edrach

My experience has been that it happens through the speeds as long as you're on the gas and it goes away only when letting off on the gas. But inner joint problems are sort of like black magic. I had one axle that was so bad I thought my transmission was about to fall out!

Shaking, vibration, shimmy during acceleration and going away instantly when you let off on the gas is a tipoff to a bad inner joint on your axle (DOJ). I've seen this on so many axles (newly rebuilt from various manufacturers) that I've almost stopped buying new/rebuilt ones. I've had my best luck with used axles that I pull at the local pull a part yards; I've gotten pretty good at picking working axles. The only rebuilt axles I would ever buy are from http://www.cvaxles.com/ ; they have been consistently good and are just as inexpensive as the local "off" brands; $55 plus shipping plus core charge.

The car had a short after hitting a chuck hole which caused the fuse controlling the dash lights and parking/directional lights. As soon as we turned on the key and turned on the lights, the fuse blew. After removing all the lights in question and checking wiring at all four corners of the car, we sort of lost interest in it. We finally got back to it last night and found the short was in the wiring behind the radio which was installed about a month before the chuck hole. Don't worry about the timing belt issue; almost everyone suggests that. I will hold up on the water pump since it's easily accessible from the outside on the EA81 engine. If we do head gaskets, we'll likely re-seal and do the oil pump also.

Yes we did drive it and park it in the garage last year; been there ever since trying to track down an electrical problem.

I think I know some of the answers here, but I'm looking for the best way to salvage this engine. My son's '83 wagon, EA81 engine (solid lifter type I think). The car went into our garage last November and hasn't moved since. It had an electrical problem which we finally got around to fixing this evening. When we tried to start it, the crank pulley would turn about 1/4 revolution and then come backwards to where it started. Luckily, we didn't try too hard to start it. I thought a piston might have seized or there was water in one of the cylinders. Turns out I was right. I pulled all the plugs and noticed moisture on #3. I turned the engine over by hand to see if it would go; it did. I tried the starter and blew a fair amount of water out that side of the engine. I suspect a bad head gasket and it just leaked coolent into the cylinder in all this time sitting. The question is how to preserve what we still have without making it worse. I would guess a head gasket job is in order but I don't want it to be ruined by not doing the right preventative things now.

The nuts on the struts are to get you a small amount of lift; the price of the extra lift is positive camber.

From past personal experience CCR is certainly the best and deserving of any business you can send them.

Sounds like they are letting the auto shift into 3rd (?); might be better to limit it to 2nd to get the rpm up to normal specs.

Carl, do yourself a favor and take it down to the emissions guru in south Seattle (Austin knows where). Any work you do is just a guess and even if it runs better, it doesn't mean it'll pass emissions. Judging from the numbers you posted, it looks worse than last time. Also, I don't understand how they managed to run cruise at 1750 rpm; it's supposed to be 2500 (+ or - 200 I believe).

I'm old school and I've always felt that "if it ain't broke, don't try to fix it." That said, if you have a fuel blockage, the symptoms should be pretty obvious. I've had an '86 wagon that sat for three years unused and after changing the external fuel filter (and some other obvious items) the car ran just fine. Outside of water in the gas from condensation (a can of dry gas will clear that), it's pretty unlikely that anything would get into the gas tank and clog the internal filter. I wouldn't go through the trouble of checking the internal filter screen unless there's a good reason to do so.

18 hours Laramie to Portland! you must be flyin!

I have owned at least 7 Subarus over the years (with three kids in the family, I bought what I could fix and was familiar with). Most of my cars were bought with in excess of 100K miles on them. I've kept them for well over 100K miles more and then some. The only head gasket that really did me in was my Brat with about 350K on it; and I had about 6 months of warning before the gaskets finally went. My '86 wagon had 250K on it and the head gaskets were fine when I sold that (I won't mention the little o-rings in the head gasket that were toast and caused the car to spew oil to the tune of a quart every 400 miles). My newest Subaru is a '91 Legacy wagon which I bought with 98K on it; I now am pushing 134K and plan on keeping it for another 300K or more. I don't know if the EJ series is less reliable since I have little experience with it, but I think that Subaru makes a more bullet-proof engine than most manufacturers. I think routine maintenance and being aware of how the car runs goes a long way to preventing some of the failures that can happen. Also, consider we have over 6000 people on the USMB. The ones without problems don't post much. Sounds like a pretty small percentage of head gasket failures to me.

Common problem on the Legacy line also.

Actually, the problem with the 4WD rally prepped cars (with LSD and power) is that when you step on it in a slight corner, the back end has more push than the front (since the front is open diff) and the car plows like a bugger--the more power you apply, the more the front end pushes. The only way to prevent that is to get the back end around far enough so that you're pointed in the right direction before you apply power. Unfortunately, I'm also inclined to believe that a rear e-brake will not do much for you in a 4WD car since it will slow down the front wheels also.

I have been successful at finding them at the local Pull a Part. I've managed to snag one for each of our two Brats and I have a third one waiting as a spare. And I've sold two. And I've bought one on the Board.....Over the course of two years. Patience is a virtue; but keeping your eyes open and getting to the yard early helps.

I generally charge $125 for the LSD and $90 for the rear disks. They usually sell in a week or two. Off Board to others I hold out for more on the LSD but I never sold one off Board yet.

Anyone done this? Looking for information on which sway bar to use and difficulty of mounting it.

Stiffer is not what you want in a rally car. The idea is to absorb the energy of the road, not bounce around and weaken the car's suspension from the pounding. What you want is suspension travel and the best way to get that without changing the actual geometry is weaker springs (ideally, progressive springs that get stiffer the more they get to the end of their travel) and much more effective dampening from the shocks.

I've got to disagree with going straight on dry pavement is okay. I suspect the automatic would have the same problem as the manual tranny on dry pavement. Unless the front and rear tires are the exact same size you will have definite problems driving on dry pavement due to the difference in rolling radius.

You know I'd love to. But I don't get any more work in Alaska. I used to get up to Fairbanks about every two months and obviously have to go through Anchorage. My furthest account was Kotzebue. We don't go there anymore because the travel costs have made it unprofitable. Sorry for the earlier comment.

Hibernating?

My '91 Legacy is an AWD 5 speed manual. They exist.

Let me take a peek at it tomorrow when I'm there. Two heads are better than one. I'm with the battery (I know it's only 6 months old) and the grounds crowd.

My son spent many hours with the original console and shifted the heater/blower controls to the lower portion where the old radio was and that left enough room for the standard DIN size radio to fit and not stick out excessively. He also had to lengthen one of the control cables to the heater. He got another of the longer cables from a wreck at Pull a Part and cut it down to fit. Lots of work but it sure looks nice.

Persistence and consistency rule the day. Way to go. Sorry I missed that in my post. I need new glasses to read the small print!