edrach

Understood. What your father-in-law likely did when he fixed it was to unplug the connector and use a long skinny tool of some sort to squeeze the female pin smaller to get better contact. You can also get a spray can of contact cleaner to further reduce the resistance of the contact. This should get you working again so you have time to find a plug or harness to replace the existing one; also, if the female pin is in the fuel pump, I suspect you'll need to replace it too in the future to get a permanent fix.

Brian, that's a tough one. I've had a similar problem in the past since I use the EA82 flywheel in my Brat to mate up with the 5 speed conversion. Check out the 8 holes that mount the flywheel to the crank. The EA82 uses a slightly larger bolt than the EA81. There's not much difference, but it's there. Also, I believe the timing marks on the outer perimeter are about 20 degrees different.

I'm suspicious of the IAC (obvious choice) but hadn't thought about the TPS. I've got a real time monitor for the voltages to both on my laptop and it occurred to me today I should have it in my car tomorrow to look at the voltages from those two as well as the temp sensor. I haven't done it as yet since 25 straight days of rain are starting to addle my brain beside discouraging driveway troubleshooting. (By the way, thanks to Legacy777 and VRG for the laptop utility to monitor the voltages).

Brown plastic! The universal tip-off to a bad electrical connection. I think you found your problem. Fix is easy. Ideally it would be nice to find a connector set on a wreck but that's actually harder (how many wires in that connector?). The brown spot marks the ONE connection that is bad. Go down to your local hardware store (or Radio Shack for that matter) and pick up a short length of wire sufficient to carry the current along with a couple of butt splices. Cut the wires on both sides of the offending connection and butt splice around the connector. If you still want it to be separated you can add a quick disconnect pair in the middle. Tape off everything that might ground out and you should be good to go. If you're handy with a soldering iron, that would be a more secure connection. Thanks for the tip, we have a '97 Impreza with 118K miles on it and if it starts mis-behaving in a similar fashion, I'll know where to look.

You made the right decision walking away from it. Even 10,500 is much too high. I'd bet a beer that they call you in a few days with a new "low" figure. Don't bite until they come within a $100 of your bottem line number; your number is valid since you'll likely be spending the difference resolving the issues on this car. Good luck. Check out the stuff on the SF craigslist and see if a local member can inspect any suitable candidate you find and then take a quickie weekend to SF.

From your post you have an '86 wagon. Does it have the spoked wagon wheels? I had a similar problem until I switched to alloy wheels. The later version spoked wagon wheels all have a problem with getting knocked out of true with time.

It looks like a mouse tried building a nest in your exhaust while Max was sitting.

Best bet is to try the three Pull a Part yards that are close to you....Lynnwood, Tacoma, or Olympia. Motor will run you 150 to 200 depending on how many parts are still attached to it (carb, clutch, etc.). Most places give you a 30 day money back guarantee. Later model wagons or Hatches are good sources and with some judicious looking and evaluation you can likely pick a good motor (mileage, condition of car, is it a wreck or not); I've been lucky twice pulling good used motors this way. The other possibility is to buy a good running wagon or hatch for cheap off craigslist and pull the motor out of that and scrap the rest of the car.

That's a problem for this weekend. But a slight update, the CEL hasn't come on for the last two days. I checked the engine compartment again and found the radiator overflow was down about two inches from the initial level. My suspicion there is there may have been a air bubble in the coolant that's gone; that could have confused the temp sensor and triggered the CEL momemtarily. It could also be the start of head gasket issues so I'll be watching that.

Occasional click from the starter can be due to the starter, battery and connectors, and solenoid. A not uncommon problem with the older GLs is that the connector from the ignition switch into the wiring harness of the car goes bad. Easy fix, a trip to PAP to pull another ignition switch and short harness and then install in the wagon and you're good to go. Easy problem to spot and diagnose since the one wire running current to the starter heats up at the connector and the plastic turns brown (or black). I know someone posted a pic of one of these bad connectors but I don't know where.

Clicking joints are the CVJs. But it was a thought.

That would be good since I have a brand new one on the original engine manifold.

Replacement engine (EJ22) seems to be okay. It runs smoothly, doesn't smoke, and seems more peppy than the original. One thing it does is take a long time (about 15 to 30 seconds) to return to idle from about 1600 rpm when I come to a stop. It throws a CEL when I restart it after it's fully warmed up; CEL goes away instantly when I put it in gear and drive off. I'll check the code tomorrow when I can see again. Any thoughts? No other CEL codes during 80 miles of driving around town.

Vibration during acceleration which goes away instantly when you let off on the throttle can be traced to a bad DOJ on one axle. Check the inner boots on both axles; if one is torn, that's the bad one.

