Leaderboard

First joined this forum 20 years ago when I had an 84 hatch that I had bought sitting in a field while I was in high school. At the time, I had a 91 Legacy. Drove that till it blew up and then picked up an 83 Brat that I found for sale on here and picked up another 83 for parts. Had a 2000 RS coupe in college, then a 95 Outback beater. Sold the RS and got an 05 STi, sold it in 2016 and got back into an 04 WRX in 2022. Picked up this 84 GL 2 weeks ago as if I needed another project but I am not poor on vehicles - also have a 2019 Tundra and 2015 Rav4. This thing was in surprisingly good shape for being an east TN car. With that, it does have its issues. I have on my work bench a new rear wheel bearing to install, hatch struts, will need a radiator as I see it dripping. I am also trying to nail down why the blower isn't working. I pulled the fan resistor switch last night and it showed continuity but I need to see exactly what ohm values it's supposed to have. Nothing like reading 20+ year old USMB posts. We still like pics on here?

Finally made more billet rear knuckles. Spent some time making these a little smoother/nicer than the first pair. One pair with tapped holes in the side for wheel scraper/caliper bracket and no wheel bearing holes for slammo. He is planning on using a different bolt on wheel bearing, I'll machine that when the time comes.

Converter ended up being the problem - just took a minute to warm up and relearn I guess, Runs perfect without the exhaust connected

I got a 2009 Outback special edition instead. Only 95,000 miles on it. It spent 2016-2025 in Arizona and before that in Colorado. Pretty much rust free. I drove it home to Fairbanks, Alaska.

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.

This was my 3rd Subaru - best damn car I ever owned and I kick myself for getting rid of it. ©1995

The weather was finally somwhat bearable (if humid as hell for my tastes), my leg is 99% healed, and I had a day off to play with, so I started poking at the rear suspension again. Pulled the subframe apart and separated the sheet metal piece from the diff, and removed the knuckle assemblies including the CV's and lateral arms. Also I think i made my first obnoxious mistake. Nothing too unrecoverable but still... annoying. Made a couple of test fits and chalk marks with the whole assembly to get an idea of what I thought I'd be wanting to chop. Actually chopping was the mistake (sort of) - but I'll detail that shortly. The diagonal marks indicate roughly where the frame ends on the brat where I need the subframe to sit. Did another test fit with just the diff and subframe, determined it would be easier to fit where I needed it to if I just cut it straight where the stock bushings ended. The intent here was (and I guess still is) to re-fabricate mounting points to the frame with new bushing locations to fit in the smaller chassis. Got everything tucked up in and sort of leaned in place where I think It will go. The diff is bolted to the subframe, and then also mounted to the original Brat front diff crossmember. Fits pretty close to where it needs to be - only thing now is that it looks as if there's about 1.5 - 2 inches of height I'll need to make up to keep everything sitting level. It was at this point where looking back I think I maybe made a bit of a mistake cutting off the bushings. Funny thing is - mere minutes after completing all the test fitting and cutting today, a friend sent me a youtube video from a guy doing a similar subframe swap in on a later gen brat where he just...*widened the frame and used the stock bushings.* Shocker, this would have been a much simpler approach and I think there would still be enough clearance for me to narrow the links and CVs to tuck everything back in under the stock wheel wells. Granted, the gentleman in question had to refabricate his whole rear frame, and appeared to be planning on adding a widebody kit setup though so maybe he didn't need to be so concerned about the wheelbase width in the back. Lack of access to the "frame" from a different perspective was also a reason for me not thinking of this - I'm still using the bed as a demi-storage locker and haven't cut the bed floor or wheel wells out yet. Might change that and get the ol' death wheel out for the bed soon to, but that metal is in pretty good shape and I'd rather not cut into it if I don't have to. I'm deciding to look at the silver linings here - It's probably for the best I'm still going my own way of it - I'm definitely maximizing the room i have available to move the wheels inboard for a more stock look. I'm thinking I might be able to get clever and integrate the original moustache bar mounts or something... We'll see - I have to sleep on it. Absolute worst case I go to the junkyard and try to source another rear subframe and then widen the frame rails similarly to the other builder. A quick Google looks like one can be had for about $150 used. Maybe less if I find a pick and pull with one nearby or get lucky on marketplace. Mounting problems aside - having put everything roughly where I want it and looking at the bare underside of the subframe itself I think I'm going to have to take a slightly different track and shorten both the CV as well as the lateral links - chopping up the subframe more than I already have is going to prove much more complex than I initially assumed. I'd wanted to try to save on parts money and maintain stock impreza parts wherever possible, but in this case I think it will end up becoming much more expensive in terms of my time to relocate the pivot points instead of just changing to an adjustable link setup (It looks like I can get some of those for my GC model year for about $200.) Hopefully adjustable links will be adjustable enough to where I don't need to modify those to shorten them sufficiently. Anyways, looks a lot like it did when I started today but now I have more information to play with. Ever onward!

Here's how I set up my valve. I planned to get a proper piece of EPDM hose and a fitting but there's nothing more permanent than a functional temporary fix. The stock hose does fit on the "rear" fitting, but I also used a tight hose clamp. I soldered the wires to the terminals in the polarity you see in the photos. Red (with the blue heat shrink) is +. In the engine harness connector, the top terminal closest to the connector hook (latch thingy) is -, the bottom vertical terminal is +. :]

Replace them with the MLS units. I can’t remember the part numbers but others will. They’re from the EJ25 STi WRX model. You’ll thank yourself for going to that effort later. If you don’t, they’ll end up doing the external coolant leak thing. If money is tight, drop it in and run it. Over time you’ll see the leak develop. It won’t damage anything, especially if you regularly check the coolant levels. Cheers Bennie

First post! Here are some pics of my 88' GL. I call her Constance. I have just about a million photos of her, but these are some of my favorites. Everything is stock except the exhaust which custom made by the last owner, nothing loud just not stock. Not exactly sure why it was done but it's not an issue, so I don't mind. Also, the rims were painted black which I'm a huge fan of. -Philly

