subaru1988

I'm glad I decided not to try moving it with the 10 mm socket. I know those bolts are on there less than 10 ft. lbs, right? I created a tool kind of like what you wrote, but out of what I thought was a sturdy piece of wood. It worked somewhat, but it eventually split from the force I was applying. I'll see what I can wrangle up. Thanks! That's really interesting. I'll take a look at it and use this the next go around. That will really help to NOT run into the hood prop when it's in the normal spot. Thanks!

1) OK 2) No 3)My driver cam sprocket is basically in the same spot as Step-a-Toes 1st pic. Obviously no belt = no fun.

Quick update- I had some extra time today, so I thought I'd do a few things. It turns out that I forgot that the previous owner bought a "flywheel stopper" for the manual transmission, and it was in the smugglers hatch in the back . I thought, great, but the top of the thing kept hitting the "pitching stopper?(WTF)" and knocking it sideways regardless of what hole I tried in the flywheel. I want to try the tool before using the starter on the bolt. I think the tool was down far enough, but does the pitching stopper actually have to be moved to use the tool? I was leery about removing this because it looks like it holds the tranny up! If I do resort to the starter trick, to be clear, the breaker bar rests ON TOP OF that mud shield under the battery, right? Not under it? I also made a quick "tool" to turn the driver's side camshaft sprocket, but man that thing is hard to turn, and I have to do it without a belt/crank pulley help because that side belt broke which obviously complicates this process. I can get about 1/4 turn on it, and it seems to rebound back. Is that normal? I don't want to force anything and create a new problem. I thought about putting a 10mm socket on one of the bolts and giving it a go, but I don't want to snap the damn head off. Thanks!

Double post, sorry.

I would think nearly ALL cars that old have a fuel filter of some kind. I know mine do. The '80s is just when the emissions stuff got going, and I can guarantee it HAD a fuel filter at one time if it doesn't now. It's not like modern cars that supposedly have "lifetime" filters. Did you look back by the gas tank? Look at IonStorm66's picture, and look for a filter like that around the gas tank. I have a book on hand that says that "'80-'81 models (except Brat): The filter is in the left rear corner of the engine compartment." If it's not there, it was removed, so you can follow the fuel line to see if a previous owner stuck it somewhere else.

That's great. Thanks so much for looking at this, I really appreciate it. Takes the mystery out of it! Step-a-Toe, thanks a lot for those pics and that information, too. It helps. I have to say that I'm pretty embarrassed at the condition of my timing covers compared to those :O Those are spotless, and mine, well..Let's just say the last shop who did the job probably just threw the new belts over the old sludge. The belts have no name or anything on them, so they were probably the cheapest ones they could get. Maybe getting 37k miles out of them was doing alright.

That's what I hope to avoid. Yea, that's what I suspected. I'll be spending the money for a new one. Like I said, I'm glad the parts are pretty cheap! HAHA..I don't doubt it. These cars are tough. I'll probably try to run them just a little longer. The boots are shot, but like I said, I'm not getting a ton of noise. I had a little time today, and I've had the ancillaries off for a while now, so I took the R/L covers off. The drivers side belt was broken as I suspected. I'm not seeing where the coolant leak is at yet.

I hate to say it, but the car has gone through 2 sets of axles on both sides, and I didn't do the job. The stockers are long gone, I'm sure. It's a 5 speed, if that makes any difference axle performance wise. Glad to hear this! Thanks for the advice. I will take your suggestions on the marks. The water pump has been done 3 or 4 times, so it's not OEM. Speaking of that, do most water pumps come with a new radiator pipe O-ring? Speaking of radiator, probably need a new one of those too. For some reason the copper cooling fins seem to want to come out in a few isolated spots! No leaks or anything, but it's the original radiator. I know that for sure. Not sure what that's about. I had a scraping noise last year that was intermittent, and I guess I found it with those cooling fins hitting the electric fan blades. If I could fix the rad, I would. Again- seriously glad parts for the old Subarus are priced reasonably. My axles click when turned, but are pretty much silent when straight. The boots are shot, but I've run them like this for longer than I care to admit. As goofy as it sounds, I have been stuffing grease in the open boot, and it did help a little noise and vibration wise. All of these great tips has given me much more confidence than I had going into this, and I'm grateful for that.