Just to give you a time frame, I've never pulled an EJ22 engine before this weekend; before that I've pulled and swapped an engine in my Brat and replaced the clutch in a Geo Metro (pulled engine and tranny together). That being said, Corky (who's done a number of engines) and I pulled and installed an EJ22 in my '91 Legacy in just under six hours. Pull the engine to do the head gaskets. By the way, this should put an end to the question on how to do the clutch.....pull the tranny or pull the engine? Corky and I did the clutch on my Legacy two months ago by pulling the transmission; almost 11 hours total time.

Of course the dealer doesn't know about the discrepany; he doesn't WANT to know. The mileages in the Carfax are probably correct and there's certainly been some rollback. The tip-off is the three different owners in vastly different areas of the country; and the fact that it's in California makes it four areas. The car has likely been purchased in a "dealer" auction at least one or more times. Each time it goes out of state is an opportunity to "wash" the title of the true mileage of the car. Now 130K miles is not a problem with the car you're buying, but I'd certainly have a reputable shop do a pre-purchase inspection of the car and offer a price more in line with the suspected high mileage and true condition of the car. Check Kelly Blue Book or NADA for suggested "fair" prices; know that KBB will be high and NADA will usually be much lower. If the car passes muster, I'd offer a price close to the NADA value and see what happens. Another alternative is to buy a car in another area where the selection is much more "buyer friendly." Saving $4K or $5K can go a long way toward re-imbursing you for the inconvenience of a long distance purchase. Lastly, try www.autotrader.com and search for comparable cars to this one within a 300 mile radius of your location and a price spead of $4K to $15K and see what other dealers are offering for similar vehicles. Recognize also, that dealer cars are usually priced higher than "private" sales. Good luck. One last thing, try to obtain service records for the car to determine the last time the timing belt had been replaced. Important to know on this engine since it's an interference motor and if the belt breaks unexpectedly, the engine will likely be trashed. If they don't know, get an estimate from a reputable mechanic for the cost of timing belt replacement and subtract that amount from your offer.

I've been able to do the replacement without ever dis-connecting the ball joint or radius arm. There was a write up on axle replacement in the old Repair Manual, maybe someone copied it and can re-post it so it can be put back into the USRM since this question comes up about once a month.

I'm not sure how you'd do it, but this should go into the Repair Manual section if it's not already there. Good job.

Find someone in the US who can get you OEM gaskets and mail them to you. The cost of gaskets is pretty low and air mail would get to you within a week I would guess.

I ran the car with all those symptoms for about 4 months (8000 miles or so) but last week it obviously was not happy and running rough. It was definitely time to park it until the engine swap. I was just lucky that I had the time to locate a decent engine at a reasonable price.

Mary, save the drivetrain and motor; you won't be sorry. My '84 Brat has over 200K on the engine when I bought it from Zap and I ran it for 3 years or more (CRS strikes again) before replacing the engine with a "hot" motor. Only reason I don't have the original gearbox is that I upgraded to a 5 speed. Corky added the LSD kernal to the original rear differential for me and everything is still working.

Jumpy tach is often caused by a worn bushing and shaft wobble. Wet distributor is more likely to cause it not to run at all. I used to have that problem with an old 510 Datsun years ago. I found spraying the distributor cap on the outside with something called LPS greaseless lubricant. It's heavier than water and displaces it and solved the problem on my Datsun. Most good auto parts stores carry it.

One thing I learned today.....if I ever do another clutch on my Legacy, I WILL pull the engine instead of the transmission. Clutch job two months ago took us the better part of 10 hours pulling the tranny. Today's job included removing flywheel and clutch from my original engine and installing it on the donor engine. Total time less than 6 hours.

In my case the blowby was so bad that if you unscrewed the oil filler cap and just put it back without screwing it on it would blow off.

I took it ifor a drive up to near where rattty2Austin used to live and back on the back roads. Pushed a little smoke out the back until I put 3 or 4 miles on it (must have been some oil residue in one of the smaller hoses that came with the chassis) and then nothing. Engine runs smoothly and quietly....no lifter clatter or anything abnormal. No check engine light until I got home and turned on the a/c with the defroster; but I think that might be bogus. The only minor problem is that it takes a long time to return to idle when I come to a stop. RPM sits at around 1500 and very slowly comes back into the 900 to 1000 range in about 15 seconds. It might be a simple adjustment but I can deal with that in the next few days. Not bad for a used JDM engine I got it from a car with a bad transmission. Engine had 50K on it after it was installed in the donor car 15 months ago, so it's probably in the 80 to 100K range for original mileage. Hopefully I'll get more miles out of this one than the engine that came with my car originally. So tomorrow it's time for brake pads front and rear.