A friend of ours from Houston drove up to my house a couple weeks ago and we headed up to the UP. Once we got there we stopped for pasties and ate them at a park along Lake Michigan on the edge of town. A younger guy stopped on his motorcycle and asked about the Impreza, we talked Subarus for a bit. He had just imported a 99 STI from Japan. It's funny to me, ever since I got this Impreza I've gotten a lot more questions and had a lot more people taking pictures of the car than with the other Subarus. Not sure how much of that is people's love of first gen Imprezas and how much is the fact that you don't see many turn of the century Subarus driving around anymore. We drove up to the campground along the reservoir in the southern UP. M and B showed up later. Friday we went to the rapids and then hit the mini banked oval. There was a snapping turtle at the edge of the oval. Then we wandered up to the Baraga pipeline grade. We were all entertained as usual. Hit some of the sandy stunt areas nearby and a few of the side trails. Before we got to Houghton we were on a trail in the woods where we decided to turn around. I could not get the Forester out of the ruts so we eventually put a bunch of branches and sticks in the ruts and I was eventually able to get out. Then going back down the trail I was crabbing the Forester sideways for hundreds of feet before I finally got straightened out. Headed north to Houghton and then to Gay beach. M declared it the mother of all stunt areas. Drove much farther south than we had before after crossing a narrow spit of tailings along the lake. Did some side by side uphill jumps and then decided maybe we should leave while we still could. Checked out the mine building ruins, some good post apocalyptic flavor there. Temps were solid while driving on Gay beach which is a good test of high duty cycle and low speeds. Then they crept up in the woods and we discovered one of the fan fuses was blown. The passenger side fan would turn most of the way pretty easily but there was one spot in the rotation it would get stuck. We eventually figured out there was a tiny pebble(?) stuck to the outer ring of the fan blades. We were eventually able to get it off and replaced the fuse. Later we noticed it had a slight coolant leak. We tracked this down to the small welds on the underhood heater core that attach the mounting flange to the end tanks. Rerouted the heater hoses to the stock configuration. Got up to the top of the cliff along Cliff drive. I had parked a few hundred feet back from the first overlook and when I was walking back to my car a UTV was coming up. I heard the driver blurt out “what the f--k?” when he saw the Impreza. He told me he knows people who won't take their Jeeps up the rocky climb we took to get to the top. I then walked back to the overlook and he said the same thing to the other guys. We drove to the next overlook and hard parked on the edge for some pictures. The yoopers showed up again and we talked to them for a while. “This isn't what most people from Illinois do when they come up here” one of them says while holding out his pinky finger. They had both seen different UFOs and had some story about a cave nearby that no one could find with a wall of silver and a bag of gold coins. I believed the UFO stories more. We camped at the overlook. Saturday morning we headed up to Brockway Mountain. As we pulled on to the long road going there we were proceeded by three extremely slow drivers. We pulled off on a side trail rather than test our patience following them the whole way there. This trail eventually led to a very sketchy bridge but we managed to cross it. I think it was in this area I checked one muddy stretch on foot and it didn't seem too bad so I drove through it, but I was barely able to do so and then the ruts were deeper and softer. So I told B he shouldn't come through and I didn't want to go back through so worst case we come back to that spot in a half hour. Fortunately we were able to maintain radio contact and I was able to drive around the block so to speak and meet back up with them. We eventually found a different way out of the area. At one point the temps had started to creep up in the Impreza again and a fan fuse was blown. This one was probably from the fans running while driving in deep water, we replaced it and never had the problem again. We eventually got up to Brockway Mountain from the other side. After we'd been on trails for quite a while and got back to pavement B said the Forester was shaking quite a bit. Turned out all the LR lugnuts on his Forester were loose and one was missing. We tightened down the ones we could and continued. From there we did a little more trail riding and buzzed up to the beach to camp for the night. At camp B swapped out his wheel studs on the LR hub as most of them were somewhat damaged or packed full of aluminum. Sunday we started heading back on various trails. One of them eventually became deeply rutted and I didn't think I could get through without taking off a mirror so we turned around. We came to a fairly long and deep water crossing where beavers had flooded a road. There was a muskrat swimming in it when we pulled up. I walked it and it was just below knee deep for a couple hundred feet. I drove through it in the Impreza after we removed the fan fuses. There was water over the front of the hood for a good portion of the crossing and we realized we should have stuck the gopro on. B crossed it in the Forester and then we put the gopro on the Impreza and I crossed it back the way we came and then back again to proceed. At the top of the hill right next to the stream was a cool old furnace of some kind. Later we found the beaver dam that was flooding that road. The highlight of the day was probably discovering and climbing Mt Houghton. Probably the most intimidating rocky climb we accomplished that weekend (ever in the UP?) and one of the best views in the UP once we made it to the top. Got gas and water at the Lac La Belle resort. Cashier was using binoculars to read the mechanical gas pumps. Found a silly hillclimb along the border of a wildlife sanctuary that M almost convinced me to try but ultimately we decided it should wait for a different weekend. Buzzed down to Lake Linden to camp that night so J could take a shower and we'd be closer to the portage. Monday morning we took the Bill Nichols trail basically all the way from South Range to Adventure Mountain with a few detours and stops for some stunt areas and mines along the way. M and J enjoyed the Firesteel trestles and the lookout near the top of Adventure mountain and we headed back from there. The trail west out from the Adventure mountain climb was rough and narrow but we made it through with some extra dents in the rockers and floorboards. Stopped near the end of that trail to air up and eat PB&Js. We drove down to Watersmeet together and the Impreza seemed to have some high frequency vibration that didn't go away when I put the clutch in. Cleaned some dirt out of the wheels when we stopped for gas but that didn't help. Stopped again and discovered two of the driveshaft bolts were missing from the pinion flange. I had looked before but those two must have been up. Installed some bolts and tightened them all down and had a smooth ride home. Could only run the AC intermittently on the way home or the coolant temp would creep up. Overall a good weekend, cooling issues with the Impreza are still frustrating but we all had a good time. J and M were impressed with the Impreza, especially the EZ36. J definitely enjoyed the UP and quickly got in the groove of following overgrown trails (with a surprisingly high success rate of connecting to other trails this weekend). M said it was probably his favorite off road trip we've taken, no major malfunctions, lots of stunt areas, lots of overgrown trails (which he likes). Removed the radiator after we got home and it seemed clean. I had sprayed it off at the car wash but that's usually not too effective. So I'm still a bit surprised the car was running hot on the highway. We did check the overflow at least once when it was hot and still have never seen air bubbles. After spraying the condenser out from the back with a hose wand it did become clear that a lot of the fins on it are bent over. We did go through a lot of brush so it's probably from the fan blades spinning leaves and twigs against the condenser. Should be getting a replacement today, hopefully that brings the temps back under control. Also got a pair of 80s Ford Econoline heater cores I plan on putting where the extra heater core is now for more cooling capacity.

Update found 2 burn resistors and soldered them in and it fires right up

I finally got an easy one! The 2002 was missing intermittently, bad enough to affect driveability. We got under the hood and tried spraying propane from an unlit torch along the vacuum hoses, for just in case it had a vacuum leak. No luck with that, but I did hear a tick each time it missed. I started paying attention, and was able to see a spark jumping from one of the coil end plug wire boots to a rubber hose! The boots had gotten dirty, and the medium voltage had made a track to ground. I pulled each boot and wiped the outside of the boot with a rag moistened in WD40, and wiped the dirt and carbon off the coil where the boot plugs on. FIXED! New plug wires are on the way. On a side note, we tried sticking the unlit torch into the air intake and opening it as wide as it would go. Couldn't hear any change in the motor noise. That trick might have worked with carbureted engines, but it doesn't seem to work with this engine.