Guys, I'll be doing both belts and the other parts that go with it, and that maybe includes a water pump. I THINK the w/pump has about 70K on it currently, which isn't a ton, but as I said, I had a drip drip while running and just after shutdown coming from somewhere that was dripping off the bottom of the timing covers- most concentrated right under where the pump is. It wasn't the bypass hose I changed, and honestly, I looked as closely at the pump pipe connection as I could, and I couldn't see any real wetness. I want to see the bottom weep hole on the pump and/or the actual gasket to the block. TBH, I have the belts and pulley already off, and the pump doesn't seem rough or have play in the bearings when I spin it..Still, something is dripping. I see what you're saying, and I think one issue in my head is the fact that #1 is actually on the PASSENGER side. That's basically what you're saying with what you first wrote, right? My thing is as loyalematt said above, I don't want to have to mess around with the distributor being 180 out if I don't have to, and it sounds like if I follow what you wrote I won't. It's fortunate the parts for Subarus tend to be pretty cheap overall. That kind of makes it nice, because it makes cheaping out not really worth it. I don't have lots of money to throw at it, but I've known this car and how it's been maintained since 10K, and even at 258K, the cost of parts and my labor makes this a job worth trying. Honestly, it could use new axles too, but even they don't cost an arm and a leg. FWIW, the timing belt stuff and the axles are kind of heavy duty periodic "maintenance" in a way. I say that, yet many of you guys get these jobs done in less than an hour so.. :P Again, thanks so much for input. I know this topic has been talked about ad nauseum, but I wasn't asking exactly how to do it, but for tips/input to maybe make it somewhat easier the first time since I do understand the gist of the process and have a fair amount of mechanical know how.

You could be right about the tensioner(s). If that's it, I'll get it cleaned up, that's for sure. I'll be using the whole kit. Engine swaps would be great, but I just don't have the room or help to get it done. Sounds cool, though I'm ok with trying the open belts, but I wonder about road debris like rocks or whatever. Also, I will be doing this with the engine in the car. I assume I can do the cam seals in the car, which necessitates taking off the cam pulleys, which would let me take off the whole shebang of covers. I've watched the Miles Fox vids- over and over! Good stuff.. Good tips. I'll try to work the belts on with as little movement as possible. I actually saw the marks first when I rotated the engine a little CCW when trying to get the crank pulley bolt out. I then rotated it CW and found the ignition and cam timing marks. I appreciate the tips! Looks like along with guys from the US, a few Australians and a member from England are still running the old Subarus, which is pretty cool.

No AC to deal with, so that's good. I get the whole crank marks, camshaft sprocket marks and rotate once deal. Let me see if I have this right. It's the fact that a belt broke that's throwing me off. I don't think both belts broke. So, if my PASSENGER belt broke, I just proceed as normal by putting the driver side cam pulley pointing up with the mark on the flywheel center while turning the cam pulley mark on that side down, right? If the DRIVER side belt broke, I should start the whole process with the PASSENGER cam pulley pointing DOWN, and then rotate the DRIVER side cam pulley mark to point up, right? I was thinking about making a tool for the tension too. I'll see what I can come up with. You said do a ten second run. That's with it all hooked up except the covers on, right? I don't mind hooking up the alt and all that (except the electric fan, too I assume) if it saves me the hassle of taking all the other stuff off to make an adjustment. That's a good tip.. Thanks!

Hi everybody, long time lurker, '88 Subaru DL EA82 with 258K miles that are more than 1/2 highway. I've had it a LONG time, and it's been a great car overall. That said, the other day after I changed the bypass hose due to chasing a small leak, and out of dumb luck it konked out on me. After putting it in 1st ( I know they say 2nd or 3rd in the manual, my bad :/ ) and moving it just a few feet with the starter to get out of traffic, I towed it home. I have a small amount of Subaru specific know how, so I took the dist cap off, cranked it, and the rotor didn't move. I've had this before, and it's usually a timing belt issue. I had the belts replaced 10 years ago, and they only have 37K on them, which kinda sucks. Anyway, the car owes me nothing, and I just don't have $500 to spend on someone else's fix, so I thought I'd try the belts and probably the water pump too, which is more than likely my leak source since it still drips coolant. I understand it's pretty much removing stuff on the front, lining up the timing mark for each cam sprocket, timing EACH cam correctly, and then putting it back together. Miles Fox didn't use any special tool to tension the belts in his vid, so I guess I can do that too. I have a few bolts on the covers that just turn.. I tried to take the crank pulley bolt off with the car in gear and the e-brake on and the plugs out, but the engine just rotated some CCW without the bolt moving. That didn't hurt it, did it? Anyway, I found the trick about using the breaker bar on the crank pulley bolt and propping it under the driver side after the fact BTW- since one of my belts actually broke and I don't know where the camshaft sprocket wound up, do I need to find TDC and on what cylinder to get get the camshaft sprockets lined up with the timing mark on the "flywheel" to put the belts on right? Also, is it possible to do the cam seals with the engine in the car? Haynes says no, and Miles's vid did his out of the car. Yes, I've done a search, but I'm just basically just asking for any tips or tricks you all might have from experience to make this whole job a little easier. If you have any, I'd sure be appreciative! THanks!

Go to Lowe's and get a product called "Peel and Seal". You can do the whole car for less than $20. The Muscle Car community uses this product, and it usually takes 2 or so rolls to finish a pretty good sized car. However, a Justy is a tiny car. Put the Peel and Seal down in strips on flat panels, and on the floor you can top it off with foam backed "Frost King Duct Insulation". I did this in my old American car, and it works really nice. It's WAY cheaper and just as effective as Dynamat. Since your car is newer and the factory material is probably in good shape, using it in conjunction with Peel and Seal should work nice.

