DaveT

I have seen the alternator cause this. I take them apart & find out what part is bad. Fix / replace. re-assemble, and put back in the car. In order of most often found problem: Slip ring brush worn out (sometimes along with slip ring) (somewhere between 100-150K) Diode (2 or so) Regulator (only 1) Bearings (I usually replace them at about 150K if rebuilding for another problem) Windings (none) Almost 20 years of owning EA82s

Nice. Looks like my '87. (that is slowly getting closer to registration...)

Here's what I do: 1. Put in a new gasket, if the old one is hard. 2. experiment with a few o rings (OD & thickness) under the gasket until you find the size that helps. This may or may not help. 3. Mostly, I do the back off until tight thing, don't go past the "bump".

Here's how I fix them: http://home.comcast.net/~davidtief/solenoid.html It is located to the left of the throttle body, under the snorkle. There are 2, one is the purge, the other is the EGR. The one that does not have a hose to the EGR is the purge.

Yes, it should spin freely. And smooth & quiet. It has a dual row ball bearing. If you can post a couple of clear pics, so I can tell which compressor, I might have parts, or a spare.

Also check any belt idler / tensioner on the V belts. Some versions have one, some don't.

I had the tourque converter slip off the trans. once. I just put it back on. Just turn & wiggle it, no forceing. If the shafts came out, I might be more worried. I haven't actually had to dissasemble an AT yet, so this may or may not be an issue with Subarus. It is with another transmission I worked on.

Speedo cables make funny noises, as you mentioned. The locks get stiff - varies - one I can almost not unlock, other is only "gummy" feeling. Sometimes the door gaskets get frozen to the door & glass. Before switching to synthetic ATF, the 3ATs shift wierd. My 87 4spd was so stiff that on the first shift from 1 to 2, it would slow almost to the point of wanting to stay in 1 - until I put synthetic gear lube in it. On the starting stuff: A good / new battery has about 1/4 of it's capacity at 0 degrees VS 70 degrees. Under ideal conditions (not found in cars), a lead acid battery is near end of life (about 80% of original capacity) after 5 years. And the starter needs a lot more current to turn the engine w/ thick oil.

Run away. The timing marks are on the flywheel. There should be a little black rubber cap on the bellhousing center top of the engine. Remove it, look in the opening, slowly turn the cranckshaft with a 22mm socket wrench.

The oil is also for insulation. It has higher breakdown resistance than air.

Oops, I cut & pasted the wrong thing. Fixed.

Most likley. They are very detailed, thus the recomendations to get one. Someone may have one here. I have an 86 and a 90 FSM.

The pump isn't turning fast enough at idle to move enough oil to keep the pressure high. Normal. No load on the engine at idle, so it doesn't need high oil pressure. Don't "lug" the engine, it's made for high RPM. I have also seen this when the battery is near end of life. A lead acid starting battery, (car battery) under ideal conditions, is near end of life after five years. Somewhere around 140K miles, one of the brushes in the alternator wears down to the point where it doesn't touch the slip ring. This was amazingly consistent on my 3 EA82 wagons. The charge light doesn't necessarily indicate the failure as it is very gradually reducing the charge current.

4WD - if all 4 tires are same model & miles: I use 4WD in rain or worse. If the tires are mixed pairs: I use 4WD on starts in rain, always on in snow or off road. Switch on the fly is one of the things that made Subaru famous. Things to check so you don't break down - Coolant hoses, all 7 of them. Anything over 5 years old, replace all of them. Thermostat, wouldn't hurt if it's over 10. Subarus do not like to run low on coolant. Check the radiator - especially in the corners of the electric fan shroud. If the little fins are gone or loose / falling out, get a new radiator. Timing belts. Mine have always failed between 50K & 60K miles. So now I change them near 50K. Check the idlers while working on the belts. If a T-belt breaks, it won't hurt the engine, just leave you stranded. Listen to the engine idle with the hood open - if you hear the typical dry bearing rolling sound, find out which bearing is bad before it takes out the T-belt. Best manual is a factory service manual. Some stuff is online here. Best bet is probably ebay. All of my 3ATs have been no problem, except the ocasional vacuum modulator. Those fail eventually on any car, and are cheap & easy to replace. I have run synthetic ATF in all of them, have one at 206,000 miles, another 2 or 3 over 150,000. I can't say for sure if it made a difference in reliability, but they do shift better in the cold with it. I have been driving & maintaining EA82s w/3ATs since about 1988. Welcome to the board.

They are notorious for leaking. So are the cam cover seals. Also the oil passage that supplies the HLA passes through the headgasket and the seam between the head and the cam carrier. The o-rings get hard and don't seal, thus leaks.

Mine all have 2 bolts. Most I have never moved. The first few times I changed a timing belt, I checked with a timing light, but never had any reason to adjust. If you move the disty back to the original marks, it should run as it did before changing the belts. Unless they are off a tooth. And assuming you didn't remove the disty. A degree or 2 shouldn't make it go from running fantastic to running crappy. At least good enough for a rough reset / start point. If you want to fine tune for performance or MPG, then get out the timing light.

The best way to avoid these problems is to replace ALL 6 [edit - make that 7!] of the coolant system hoses every 5 years or so, don't wait for them to fail. Use coolant system hose for the small ones, not fuel or oil line. Something about the composition of the rubber doesn't stand up well to the hot coolant. Same with timing belts, change at 40K miles, and inspect the idler bearings. Check the oil and coolant level at least 1/week. Coolant check includes squeezing the top radiator hose while listening for the jiggle pin, and looking at the level in the overflow tank.

For low power add ons, I usually make adapters from connectors and wire & terminals from my big box of spare wiring harnesses. I can match the gauge and color of the existing circuit I'm tapping into. I made a tool for removing the terminals from the plastic housings out of one of the stainless steel strips from a windshield wiper refill. For amature radio transievers, they have to go to the battery - they need minimal voltage drops. The wiring has the fuses right at the battery.

All the wiring to the switches on the column have connectors. They are tucked up around the ECU box.

There are alternatives, but they are more expensive, impractical, or require fairly high level electronic design work. Most are 2 of the 3. The details are all buried in the previously mentioned thread.

Excellent. Reminds me of my first engine rebuild. 1976 wagon. 1400cc engine. Rebuilt it in my kitchen, on the heavy duty table I had made. This was, of course, before marriage. Now I have a big insulated garage, soon to be heated.

It is a combination of a switch AND power resistors that makes the speed changes. The power resistors have to disipate a lot of power, so they are mounted in the blower housing for cooling. If your resistors are good, you need a single pole 4 position switch that can handle 20 Amps. For more information than anyone should want to know about EA82 blower motors & speed controllers, including voltages, current, power ratings: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=64761&highlight=speed About the 3rd page in starts the more detailed stuff.

That should work. I have a vacuume pump, so I do that too. That way I know there are no leaks. You need to pull a hard vacuume. A simple way to test this is to see if your pump can cause water to boil at room temperature. A rotary compressor from an old window air conditioner can be set up to use as a vacuume pump.

@ Gd, +1

There's NO mistaking that smell! I'd rather smell skunk.