Super easy. Unplug the white connector from the module mounted vertically to the left of the steering column. Here's the old write-up on it, but looks like the pictures are dead. https://www.subaruoutback.org/threads/diy-disabling-drl-2000-2004.6668/

I'm quoting my own post from 2025 because I have since revisited the question of using a SERA484-10 4-wire throttle position sensor as a $30 alternative to the OEM TPS that, when available, sell for over $300 (if you are lucky enough to find one). It's not a quick PNP solution but it is working for my 1987 EA82 DL wagon with the SPFI engine and not that difficult to install. The functions of this substitute TPS are all a mirror image of the OEM part and it even had the Hitachi logo on the plastic case. By mounting the TPS upside down, and creating a new mounting bracket, I was able to make it work quite well. I have about 150 miles on it so far with no issues. The idle switch is still adjustable and functions properly. The resistance range at idle and full throttle are easily within the range of the factory service manual recommendations. I will clean up the wiring in the near future but for now, I have simply made a set of jumper wires to go between the old TPS plug and the new TPS body as the 4-wire plugs are not compatible.

Oof, the hits keep on coming. Between life happening and that stint where the forums were down - I hadn't had much time to update this, but today I took the time to get things moving a bit again. Long story short - I decided the simplest thing to do to solve the rubbing problem as it currently exists was to cut the tack welds and shift the whole subframe back about an inch, rather than doing a whole bunch of complex bodywork. My bodywork skills are definitely not my stronger suit, so I figured I'd better make things fit to what's already there as best I can. While this job was harder than I thought it was going to be (I had to cut out a larger section of the bed to get my cutting tools in there), the wheels now sit squarely (loosely) in the middle of the arches. To continue the spirit of solving a problem by creating new problems to solve, now I have to modify the original rear diff crossmember to make up for the distance the entire assembly has moved. Probably going to knock that out in the next couple days. Basically for that I'm going to cut some chunks out of the existing crossmember , then offset them with lengths of rectangular or square tubing of similar cross section. It shouldn't be too difficult because the stock part is basically a piece of straight U-channel with bushings mounted through it. No weird bends or offsets to be had so as long as I modify it so the threaded holes move directly rearword, it should be a pretty quick fix. Once that's all done it'll be a temporary modification of the stock lateral links to bring everything a little tighter in towards the frame, then I'll get started on fabricating the strut mounts in the bed, and probably remeasuring everything to see about finding an off-the-shelf set of adjustable lateral links and trailing arms that fit, and then another semi-permanent modification of the rear CV axles to get those back on. I'll likely need to revisit the wheel arches in some form or fashion, but I'm hoping I can get away with just some good ol' fender rolling. Time will tell.

3 hours start to finish engine trans diff driveshaft axles mirrors ecu tcu fuel pump radiator and condensor out. nothing els worth keeping. and thats including driving it out of the woods and cleanup time.

I haven't posted here for years, partly due to login issues. @Turbone fixed those for me recently (thank you!). All the Subarus I had before have moved along, but I have more than ever before - 2006 Outback Wagon, 2004 Legacy Wagon, and the newest arrival is a 1994 Loyale AT my son just bought. The engine is suspect from a large oil leak that resulted in the engine's being run low on oil. We'll see about the leak and then if the noises clear up. His goal is to put a dual range MT in is but we'll see how easy that is to find...

yup, swap out the trans. you mentioned noise was only in 2nd gear. bad diff would make noise according to speed of the car regardless of gear

Ok so on the ground by 2026 didn't happen - but i did finally get things to the point where the subframe and diff are now semi-permanently attached to the car. Hooray! Using the holes in the bed for access I cleaned and tacked in the subframe, using the diff and its sheet metal as a jig to get everything in evenly Once everything was pretty sturdily tacked - I pulled the jack out from under everything. So far so good! I pulled the CV axles off of the knuckle/wheel assemblies and bolted in the stock lateral links and stacked the tires on blocks to get an idea of where I want the wheels wheels to sit at rest, and this is where the next complication arises - overall things look really good, except the wheels rub on the front of the arches left to their own devices. I'll need to play with this a little more - I'll either need to do a little bodywork to extend the wheelwells about an inch or two forward, or I may also consider options to move the whole diff/subframe assembly backwards about the same amount, though then i run into other clearance problems in the tunnel. I'll need to spend some time under the car staring at it to figure out which I'd prefer to do. Currently my gut says the latter is the easiest. For now, however, this still lets me move forward somewhat with the suspension construction. the more pressing issue at this stage is that the rear track is still several inches wide at the back. I loosely bolted the rear coils in place, and that let me get an idea of how much room I have to cut and move things inboard. I can almost see the end result - II'll be able to scrap the plan of using the impreza towers and modify the stock wheel wells without too much trouble, even though I might want to reenforce them after the fact. Had I known this prior I would have just cut the tops out, but oh well. Maybe if i do another in the future I can save myself the exploratory chopping. Or hell, even if someone else does this similarly - hopefully I can save you a little trouble. Did a little measuring and this is what I came up with: Forgive my mixed units and felt tip marker sketch on my mechanics crawler (free USPS cardboard) - but here's the broad strokes: I have a little more than roughly 2" / 5cm of horizontal clearance before the coils begin contacting things they shouldn't. The stock rear lateral links measure about 41cm long bolt center to bolt center, and I'm estimating about 10cm of vertical drop from their frame mounts to the knuckle mounts. if my math is mathed correctly, that means I'll need to shorten the link about 6cm to get the wheel moved inboard the requisite 5cm. I'm going to pull the links all the way off so I can measure them on the ground to double check these measurements - as I've found some adjustable links that would appear to be able to get close to these lengths without much serious modification and if i can do that and save myself a few hours of fabrication, I'd prefer to do that. I've also gotta figure out the trailing arm mount, but that'll come after I figure out the width issue. Anyways, that's all for my new years update - until next time kids!

Thanks for the suggestions. I've passed them on to my daughter. She has a big savings account and could easily buy a very young car if she valued having a decent looking car, but this one is generally super reliable, which is good enough for her. She'd rather buy a piece of land.

