cut their excessive longitude, with scissors: That shall be More than enough. Now Reassembly everything back together. Finally, this are the Results: Somehow I Believe that the Original Designers of this Instrument Cluster, desired that it looked with Great Contrast, white numbers over black background as it looks with daylight... but since the incandescent bulbs emits amber Light, they decided to paint the Numbers with a green tint in the Newer Models, that the newer clusters has. The White illumination gives to the car a Much Modern Feeling, and is not Blinding at all, but Camera Lens tend to exagerate the Glow... it does look as Sharp as a Modern car's LED instrument cluster. Final Notes: ► You can see that the only part that has Green Tint painted behind the numbers on the instrument Cluster, is the Kilometers per Hour numbers, under the Miles per Hour numbers. ► I managed to Fix the Oil Pressure Gauge, just by sliding it slowly with my Finger, 'till it reached the Real "Top" of the readings, then it sat on the right 0 Mark, not under it as it was. The Gauge reads low, but Low is Better than under-zero (Negative) Readings ► The Dimmer Control does work Fine with LED Bulbs. I Uploaded a Video and is in High Definition Let me Know what do you think about the LED instrument Cluster and this Writeup; you can post and comment in the Discussion thread exclusively for this Modification, Here: ~► http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/topic/69467-ea82-dashboard-backlights-upgrade-to-hid-white-led's/ If you find this writeup, Useful, please let me know by hitting the "Like" Button below. I only ask this as a Motivation to continue Sharing my work with you. Kind Regards.