Damn...This hot rod Subarus are pretty cool ! I have a Yakima rack for my '88 and it works nice. Only problem with it is the stupid ends of the plastic covered pipes are rusting out. Not sure if you can get replacements, though.

Thanks! Man, I sure hope the thing will get unstuck on it's own. The last digit on it isn't 0'ed, it's in between a few numbers. As I said, the speedometer and the regular odometer work fine. I don't know about Subaru, but on other cars, taking the cluster apart seems like an awful lot of work just to replace that thing I use it sometimes, but I pay more attention to the actual odometer, which works fine. Hopefully I can get by for a while with it not working and I really hope it won't affect the main odometer.

So I got some gas today, went to reset my trip odometer, engine was running but car was NOT moving, and the thing is stuck at 0000! I hear a soft click every 1/10 of a mile but the tenths 0 on the meter is not moving. Is this one of those things that may be able to loosen up by repeatedly pushing the reset button? Think it's just something binding up? The speedometer and regular odometer works fine- I've tested it already. It's just the little trip odometer. This is an '88 DL Wagon, 2WD, 246K miles. It always been a tad tough to get to reset via that shaft, but it's never been flat out stuck and not worked. There isn't much resistance on the shaft when I push it in. If I push the button in while moving, it does not click. Any suggestions or tips are greatly appreciated!

Purolator filters at Advance Auto Parts work great (the right size) and are made in the USA (at least my last one was). Wix is a decent filter, but the last fuel filter I bought for my '88 DL was made in CHINA. I know some of the Wix oil filters are made in Mexico, so YMMV. If you love your Subaru, get anything but Fram. The study mentioned above is getting a little long in the tooth, but it still has some good info. Unless FRAM has changed dramatically, I'd avoid them.. http://www.minimopar.net/oilfilters/index.html You can put a FL1A on a Subaru?! Wow..I trust that oil filter, I'll have to look into that. It's a Purolator too, BTW.

Maybe this can help in some way if you're still at it? Haven't got around to doing mine yet, and it kills me how some of you guys say you can do it in 30 mins and with the wheels on!

I'm not wanting to use the '97 axles on my '88. I know what you're talking about with that cone washer and other washer as I've taken the hub off the car when I swapped out rotors. I did see in the video that he secured the nut by staking it while my axle nut requires a cotter pin. I can see I kinda messed up my first post and it could have been clearer..What I'm trying to garner any info on is any changes in the knuckle spindle from '88 to '97 that would make axle replacement easier for '97 than '88. As I said earlier, the books I have (Haynes, How to Keep Subaru Alive) seem to make taking the axle out of the spindle a monumental task that requires special tools. If I could simply hammer the thing out like ETCG does in his video, I'd be fine with penetrating oil and just knocking it out. I can see how you can save yourself a step by leaving the caliper on and just taking off the hub. I'm just not sure if there is something on pre-97 spindles that DO make it a job that isn't doable. *EDIT* After looking at another post here on the board, I happened across an embedded Miles Fox(?) video and he had a video in his series about r/r of front axles! Looks to me like the same procedure on his '89 as on the '97 I saw in the video. Only thing he did different was remove a tie rod bolt. Great Video!

Your instructions are practically step by step right along with the ETCG video. The one thing I noticed he does in the video, which is a pretty good idea, is to partially put the roll pin in before putting the axle on the differential. One reason I think he is able to get that axle on without prying or ? is that he's using an impact wrench to draw the axle nut tight. The tips you posted are great, and make sense. I can see you have an '87 and and '86, which I would assume is identical to my car. I don't really want to shell out the $300 per side for this to get done when I can do the whole job for 1/2 provided I can get it all separated without destroying it or needing a "special tool". In the knuckle spindle and the way it interacts with the axle? The rest from above seems to be pretty much the same.

Hi...I've been a lurker on here for a long time and I recently inherited an '88 Subaru DL Wagon. It's a great car, and I've known how this car has been maintained since it had 10,000 miles on it. It now has 244,000 and still runs great. I did a search to try to find a quick answer for my questions, but I didn't have any luck. My Subaru is like any other Subaru..It wears axles out after a decent amount of miles. I'm looking to maybe try this myself on both sides. I've swapped and rebuilt carbs, done brakes on this Subaru, and pulled a head and replaced intake and head gaskets on a little Datsun truck. It honestly doesn't look that hard to R&R axles in this video... My question to you Subaru experts is is the setup on the knuckle spindle, suspension, and of course axles the same on an '88 as it is on a '97? Or was there a change in that 9 years that makes it easier for ETCG to swap out those axles? I tried embedding the video, but it keeps linking to a Subie ad..Sorry.. https://www.ericthecarguy.com/videos/7-videos/26-suspension-and-steering Looks to me like he gets the axle out of the knuckle spindle pretty easy. My Haynes manual states that it is too tough to do, but then again as some of you may know, that book is more geared toward older stuff. Thanks for any insight!