Thank you. That's what I thought but was puzzled by the short life. I greased them up good and filled the cavity ten years ago but I have not greased them since and the car gets driven through icy water a lot. I ordered the new bearings and seals today. I have a seal driver set. I snowmobile in to my cabin in the winter so I'm hoping they might last until spring but I kind of doubt it. Yesterday when I cranked the axle nut enough to gain another hole in the castle nut it seemed to tighten them up a little. If they wear down and loosen up again I'll change them out. That just means that I'll be doing it in the snow on the side of the road where I park in the winter. But hey it's a $300 car that I have been driving for 15 years.

Resolved, replaced both converters. Thanks Brusbrother. Got this car from Georgia for my daughter, so it's rust free, I'm sure you can appreciate that. Concern is what caused this and hoping it doesn't destroy the new ones - oil level was increasing and bad mileage, pretty sure running rich. Found and replaced one cracked injector while chasing the clogged converter issue. Time will tell. Runs great, looks great, ready for college next year, she got a free ride at her top private school pre-med and was the first player in school history to be named first team all state twice as a junior and senior. Not bad from a rural public school with very poor academic options. /end proud dad brag

Have you drained the gearbox oil and see what comes out with it? Also carefully feel around inside the gearbox through the drain hole for any other fragments that may be present. Noise will travel to different areas. You’d need to use a dowel/long screw driver/stethoscope to pinpoint where the noise is coming from more precisely. Seems more likely that second gear is chipped, possibly both gears - if that’s the case you’d get an un-rhythmic sequence that will repeat after some time. This is because all gearsets have at least one gear that’s got an uneven number of teeth so they wear all teeth against each other for even wear across all the two gear cogs’ teeth.

Did a little more weekend deathwheel work today - took about an hour to get some access panels cut into the bed floor so I can more easily add some gussets to the subframe while it's bolted to the assembly. The idea here is that I'm going to use them both to reinforce the subframe and it will give me a locating feature when I go to tack this piece into the car so everything lines back up. The idea here is that I'm going to use them both to reinforce the subframe and it will give me a locating feature when I go to tack this piece into the car so everything lines back up. I've still got to take things in and out a couple times before this becomes a more permanent part of the vehicle. I'll probably weld the panels back in once I'm satisfied with the subframe and suspension towers, as some of these welds I'm planning on leaving only semi-permanent till I've got all the clearances worked out with the coilovers, so I'll be leaving access until I'm sure I don't need it anymore. This last photo looks real scary but in reality it's just me adding four tack welds to the gussets only on the subframe. I'll be removing it one last time to box everything in and hit it with a bit of weld-through primer. Folks with a real professional background in automotive engineering would probably cringe at some parts of my approach, but I got everything measured up as even and straight as a mallet and tape measure would allow. I'm honestly pretty impressed with myself at how evenly I was able to get everything to line up with a couple symmetrical features I used as reference points (a couple bolt holes and a few key bends/seams. I find myself repeating the mantra "perfection is the enemy of progress" a lot on this build, and so far (knock on wood) it's working out pretty good. Next up I have a fairly short punchlist to get this subframe on the car in a meaningful way, and then I'm planning on attacking the lateral links, trailing arms, and locating the strut towers. The more I think on it the more likely it is that I'll probably be scrapping more of the Impreza tower than I'd intended. The rust is pretty deep in the driver side tower and the more I stare at the mockup as it sits the more dislike the way it looks. One way or the other I'll figure out something good. Main goal is to have it back on its own four wheels (again) around the new year. We'll see if I make that goal or if I blow past it for some unforeseen reason. Hopefully I'll have at least one more update before the New Year, but if you don't hear from me beforehand, have a good last few weeks of the year, everybody! -M

Thanks for all the advice on this. Good to have someone else looking over my shoulder making sure to at least warn me when I'm doing something I shouldn't. Yes, we're just using these as transfer pumps. One for each direction since they all seem to have a check valve built in, the only reversible ones I can find are pretty expensive. 14ga seems overkill for 5A. I use 16ga for almost everything. Will take a closer look at the ABS wires for sure, I like the idea of just using them for power and then grounding the other terminal of the pumps. Will probably see what other wires are running back there we're no longer using too. On the topic of wiring, any suggestions on a relay/fuse good for 80+ amps? Want to put both the pusher fans on the secondary fan circuit. Figure I'll switch the big relay I add with the stock wiring/relay. Those fans pull almost 30A each (over 30A when submerged in water apparently). Planning on putting both the puller fans on the primary fan circuit, they are small and don't draw as much so I should be good there. Currently have one of each on each circuit on 30A fuses.

