johnceggleston

timing belt . his thread , http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=123853

it is safer and less likely to ruin your new trans to swap the matching rear diff. there is a current thread of some one who just did a front diff swap only to swap it back. apparently he was afraid it would self destruct if he hadn't done it right. i'm sure it can be done, but i would never attempt it myself. way too much chance for an expensive mistake. i'd hold out for the correct matching trans if i was you.

yes, all correct.

he wants the old style tensioner mounting bracket.

the forester trans has the wrong final drive ratio.

the guy who started the recent thread, ''is this repairable'' may have one. (not sure about the year or style.) http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=123803

needless to say, ANY engine can throw a rod if it is abused. but a bad rod bearing would not be my first guess on an EJ18 or an EJ22. keep looking.

so the bad valve you replaced was on the other head? could the kid driving it on 3 cylinders for so long have added to the problem?

since it is not going to get any better on it's own and since the most likely solution is to replace it, i would wash is with some kind of cleaner. it may help. worst case you have to replace it sooner. the only ''ruined'' panel i've seen was dry and brittle.

gary probably does have one but if he doesn't some one else will. if you click on gary's name to the left (or above) of his last post you should be given the opportunity to send him a Private Message. that will alert him . and or you can post a ''wanted'' ad here: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=37 welcome to the party.

no offense to the folks who live in wisconsin, but if you are going to buy one from afar, i would head south and east, not north and west. but regardless, as long as it is a ''no rust'' car you should be good.

flip them over and look at the back side, the one with the hash marks / ridges / bumps / reluctors is the driver side.

so, is it the one you replaced already or the other one? or both this time?

torque converter mounting mounting bolts = 17 - 19 ft. lbs. according to haynes. EDIT: i wonder if we could get haynes to give us a digital version of their manual so we could put it in a sticky...........?

the BEST subaru on the road, IMHO, is the 96 L/LS wagon. it has the non-interference engine, lots of room for hauling stuff, roof rack is a plus, and there are lots of them out there and easy to find for a good price. i prefer an auto trans but either is good. the 96 sedan comes in a close second. my favorite subaru on the road, is the 98? - 99? outback sedan. i love the outback look on a sedan. but.... this is not a candidate for a reliable car unless you swap in a 2.2L engine or buy it before it overheats w/ bad head gaskets and repair it. the 96 - 98? LSI or GT comes in a close second, but they need the ej22 as well. i gave my son my 95 lego sedan when he graduated from high school. it had 160k miles and i had just replaced the trans. (i bought it fir $5500 and drove it for 90k miles. the trans died.) he drove it for 5 years and 49k miles. as long as they hold oil they will not die. i just swapped it out for a 98 outback w/ 142k miles and an ej22. find a decent 90s subaru with a non-interference engine, you'll be glad you did!!

i have read, here, that the best long term storage for tires is half pressure in a black plastic bag.

you have driven 80k miles and you paid $3500. that's less than $.05 per mile. if you bought the car new for $20,000 you would have to drive it 400k miles. how many new cars sold today will do that. but, it sounds like you put most of these miles on the car the first year. and that this year your total will be less, maybe less than the national average. a commute of 14 miles per day isn't very much. so there is a chance the car will start to ''age'' in spite of the miles. and rust is real car killer. i would fix the car and start a car fund, $100 a month? (don't use the car fund for repairs.) then when you do need to replace your car, you'll have some seed money. i also like the advice to start looking now. if you find a good car for a good price jump on it. but you never know what you will be getting.

yes, just after the air filter box. number 8 in the diagram.

assuming your car is AWD and not FWD, yes you need to get matching tires all around. as a stop gap measure, you could run the larger ones on the left and the smaller ones on the right and not cause any more damage, but long term this too may cause trouble for your front and rear carriers. but i doubt that this is causing your shudder at 55 mph. does it do it at the same rpm / speed in '3' instead of 'D' ?

do you mean the crank pulley came off of the crank shaft? maybe buy it, put the trans in your car and drive it until you find a ''newer'' replacement. then sell yours. the ''new''engine in the FWD car is a pretty easy fix and could be sold for a few $$. plus you'd have a parts car, assuming you have a place to store it. scrap cars are going for $9 - $11 around here. so that would be ~$200 for scrap value after you pulled the engine and trans. so, buy the FWD car for 500. sell the engine for $200. scrap the rest for $200. use the trans. it cost you $100 to put your car back on the road. of course it would be better to buy an AWD car and do this, but it just depends on how big a hurry you are in.

i think an awd fwd can be made into an awd. most of it is just bolting on the rear extension housing. but you also need to add the clutch drum on the trans side of the transfer clutch. i don't really know what that takes. it has been a while since i looked at one. then you have to make sure the wiring harness on/in the trans has the duty c connector. have you looked for a trans here? www.car-part.com sort your search by distance, shipping is expensive. NOTE: some early FWD trans had a 3.7 ratio, i think. so you'll neeed to avoid those or you will be re-working both ends. the trans would have to be almost free to justify all that work, imho.

92 - 94 auto trans have a 3.9 final drive ratio. that may be a little difficult to find since 95 - 99 auto trans have 4.11 for the ej22 and 4.44 for the ej25. but any non-turbo 92 - 94 should work. or you can use one from an earlier or even later car as long as you use the matching rear diff. they all bolt in and work the same. (except for the speedo connection which i hear is an easy conversion.) 90 - 91 non-turbos have a 4.11 final drive. and turbos do not follow these rules, but i'm not sure what they are or aren't. somewhere, there is a link to a page with all the ratios for the early 90s. it is part of http://www.experiencetherave.com i think.

i drove it for a couple of months without reverse. i learned to park very carefully. and a few times reverse would catch when i was testing it, but there was no rhyme or reason to when it would. hot or cold , rarely would it catch. but i found a 97 obw in my price range before i found a wreck in my part of the state. so i upgraded and gave my son the 95 lego.

does any one know if low fluid will damage the transfer clutches? this is probably a moot point since low fluid will definitely damage the internals of the trans, like no reverse. i lost the rear main seal on my 95 auto trans at ~160k going 70mph on the hiway. i felt a shudder and then a boom like feeling. i drove about 20 miles to the repair shop and had the seal replaced. (at idle trans fluid was pouring out from under the car, not good.) when the service station replaced the seal the tech did not ADD any fluid. and i stupidly paid the bill and drove away with even asking them any questions about the work. i was an idiot, a real dumb-a$$. later that evening i went to back out of a parking space and i had no reverse. i checked the fluid and there was none. i drove to a parts store and added ~4 qts. but the damage was done. i later bought a 96 lego wreck for 400$ and used the the trans in my 95. gave the car to my son and he drove it all the way through college . (i had already bought a replacement.) i then used the engine from the 96 wreck in a 97 GT with bad head gaskets which i'm now / still driving, 30k so far. low or no fluid will destroy an auto trans. but short of that, or one that has never had the fluid changed , these auto trans will go for the life of the car. it is one of their strong points. so buying a used one for $300 - $500 is a safe bet, especially if it was running when it crashed and the fluid looks good.

slightly off topic but on the subject of alignments: the local merchants tire store has a computerized machine and the software tells the tech that in order to adjust the front camber on subarus ''aftermarket cam bolts'' were needed. on their 3rd try to get my alignment right, i watched them and corrected them. they finally got it right. also, free alignment checks should be the norm since it takes less than 10 minutes to snap on the hardware and check.