Durania

Love the forum is back. Replaced the rear wheel cylinders 3 weeks ago after noticing brake fluid on the inside of the driver side rear tire. I didn't realize there were several variations for the wheel cylinders, especially for the wagon. I went with the Dorman W37419. OEM cylinders that I think I had, used studs with nuts. New ones come with tiny bolts...well, one unit did. The other didn't. I honestly blame it on a crappy ebay vendor that I left neutral feedback for. Luckily I was able to find some that threaded in. Had my son get in it on the lift while I bled them and then did the spinny-spin and had him mash the brakes to make sure they stopped. I hate drum brakes. Drove it to work again this past Monday. The windshield is absolutely trashed with scratches and pitting. I also need to give the carb a good study. I have a high idle and seems to have a slight miss while driving. I was hoping some of these issues would work themselves out as I drive it more and more. Part of me would consider a Weber. I had one on my 83 Brat that it came with and wasn't honestly impressed with it but I did love the amount of crap it clears up in the engine bay.

@bushytailsadvice was exactly what I needed. I just finished up my brake job tonight. Thanks again man!

Thanks man, that's a heck of a writeup!

Thanks Freddo. I will try next time I'm out in the shop your method of putting it back on the knuckle and see if that works better. I have one of those caliper screw in tools and I did see the boot on it was trying to twist on me so I was being super easy with it. I had been running back and forth over to the passenger side to look how it was installed as a point of reference. I was missing all the pad clips on the caliper on the driver side but luckily the dude I bought this wagon from had a ton of parts that included an extra caliper/rotor that I scavenged the clips from and threw in the parts washer for a few minutes.

So, what's the correct method for getting new brake pads to slot in correctly to the calipers? I have tried following this guy's video but he makes it look stupid easy. I'm either not holding my mouth right or doing it totally wrong.

Not much of an update but the wife got me a roof basket that I had on my Amazon wish list for Valentine's Day. More of cosmetic thing but I like the way it looks.

Nope. It's an 84. it has the honeycomb grill where the 83 would have a horizontal. I had an 83 Brat in the same color as well.

None of that, hahaha. This thing stays in my shop so it's never really below 40* unless I have the heat on out there. Hope to find some time this weekend to take it up the road. We stay so busy with my son and basketball and work BS, Plus, I have 3 other cars of my own, not including the wife's.

Ehh, a couple people have and I don't care to do stuff for people I like. Since it's his personal and I'm buying the filament with my money, we don't really have to as work doesn't own it. Key issue update: I did start it yesterday after doing some serious keyhole dousing with contact cleaner and compressed air. Didn't get any smoke but still unhooked the battery to it just for peace of mind. Old girl did start on the 3rd crank without hitting the gas pedal.

It's a Bambu P1S. I have never used one but first job I sent to it was this. Was a big hit in the office.

I also tried my hand at printing two different versions of the center cap retaining rings. Did one in PLA that was way too long and the other in the same ABS but it snapped on me as a I tried seating it today.

Update. Had to remove the water pump and replace and reseal with a different RTV. The water pump flavor of Permatex was garbage and never sealed up. Used "The Right Stuff" this time and replaced the leaking 90* crossover hose. Tedious as hell, but no biggie. De-pinned and replaced the alternator plug that had a broken clip on it. Finally snagged a blue steering column shroud. Didn't take a pic unfortunately. Boss got a 3D printer for Christmas and brought it to the office so I been wearing it out. Made me an ABS cupholder. Next issue: My son had noticed it a few months ago but I was finally able to see it myself last night but I had electrical smoke coming out of the ignition switch where the key goes. Honestly, didn't know that was possible. I know the PO had replaced it at one point because he said the OE was worn out. I know it had quite a bit of grease down in it. For the time being I'm leaving the battery unhooked in my shop and douched the hell out of the keyhole with electronic contact cleaner and compressed air.

Ordered 2 new Cardone axles from Walmart.com. They were actually way cheaper than RockAuto and had free shipping. Changed just the clicking driver side this afternoon. I only drove it enough to pull it out of my shop and into the next bay but I didn't hear any more clicks.

Friday night, I finally got a chance to tackle the shifter bushings from DRW. Thanks to @SuspiciousPizza for telling me they were an option. https://drwbushings.myshopify.com/products/subaru-2wd-5-speed-shift-linkage-bushing-set First time working on the shifter of an EA series car but I got them knocked out. Having a lift spoils you on something like this. I took a before and after video but can't link to it but it was a definite improvement. I also replaced the pitch stop rod bushings but I've not driven it to see if there was an effect.

Drove the GL to work for the first time Wednesday and have some initial impressions. 1. I need an alignment. 2.The heater is fantastic. 3. Driver side axle started knocking like my brat did back in 07 with a janky parts store axles. 4. I need a cupholder. 5. Hard left turn, my fuel gauge went to zero and then came back up. This was before I filled up with 100% gas so I assume it was sticking float. Once it came back up, it registered half-a-tank. I got a few thumbs up in it. Definitely gets more attention than my WRX does.

Thanks man. I'm definitely familiar with the shifter joint fix on the EJ series as I've done it three times before and makes me hate roll pins. I shot DRW an email to see what they have for it, I appreciate the referral.

Do you mean EA81?

Guess next on the list is to try and get some of the shifter slop cleaned up. How much of this fix applies to the 5MT?

Good to know Dave. No going back now for me though, if it still frays the belt some, I'm going to live with it and change the belt regularly.

Well, I'm still confused. I still don't know why they list two different ones on RockAuto. https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/subaru,1984,gl,1.8l+h4,1268344,cooling+system,water+pump,2208

That's what I thought too until I saw that they offered two different sizes on RockAuto and then found this thread:

Replaced the water pump with the GMB 1601030 since it listed it being shorter. I'm not 100% but I really think I had the longer GMB pump, hard to tell from the level picture. Yes, those are monster hose clamps.

Alternator changed Friday evening and had a muffler put on by a local mom-n-pop shop this morning. Next on the list is a water pump. I noticed my belt was fraying after that quick drive up the road last week. I am confident I've got the water pump for non-AC GLs and it's slightly out of alignment.

Wrapped up the cooling system project this weekend. I ended up going with this radiator: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DK323PVN. The fitment of it was good, not excellent, but good. I had to enlarge some holes at the bottom of the fan just slightly so I could get the bolts to line up with it. While I was in there, I replaced both hoses and installed an OEM thermostat and gasket. The real snafu was after I had pulled a vacuum on the system and got fluid in it to install the cap, only to find out the cap that I had ordered for my 84 was way smaller than this radiator could use. I did some research on here and found a GD post here that stated I needed the 82's radiator cap. Found an 82 cap locally and drove it up the road during a rain storm yesterday. I did notice the windshield seal is leaking so gotta get a plan on that, not that I'm going to be driving it much on rainy days anyway but we get quite a bit of rain here in the fall months. After the drive, I noticed my brand new Continental belt had some fraying on the sides of it. I did notice my alternator was quite loud and had planned on eventually replacing it. I threw on a spare that I had that came with the wagon and it was totally dead with nothing on the volt meter. Ordered one from Rockauto this morning.

Yeah, that Dewalt ratchet was a birthday gift to myself and that thing is super handy. Love that you can swap between 3/8 and 1/2 drive on it too.