Long overdue trip report from early October. B and I decided to revisit some of the challenging portions of the trail riding with T in 2019. Friday morning before I left I shoved a couple pieces of hardware cloth between the radiator fans and grill/bumper. We met at Canyon Falls and headed north a little bit and started trail riding. Many of the trails we were on Friday were not on any of our maps and were quite overgrown. One of them stared getting soft and the Impreza started digging in to the mud. I locked the center diff and got out the folding recovery ramps and was able to get back to dry ground. We saw several different Notice of Authorizations posted for culvert and temporary bridge construction for logging operations. Some of these were about ten years old but we'd never seen them before anywhere. Impreza temp gauge started creeping up, the main fan fuse was blown so we replaced that. Not really sure why, it was fine the rest of the weekend. The hardware cloth in front of the fans did keep getting packed up with leaves and other vegetation all weekend, we cleaned them out quite a few times. Unfortunately none of the trails we explored for the first few hours went anywhere so we had to go back to the highway to go north a few more miles to some other trails. We were heading towards a hill on the topo that showed a trail going to the top so I tried to get there. Again wound up on some trails not on the maps and eventually came to a sign with a skull reading Paul Hytinen's trail of no return. That trail was basically a straight shot to the top of the hill. The first section was a fairly long and rocky climb, the only time I used low range all weekend. And yes that's an interior door panel lying next to the climb. We both made it up with no major drama and the rest of the trail was fairly mild. It was getting late so we camped in the little clearing at the top of the hill. In the morning B discovered that his RF tire had gone flat due to a small sidewall cut. He was able to double plug it. One of the first trails he had us go down was fairly narrow, rutted, and muddy but we made it through. At this point his plug was leaking so he replugged it which lasted the rest of the weekend (sort of...). Found a big tailings pile back in the woods. Found some decent campsites along a road next to a neat stream. Went to one of the stream crossings we'd turned around at on a previous trip with a less capable Subaru. Crossed it easily and continued. Went up a muddy climb that wasn't too steep but had a lot of logs that we're guessing other people put down but probably didn't help us. We both made it to the top but then I managed to go a little too far to the right and slide into a soft spot. Shortly after this I had a small stick jammed in my LF brake heat shield making an amazing amount of noise so we removed that. At that point I realized I couldn't open the RF door because the rocker was smashed up. Found an old RV way back in the woods. Went up to Mt Arvon from the west. Parking area was full of golf carts so we continued northeast. Got to another stream crossing we'd marked and turned around at with T but this time crossed easily. Eventually reached an old railroad grade that started out muddy and rutted which we had also turned around at on a previous trip. A little ways east a beaver dam was flooding a portion of the grade. This pond looks like it was probably occupied. Fortunately there was basically a beaver dam on either side of the road. We dug some drains in the dam on the downstream side and were then able to drive through. We were both briefly stuck but some jacking and logs under the tires got us back on the move. Just east of that was a four way intersection. We continued east on the grade and stopped at another beaver dam. This one was a similar deal but did not seem active, they had kind of dammed both sides so we dug ditches on the downstream side. Frog eating an earthworm, don't think I've ever seen that before. After a little draining It was starting to get a little late so we decided to go back to the intersection which had a big clearing and cook dinner. We then drove back to the beaver dam to check the drainage. Just before we got there B's Forester got stuck in a muddy rutted section and wasn't driving and making a noise that sounded like splines stripped out coming from the rear end. I was able to push the LR IB CV back in the diff and he was able to continue driving. We dug some more in the main section and fortunately kept walking to the far end and started draining a short but deep section at the end. By now it was getting close to sunset so we drove back to the big intersection to camp out. CV popped out of the diff a couple times on the way back. We jacked it up each time and were able to get it back in but it didn't seem like it had popped out far, maybe 1/4”. The next morning we started disassembling that suspension corner and got the axle out. Splines on the IB CV had stripped out, fortunately the diff gear looked fine. Put in his spare LR axle, ate breakfast, and drove back to the beaver dam to survey our work. Water levels had dropped almost a foot overnight. Found some more tadpoles and insect larvae We were both able to drive through, the hole at the far end was still deep enough to be deeper than my bumper so it's a good thing we drained a foot of water out of that. Of course just a little further was an even bigger beaver dam and this one was mostly on the downstream side of the road so we turned around and went back through the one that had been draining overnight to the intersection we'd camped at. Headed south and then continued east. Looped around to the other end of the grade and found another beaver dam quite a ways from where we'd turned around. Headed north, found some cool waterfalls. Revisited some other muddy spots we'd turned around at before and got stuck briefly and turned around again this time. A while later on another trail B got the Forester stuck in a frog filled stream crossing. Some jacking and shoveling and wood under the tires got him out. Then we got to another muddy rutted section. We walked it and poked at it with sticks and it didn't seem too bad except for the far end. Which is where I got stuck, somewhat high centered on some small trees that were fallen across the road we hadn't bothered to move. Probably with a little more momentum I would have gotten through. Took us quite a bit of high lifting, shoveling, recovery ramps, and wood stacking to get it on semi dry ground. Then B got stuck a little before where I had. We hooked up our straps and I was able to pull him up to the decent section of trail. We continued down that trail and just before we got to the major dirt road there was an RV and a giant tent set up in the trail. Fortunately there was a side trail nearby that connected to the dirt road and we continued. Our next point of interest was the beaver pond where T had flooded his Impreza in 2019. If I hadn't had it marked on my GPS we would never have noticed it. The road was built up several feet and a new culvert had been installed. The pond was still there but not much risk of flooding the road anymore. We went to a waterfall B had taken us to before, it's probably about a 50' slide and does have a little parking spot alongside the trail but no signs or anything. There's some metal chairs and pots and pans, a legit grill, and other cooking supplies stashed there but probably not enough flat ground for a couple tents so we decided not to camp there. We continued north and found a spot on a side trail to cook dinner and camp out. We headed back south, not long after that B's RF tire had another sidewall leak, this one probably worse than the first. We just swapped on the spare tire. Headed down a long somewhat rocky trail/road and rediscovered the vintage Barrington IL city bus turned camper we'd seen in 2013 and haven't seen since. Also saw an old plow truck parked alongside the road. Drove up to Big Bay and got gas at the station on the south end of town, it's well stocked with groceries and even has a decent hardware section in the back. Stopped at Thomas Rock Scenic Overlook on the way back to the trails. Excellent view, short walk. B wandered us down some narrow trails in varied forests we'd never been on. Headed back west on a slightly more northern dirt road than we'd been on. This one must have been some kind of major route long ago as there was a concrete bridge near the (current) end of it. Drove around the trails in that area, some good fall views but everything was eventually either bermed off or overgrown. By this time we needed to go back to civilization so we headed south on a major dirt road. Stopped at a boat ramp/park to air up and eat PB&Js and checked out an old truss bridge that's only open to pedestrians. We were entertained by the bicycle hanging from the top and ratchet straps underneath. Convoyed down to Green Bay, got gas, ate dinner, and split up for the rest of our drives home. Shortly after we split off I was stuck behind some old man camped out in the left lane. I finally got a gap on the right to pass him and as I was doing so I saw a cop parked in the median. Looked in my mirror to see the lights flashing and the cop pulling out on the highway. He eventually caught up to me and pulled me over. I assumed it was going to be for speeding. He walks up to the passenger window and asked if I'd been having fun off roading. Then says he pulled me over for loud exhaust. Asked if the exhaust was modified or if something had come loose off roading, I chose the latter option. He came back with just a warning ticket and said he was jealous of the fun we probably had over the weekend off roading. I would definitely like to make the Impreza quieter I just don't know how. I do have a slightly larger muffler I want to try but I doubt it will make much difference. I have a little more motivation to try it now though. Overall we had a good weekend, only major repair was the rear CV axle, good weather, almost no rain, almost no flying insects, no ticks. Saw a surprising amount of frogs. Trails were relatively dry, fall colors were neat. Should probably go up in October more often. Over 200 miles off pavement, spent the majority of our time and maybe miles on trails/roads we hadn't been on before, probably a quarter to a third of our time on roads that weren't on any of our maps. Perhaps the biggest portion of just trail riding of any UP trip I can remember. We were on some major dirt/gravel roads but it was a small portion of the time. Probably only 10-20 miles of pavement driving all weekend. Had to go out of our way to get to a gas station. We'd both dumped our jerry cans in our tanks but I was still probably within a half gallon of being empty by the time we filled up. Definitely further encouragement to get the extra ten gallon tank hooked up. Used the weavable recovery straps a few times for recovery, 5-10 times for pulling/breaking logs out of the trail. Radiator fans getting blocked by vegetation was an ongoing issue but fairly easy to deal with. Glad I put the hardware cloth in front, it may have saved the condenser from getting truly packed and folded over with debris. B didn't have that problem, we're assuming it's a pusher fan thing. I plan on putting the two small puller fans on the primary fan circuit. Those shouldn't attract as much debris and hopefully will be adequate for cooling most of the time. Then put the two big pusher fans on the second circuit, probably with a bigger relay and fuse. One morning the clutch pedal was almost to the floor but still worked. Eventually pumped up and seemed to work normally the last couple days and ever since. Mpact clutch disc seems a lot smellier than the one I had before but worked fine. It smelled like I'd been slipping it badly a bunch of times and while I was certainly working it in the woods it didn't seem to be slipping. Only used the low range once but had the center diff locked most of the weekend. Unlocked it a few times for long gravel roads. It did lock itself a couple times but then stayed unlocked all the way home and the next day of driving. Not making any more noise than usual. The next day while driving parts to heat treat in town some hispanic guys in their 20s were stopped next to me at a stop light. They signaled me to roll down my window and asked if the Impreza was fast. I just told them it had a six cylinder. Driver says me too and asked if I want to race. Sure. Light turns green and I let out the clutch at about 5000RPM and it proceeds to slip pretty badly as the car accelerates. Meanwhile their Chrysler 300 front driver is burning a tire. I had a couple car lengths on him but he stayed in my blind spot up to about 50mph when I backed off. The next weekend my wife and I went up north and stayed with some of her family. Impreza cruise seems to be working consistently, I wonder if the connection to the trans was getting loose/dirty. Has a bit of a wiggle when cornering sometimes. Eventually figured out one of the inner lateral link bushings is shot. Trans was noisy on the way back up north but has been quiet lately. Mostly in the center diff portion I think, when locking that it's definitely quieter (when it's noisy). It does have three different models of tires on it at slightly different pressures. Did lock the center diff by itself a couple times after the rebuild but hasn't in a while.

