stephenw22

If I still have the old one out of my '88, I'll take some pics of it for everyone. It was in similar shape.

I don't know if duct tape would work that well. The best thing might be to take silicone (to match the gauge color) and seal everything up well.

I have a clamp-on ammeter that I'm going to use to check the current output of the alternator with. It'll let me know how hard the alt is working to just keep the car running without any accessories working. I also found out that my wife was cruising with the fan blasting at full and the headlights on when the car died. Then, she had left the interior light on for the last few days. I think the battery is toasted as well. It's been charging for 2 days, and still no good. Oh well. I think it still has a couple of years of pro-rated warranty left.

you can tap the bearings out yourself using a punch and hammer. You can also tap the new ones in, very carefully, hitting only on the outer race, and being careful not to scrape the bearing face on the knuckle. It's good as well if you use a brass punch instead of a steel one. Just slowly work your way around the bearing, and take your time using light taps with the hammer.

I'd use teflon tape on the threads myself. If I remember right, teflon is good to about 300 degrees f., which is higher than your water will ever get (I hope). Mounting the gauge on the hood without a pod might be asking for trouble. The gauge pod protects it from debris and moisture that can get into the gauge and wreck it. Driving through a heavy rain at 60mph, those little drops can find their way into a lot of small cracks and holes.

I tried platinum plugs, but they didn't give me any performance or fuel economy boost that I could notice. Just a decent set of autolites, NGK's, etc. should work just as well as the $20/spark plug arrangements. Unless the owner's manual specs an iridium or platinum plug (sometimes they do), it probably won't make that much of a difference.

Well, I've had a chance to drive up and look at it myself, and it sure looks like it's the alternator. The car runs fine when It's being boosted by a (running) car, and the battery has been completely drained. I have a battery charger, and I'll charge up the battery for about a day before I put the new alt on and run the car for a while. I'd hate to over-stress the new alt, trying to charge up the dead battery. It's funny though, because my wife said the charge light never came on. Maybe it's been tampered with, or burned out. When I bought the car, the owner said that the alternator was a rebuilt, only 6 months old. It still even looks pretty new, so I never bothered checking it. It's a DL, so there's no voltage gauge, just the idiot light (that's supposed to work).

I've just stuck with the stock gap on my cars when using the accel coil. You should be able to open it up a little bit more, but originally, I was just trying for a more stable spark under high-boost conditions. On a N/A car, I'd say go ahead and crack it to .050", if you want.

Well, I'm all stocked up with parts and tools, and I'll be looking at the car tomorrow sometime. Hopefully, I'll be able to get my wife's computer set up, and I can let you know how this turns out. Thanks for all the help! -Steve

The replacement u-joints on my rebuilt driveshaft have grease fittings and spring clips, but the clips are just on the inside of the joint, instead of the outside. That way, it doesn't matter how hard I drive it. If a u-joint piles up, I just pop it out, and $20 and 20min later, I can have a new one in. If I get a chance, I'll take some photos of how it's been put together.

Both of the ones on the longest driveshaft section. One end of it bolts to the small prop shaft that comes out of the tranny, and the other end bolts to the rear diff. Both u-joints are staked in, but can be machined out and replaced with new ones. It cost me about CAD$120 to get a driveline shop to do it for me, including the new u-joints. Some people have done it themselves for about 1/2 of that cost, and others have said that they just go to a wrecker and find a low-mileage replacement for even less.

Sorry, I forgot to mention that the friend was able to boost the car, but the car only ran while the booster cables were connected. I'm not ruling out that there are other problems than the alternator, but at this point, I'd say that any problems would be electrical. I'm definitely going to give the car a good look and long test drive over the weekend. I'll probably leave the charger on for the whole weekend when the car's not running. I really should get a clamp-on ammeter to see how much (if any) current is being drawn from the battery with the ignition off. Maybe I have a small, low-current short to ground that's draining my battery, and making the alternator work harder than it needs to.

I had the same problem with my car a few years ago. It turned out to be some contacts in the wiper motor gearbox (which is attached to the motor). I fixed it by removing the wiper gearbox's cover plate (round with 3 screws, I think), and straightening out some bent contacts I saw in there. After that, the wipers worked perfectly.

Fresh whole cloves are another strong odour killer. I remember making a "scent ball" in grade 2 or so by taking cloves and jamming them into the skin of an orange. It was actually pretty good. My favourite thing to do is go to a local cabinet shop and get a bag of sawdust from their dust collector. Then, I'll put it into a cloth sack, and toss it on the floor of the back seat. I love the smell of sawdust, and it makes driving a little nicer.

So far, my "half-new" axles seem to be working well. They're made by Mevotech ( http://www.mevotech.com ). They have rebuilt inboard joints, and new outer joints that Mevotech actually designed themselves to be stronger and function better than the OEM design. They do a similar thing for Honda axles, which I have heard are notorious for being crap. I picked mine up from Auto Parts Plus (in Canada). They list for CAD$165 + $75 core, per axle. However, if you know the parts guys, they might give you jobber prices (CAD$100 + $75 core).

I had a friend up in Edmonton go over and have a look at the car. It seems like the only problem is a toasty alternator. Even then, I think I'll still bring along all of my tools, a spare set of fusible links and fuses, as well as a replacement alt and battery charger. Thanks for your help guys, it gave me a good list of things to suggest for my friend to look at, and it will make the fix go a lot easier (probably) t his weekend.

Thanks for your ideas so far. My wife is in Edmonton, Alberta. She just moved back up there to take the last few classes she needs for her degree. Would a broken timing belt make the engine not turn over at all? I guess it might be a combination of problems, like a burned-out started, and also a broken timing belt. I had bought her this Subaru and fixed it up over the summer because I wanted her to have some dependable transportation. So far, it's not working out too well. The ignition and cooling systems are almost completely new, so I'm leaning towards answers that don't involve those.

My wife and her Subaru are about 450 miles away from me, and her car just died. She had it towed to a friend's driveway, where it is sitting. I'm driving up there this weekend to try to fix it, but without seeing it, I'm not sure how to prepare. She said she was driving along and the car just died all of a sudden, and would not start. It doesn't turn over, but it just makes a 'click' sound (my guess is that it's the starter solenoid). The interior lights and radio still work. No warning lights came on before the car died. The car's oil and coolant levels were OK, and it happened very suddenly, so I don't think that the engine would be seized. The only things I can think of it being are blown fuses/fusible links, or a dead alternator&battery (if the charge light is burned out). I'm going to bring along some fuses and fusible links, a multimeter, and my standard toolbox. Is there anything else that it could be?

It might improve fuel/air mixing in carb'ed or SPFI models, as long as the twister thing is close to where the fuel enters the airstream, so the air is still turbulent when the fuel enters it. You could probably make something similar for a lot less $$, though. In an MPFI model, the air goes almost the whole way to the head before the fuel is added, so I doubt it would do anything. Mixing air and fuel together better makes a difference. Putting vortec heads on a SB Chevy gives you a lot more power.

The DL/GL/Loyale series all start off as front wheel drive, and kick the back wheels on when 4wd is engaged.