Other side repeated today. Also took the opportunity to fit up the impreza wheel wells and strut towers I've saved. I cut the middle sections of the angle iron frame I tacked on when removing them, then using some more angle as a bridge I clamped them back together. I ended up somehow sacrificing a tape measure doing this, but I'm getting some momentum back in this project so if a cheap tape measure is the cost to get this back on the ground sooner over later I'm glad to pay it. I'll need to do a little more surgery to get them to fit truly properly, especially since the filler neck is on the opposite side of the vehicle, but I suppose if I'm doing this much fabrication that will be somewhat trivial. I'll also likely be cutting a lot of them out to fix some rust in them anyway, but it's a good start. Going to set this aside for a little while and return to the subframe setup. Any permanent install of these towers here is severely premature. Once I have a base I can measure from to get the strut towers to a proper height and location, I can start poking at this in more detail.

40+ together. Wow, what an amazing achievement! Here's to another 40+!!

Very clever. So rather than continue to reduce your hoarded inventory of Subie parts, you intend on hiding it in plain sight from your wife in the form of a Baja?

Hi yall, been a minute. Glad to see the forum is still up. I'm about to check out an XT6 that was just listed for sale. 1988. Was driven to where it sits, but been sitting for several years. I've got a 94 ej22t wagon that'd I consider swapping the engine from. My question is, can I use the ej22t ecu with the XT6 autobox? I'd like to 5spd swap it. I've got an 89 GL wagon d/r and another d/r 5spd laying around. I'd rather source an ej series 5 speed for parts availability, durability. EJ 5spd should work with the XT6 splines correct? Anyway, I'm either buying the XT6 (dunno how the rust situation underneath is) or there's a non-running ea82 turbo wagon (originally a California car w no rust) a couple hours drive south that I have lined up, with a spare motor. XT6 is pretty darn rare here in western Canada. My buddy had a turbo XT in highschool and it was a blast. Not the best weight distribution. I figure it'd make a pretty fun cruiser or potential drift car with the weight so far upfront. I know in the past some have set the engine further back, cutting the firewall. Anyway, just spitballin another irresponsible car purchase. I'd like to get it running this summer.

It might work, not sure though. The issue is the strut sockets into the steering knuckle, so you'd need a strut that had the right diameter and spring mount location. Here are the 4WD strut parts numbers I had in my notes. There are some used Loyale struts on eBay at the moment (both right and left). Front Right Sachs: W0133-1932779 Front Left Sachs: W0133-2038805 Front Right TRW: JGM4031SR Front Left TRW: JGM4031SL Front struts are very difficult to find. They are available but the parts availability seems to come in waves. There's not really any "upgrade" parts for these cars (there are overload springs out there). Just finding parts designed for these cars is an accomplishment. :]

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 :]

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.

I'm the one who suggested that the cylinders were washed. lol. The piston rings seal with a very thin coat of oil on the cylinder wall. If you ever get fuel without starting, like trying to get a bunch of old gas and a dirty carb to run, the fuel washes this thin oil coat off the cylinder walls, and you lose compression. Fixing the problem that caused it not to start (i.e. flushing bad fuel, and dismantling and cleaning a gummed up carb), and starting it, will get oil slung back onto the cylinder walls, restoring the ring seal, and restoring compression. Sticky valves or such aren't going to happen simultaneously to all four cylinders from a running engine... Mechanical things that could affect all cylinders at once are a broken crank, broken cam (I saw this once! ... but there was a lot more broken too), broken timing gears, slipping ring gear (so you're not actually cranking the engine), etc... But if the accessories and dist are turning, those are all going to be fine. Broken cam or timing gears also cause a distinctly different sound, since some cylinders will be stuck with both valves closed, and compress each revolution - the sound of an EJ ready for a timing belt and half the valves replaced.... Am I positive I'm right? Of course not. They could have blown both headgaskets at once, or some other simultaneous multiple failure. Or the engine is total crap and never actually had any approximation of full compression but was limping along. But, based on my experience, I think it's the most likely diagnosis, which is why I said "probably".

I was just looking at this old rally photo of the Subaru WRC team (I assume in the mid 90s?) and I just noticed that the cars in the back of the photo are Leones/Loyales and not Legacys! I thought it was surprising since all the photos i see from this time are the early Legacys. Does anyone have any or know of any other photos of these 555 Leones. I honestly think it wouldn't look too bad, although I prefer the white blue and gold on the rally Leones.

The old “how do you eat an elephant?” dilemma. One bite at a time.

Thanks for the check-in and the compliments, all. In addition to the busted leg, the absurd heat of where I live and some other personal life stuff has held me up more than anticipated. Other paying work also got delayed as a result of the bum leg, so this took a backseat for a bit out of necessity. That being said I'm out of the boot now and I am the proud new owner of a higher-clearance jack I got on sale recently - so I'm hoping to get a couple early-morning sessions in on the rear subframe here in the next week or so. Progress will also likely speed up again around October when temperatures generally start to come down a little and I can do driveway fabrication without cooking myself. Anyways, long story short, I'm dipping back into it - updates of more significance soon.

B and I worked on all three of my Subarus and his blue Forester a few weeks ago. Bunch of relatively minor stuff but I went through the front struts on the white Outback. They've been making some clunking/spring shifting noises when turning tight at low speeds so I suspected the steering bearings needed a cleanup. I replaced one and regreased the other, haven't noticed those noises since. While I had them apart I noticed the bump stops were split. Haven't seen this on our other cars but this is the only set where we made the bottom of the body bigger to allow the bumpstop to expand to give it more travel. Perhaps now they can expand too much. Regardless, I replaced them. We got the Ford van heater core and electric fan installed on the Impreza. Tried to figure out which front wheel bearing (I assume) on my 2001 H6 OB is making noise but even using B's multi microphone noise identifying system we still can't tell. Neither side is loose or seems to get hot but at least one of them is making a lot of noise. Definitely louder or quieter when cornering so I assume wheel bearing. We replaced one of the rotors we thought was pulsating figuring it'd be an easy try and it maybe pulsates less but did nothing for the noise. The next weekend we went to the UP with some in laws/friends and went trail riding one day in the Impreza and Outback. Stopped at a gas station after some trail riding and I noticed the temps on the Impreza were creeping up so we pulled over, fuse and relay seemed good but driver's side fans were not running. Without the AC on temps didn't creep up too much even in the sand. I made the mistake of letting a novice drive the white Outback without me in it. Then I noticed the Outback was pulled over with steam coming out of the front end. Driver claims the brakes weren't working. It has some serious lower front end damage after going off the trail a bit and hitting a log. Lower radiator support and skid plate and bottom of engine very smashed. I think the front fenders, lights, crossmember, and possibly hood are still all in the right spots. In the long run probably the biggest downside is I’ll have to replace the head gaskets on my spare ez30. As we were pulling the car back on to the trail, I realized that we’d lost the rear bumper cover somewhere. Hooked the tow bar, lights, and safety chains up and started towing it north on the trail. Not too far down the trail we got to a big steep drop but it didn't look terrible so we went down that. Kept it under 20mph, looked it up later and that's apparently the safe flat towing threshhold for the 4EAT for a max of 30 miles. Still curious what exactly fails if you flat tow it too fast for too long. The rest of the trails weren't much of a problem and we eventually got back to pavement and aired back up the tires on the Impreza to 40psi. Flat towed white Outback to the closest town and asked the guy at the grocery store if it'd be OK to park it there overnight. He said one night would be fine. I couldn't convince others to retrace our steps and retrieve the rear bumper cover mainly since it was going to be dark soon. Most of the rental, almost all Uhaul, places were only open a few hours on Saturday so I either had to wait for them to open or by the time they were open I wouldn't have been able to get to them before they closed, had to talk to one guy for a bit to figure out how to get them to rent me a tow dolly. I did a test drive of my dad’s 1987 full size 3/4 ton Dodge van, seemed to be running rough but not terrible. None of my primitive engine tuning skills seemed to help. After a lot of calling around I drove the van an hour to U haul to pick up a tow dolly. On the way there the engine starting making noise and I looked at the oil pressure gauge (blocked by my hand in a normal 10-2 driving position) and it was reading nothing. Pulled over, after a bit of looking around figured out one of the oil pressure sensors had started leaking badly. We've had this happen on a different full size Dodge van probably 20 years ago. Fortunately there are two sensors on this one going into a tee so I was able to take that apart and just put in one sensor. Dumped some engine oil in and proceeded. At the rental place the lights on the tow dolly didn't work. Wasn't getting power at the four pin connector but had power at the six pin connector (both on van). They of course had just run out of adapters. So I drove to the local Ace and picked one up, drove back, plugged it in, right side light on tow dolly not working. Hooked up to another tow dolly with functional lights. Drove about two hours back up to where we'd left the Outback. During this driving I'd realized I didn't have the keys to the white Outback. But I did have a coat hanger and a screwdriver so I was able to get in. Fortunately for whatever reason in that car you can shift it into neutral without turning the ignition on. Lined the tow dolly up with the car and backed the van up to it. Pulled the car onto the tow dolly with a come along (hand winch). Strapped it down, looped safety chains around the control arms. Then I realized I should have unbolted the rear driveshaft sooner but I was able to just get all four bolts. Was able to strap the driveshaft away from the rear diff so it didn't rub (I assume). Towed it about 1.5 hours back to the cabin. Chocked the rear wheels with some chunks of 4x4 and set the parking brake and drove the tow dolly out from under the car. Sunday morning I drove the tow dolly back and left it at the rental place, a two hour round trip. We drove the van back in addition to the two other cars we drove up there that still ran. Impreza temp gauge was right in the middle even with AC on in 95F weather on the highway. After returning home and tracing the fan wires from the fuse box to the fan I found that one of the pins for the main driver's side fan had pulled out and the connector looked melted. It would still occasionally run when I was pushing or pulling on the wires so I think it was just loose in the connector. Replaced the stock connector with spade terminals and heat shrunk/taped/zip tied everything back up, they all seem to run now. Drove Impreza to the cabin the following Friday morning. Strapped RF of bumper to engine. Removed front CV axles and replaced with loose OB Cvs I found in the basement. Unloaded flat towing equipment and put in Outback. Saturday morning I drove to the end point of our trail riding, filled up with gas, and retraced our steps backwards in search of the rear bumper cover. I figured I now had most of the rest of the day to kill so I'd do some mild trail riding/exploration on the way back. Impreza seems to spin the tires with less forward traction with the tires at 45psi as I had them that day than the 25psi I'd normally drop them to if I'd known I'd be trail riding as long as I did that day. I tried to do a big loop south of where I found the bumper cover. At the start it seemed a bit narrow/overgrown but there was a Forest Service trail open sign so I decided to go for it. Parts of it were very overgrown. Eventually there was a large tree that had fallen blocking it. I drove around the other half of the loop and got back to the fallen tree. There was no way I was going to do anything about it without a chainsaw, which I did not have. Checked out a stunt area I'd found on the satellite that had one big hillclimb and drove a side trail near the top of it. No intention of trying something like that solo so I moved on. Went to the end of a road on the map, figuring I might as well see where it went, turned out it kept going for miles with various side trails, none of them on my map at all. Went by a few old cabins along a river that looked like they hadn't been used in years but in decent shape. Drove down some roads that definitely seemed like they were just for logging, some of the steeper ones were even pretty nicely graveled. Eventually I was heading south on a nice wide dirt/gravel road and getting closer to a paved road we've been on many times. There were a couple of large boulders in the road but they could easily be driven around. Didn't see any signs on either side but decided not to drive past them. Also I think where this road comes out to pavement there might be a large berm. There was also a wide smooth road heading north from the “blocked” road but it had tall grass growing in it so I decided to skip that for the day and head back the way I came. On the way back north as I was heading by the old cabins I caught up to some locals driving UTVs. Each one had a guy in his 70s and one in his 20s. The younger guys were pretty entertained by the Subaru and they all kept asking how it did. I told them the trails around there were no problem for it. I asked about the cabins and they said the one we just passed by used to be theirs, they had a year by year lease with the forest service. Then it was declared a scenic river and hundreds of people lost the use of their cabins. Where we stopped was another one with a similar story. I asked about the logging roads and the big rocks and they said the logging company that has the contract for that section of forest tries to keep people out from tearing up their gravel(!) logging roads. They pulled over to let me by and I kept driving north until I eventually found a different way out. I got back on the highway and found a waterfall I'd seen on a 40 year old Michigan county map. The “trailhead” is a gravel spot big enough for one car along a gravel road with a rope tied around a few trees heading into the woods. No sign or anything. Hiked into the woods, trail was easy to follow, found the waterfall, pretty cool. Near there I went down a dead end forest road and encountered this turtle. When I got back to the cabin I set up the flat towing hardware and did a test drive. Seemed to do OK but tire was still rubbing on the tape I'd put on the end of the front bumper so I cut that off with the recip saw. Had some dinner and went to bed. Got up Sunday morning, packed up the car, checked fluids, aired up the tires in the Outback, and headed south. Flat towing went as smoothly as possible. Impreza has good power and bigger brakes than stock which helps. Temp gauge was right in the middle all weekend, even when towing, climbing sandy hills, AC on, etc. Left tow bar connected, drove Impreza in garage, disconnected tow bar, slid rear of Impreza sideways with a floor jack, drove Impreza out, pushed Outback in garage with Impreza.

I completely replaced all of the grounds (wire and ends) for all of the grounds I could find in the engine bay. So far, so good. The windows seem to be moving a little quicker as well.

I've had pretty poor luck with aftermarket ones leaking in less than a year. 25240KA041 genuine Subaru number, MSRP is $24.57. Every dealer has a pile of them (I have 15 at the moment). I used a Subaru switch on my Toyota Celica because I was tired of the aftermarket ones leaking and the Toyota one has an MSRP of $71

That video is OK, but kind of short on detail. Do a YouTube search for "Miles Fox EA82" and watch his timing belt video. He posted on this board for a long time, and his videos are good ones that have a lot of why you're doing what you're doing instead of just how to do it.

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.

Yes. both were rated for .57 ohms and had OL and the other 450k ohms and I notice after replacing them both my oil pressure gauge reads accurately now

I've managed to keep the momentum I've built this last few days by removing the hull of the Impreza from my shop. In the interest of clearing the walkway even more I've decided to start preparing to transplant the rear end, which means removing the old one. This turned out to be easier than expected - probably in part because of the practice I had pulling the subframe from the Impreza, and partly because this one had fewer and more accessible bolts holding the thing on. I've learned a few things from today's endeavors. 1) the Impreza fuel tank is too long/wide to fit in place of its original counterpart in the Brat. This "too wide" feature seems to be a trend and for good reason - the wheelbase left to right when measured before removal were a good nine inches different, give or take. As such I'll likely either end up needing to reuse the original tank and run an aftermarket pump (most appealing, easiest on my wallet), or building/locating/modifying a new fuel cell to fit. Whether or not I will be able to use the original tank largely relies on item 2. 2) While the wheelbases are different, it looks like the differentials and housings themselves are very similar in size and shape - so much so that I'm tempted to think they used a modified version of the molds for the diff cases - or at least a very close one. The only visual differences I've been able to scope out at a glance are a few missing bolt holes on the Impreza cases vs. the Brat. There will probably be something more significantly different that I find as I dig into it more. The big "what if" that stands currently is how much fabrication I will need to do in order to get the Impreza differential and subframe parts onto the Brat without causing interference problems with the original fuel tank. If I'm extremely lucky I might even be able to reuse a couple of the mounting bolt holes and front crossmember from the original brat - albeit with a bushing refresh. My plan here is to remove the struts from the Impreza rear end next - which should then allow me to roll the existing crossmember under the Brat bed to check and see what lines up and what doesnt. 3) Lastly and certainly not least - if the preceding items line up, I believe that again with some creative angle grinder surgery I can, similarly to the front end, move the pivot points for the rear suspension inboard far enough to maintain the stock Impreza components without completely custom control arms. Adjustable arms may still be smart and will probably end up being necessary to keep things tracking straight but at least this way I can still drop in off-the-shelf components for an Impreza instead of destroying my bank account. Onto the next one...

I vaguely remember a youtube video about having to hook a computer up to the car and set something before installing the brakes. I'll see if I can find it again...

Sounds like one of the forks is out of place and gear synchro cogs are hitting as you turn it. Time to open it up, unless you can return it still.

Got the transmission tunnel and parts of the firewall out as well as the remaining brake and fuel lines. The husk is now well and truly a husk. Some might ask "why the firewall?" when i have a perfectly good Brat firewall and my response is to preserve the mounting hole patterns for the Impreza parts like the brake master cylinder and passthroughs. I may not need them all but this way I at least have good templates or even pieces to splice in where I need them later. Getting the Impreza body scrapped this week and putting the brat back up on stands to get the rear end removed. Looking at it I assumed the removal would be an easier task than it was - there's way more structural stuff in there than it appears at first glance, especially were I've cut it. Took me much longer than anticipated to finish the removal, especially since I was using a 4.5" angle grinder to do it. Were I to do this again or make suggestions to other folks - use a good reciprocating saw at the support ribs - it will make for much cleaner cuts.

Yes as the valve is working as it should.

I guess I hadn't clarified why I'm willing to go the less thrifty route with this rebuild (jump off the boat and swim with the sharks, eh?). I'm in my early 20's, still with my folks and this GL is my car... My only car. My window of time living with my folks is quickly closing and I knew I needed a car that was reliable, and easy to work on. However the issues I had with the car were just one after another. It makes sense, the car is old and tired. So my plan is to get the car to somewhat of it's former glory, deal with the big issues (mainly engine and drivetrain) while I don't have a bunch of bills and have the extra parts stashed away for when some smaller issues come up as I start getting my feet under me and navigating life as an adult on my own. Basically I'm taking the "buy once, cry once" approach in the hopes that in the end I'll have a car that will get me through my 20's without a bunch of debt. And no offence taken, in hindsight I shouldn't have bad-mouthed anyone's business. I'm young and learning, I have plenty of mistakes yet to make. I appreciate all y'all's input, I just don't have much experience so learning from other's experiences is very much appreciated. :]