porcupine73

Thanks for the update. Lots of times the owner can't think of a reason for torque bind, but yet, there it is. Measure your tires, they need to be within 1/4" circumference and yes you are supposed to measure them to check. If it was run on a flat tire too long, towed improperly, got a flat and had just one or two tires replaced, etc., could all have done it. Maybe not by you, but by a previous owner, unless you've owned the thing since day 1.

Yes reading the ATF is tricky on soobs and I am sure there are threads many pages long on the art of it. I always check it cold, and look for three or so consistent pulls on the dipstick. Then I'm looking for where the fluid is solid on the stick front and back. The rest of the fluid is 'noise'. If you add fluid you have to be really patient, like pull the stick three times or so don't even try to read it just wipe it off, because the fluid will be all over in the tube from having just poured it in there. I know Subaru wants it checked with trans at operating temp but I can never get a reasonable reading that way that's why I do it cold. So what did you see that was yellow in the fluid? If it's watery, it's possible there was condensation in it if it isn't coolant or gear oil.

Usually ATF's are dyed red but I suppose they could be dyed any color really or no color at all. If you checked the ATF, you could also be seeing engine coolant mixed in the ATF if the in-tank radiator ATF cooler has breached. Either gear oil or coolant is very bad for the automatic transmission; generally it trashes the clutch materials.

Wait but you said you checked the front diff? Gear oils are usually yellow. They're not typically dyed. Some special racing gear oils might be dyed but not your normal run of the mill gear oils for cars.

I'm thinking this is an auto trans? Yes it is possible for the front diff gear oil to mix with the ATF if the double lip oil seal between the two on the ATF pump fails.

Yes the year, model, and AT or MT would be helpful info to know. Because what you describe sounds more like torque bind, which has nothing to do with the rear differential. If you happen to have a limited slip rear diff, it might be bound up and cause issues.

Hello. So I was going through my '94 Legacy wagon and I noticed the bolt between the dogbone and the engine is missing. Is this bolt critical? Can I just get a bolt of the right size and put it in there or is it some special fancy bolt with some kind of setup procedure? I think this soob had a remanufactured Subaru transmission installed at some point based on vehicle history, and the transmission is painted grey, which I see Subaru says they do to their reman'd transmissions. I'm assuming when it was reinstalled the dogbone bolt wasn't put back in. Also I cannot find the FWD fuse on this thing. It is simply not where it is supposed to be, or anywhere for that matter. I'm guessing that has to do with the remanufactured trans as well.

Which tie rod ends are bad? The inners or the outers? And on both sides or just one side? Either way, the entire rack does not need to be replaced. The tie rod ends are replaceable. The outers are pretty easy. The inners are a little more tricky but not hard as long as you have the tool that slips over the inner tie rod end for removal (such as the Harbor Freight tool). That link you posted the rack appears to include the inner tie rod ends (But if your outer tie rod ends are bad you'd need those too).

Most of the articles are here: http://endwrench.com/archive/sysdrive.html They're all good reads for the Subaru enthusiast. Not sure if there will be anything in there that will explain your issue but it might be on of the maps/modes?

It's a 22mm headed bolt. Looseness may or may not be detectable but it wouldn't hurt to check. Yes, there are other possible causes of runout in the crank pulley. Sometimes those pulleys fail with age/mileage. The rubber cracks and then they can come apart.

IIRC there are a few different shift maps in the TCU, would have to maybe read up on those and see if any of them sounds like what you are describing, then see what might be making the TCU go into that particular shift map. The articles are in the archives on endwrench.com somewhere but I haven't erad them in a while. It would be for the 4EAT (not the phase II; they won't specifically say phase I I don't think though that's what we call it now that there has been a later phase).

Hi. Not sure exactly what went wrong with your struts (haven't heard of that happening before), but say a 96, 97, or 98 Outback should fit. I am trying it right now with a '94 Legacy. I suppose the fronts could be done separately of the rear but I would do all four at the same time. Who knows what kind of weird handling there could be from having the front a bit higher than the rear. Probably not much more than loading the rear up with tons of people and gear or towing but having them all match would be better in my mind. The struts do have bump stops in them, on the strut rod. But they do often deteriorate with age and they're not going to stop damge from bottoming out if it's a hard hit. They give a touch more time for deceleration when bottoming out but a hard hit it won't make much difference.

You don't have to make a special trip to the dealer. If you were going to order the NGK wires online, you can order Subaru parts from dealers selling online just as easily. And often it's a lower price than what the local dealer charges unless you have some connections there. Places stating 'OEM' parts are tricky, because it does not necessarily mean it is the genuine original part.

Well I would suspect the issue is other than a loose belt. I have used the belt dressing (Kanolabs dynall) many times on the soobs with no issues. However if you have say a failing bearing in the alternator, the belt dressing isn't going to make any difference with that, and the bearing will eventually fail. It doesn't mean the belt dressing was the problem though. No, the crankshaft pulley should not have any noticeable runout. CAUTION: If you are seeing much wobble on the crankshaft pulley that drives the a/c and alternator/p.s. belts, it is possible the bolt is backing out. This does happen sometimes after a timing belt replacement where the bolt was not tightened correctly afterwards. This info is all for H4 soobs. If by chance yours is an H6, that is a different accessory belt setup (though some did have issues with an idler going bad on there). For the cleaning I'm not sure what I'd use. Possibly non-chorlinated brake cleaner I would try if I were going to try this. But that stuff is highly flammable and I'm not sure it is completely compatible with the belts, though usually they contain things such as xylene, toluene, MEK, mineral spirits, etc.

Why do you not want the genuine Subaru wires which are known to work well on soobs? The aftermarket wires even NGK may be suspect. Magnecor wires seem to be the only ones I've heard are usually ok as well. The genuine wires are SOA430Q119 WIRE SET, IGNITION FOR 2000-2003 LEGACYS (non H6) and Subaru dealers who sell online will sell these for around $40 a set, so it's even a little lower price than the aftermarket options. Subaru genuine parts are not always way out there on price, they are actually often very competitive, plus they in general are good quality parts that work and fit well.

Yes that is mentioned in this thread too, the driveshaft u-joints gg mentioned or the 'propeller shaft' as I called it. Based on your description of the change with the FWD fuse taken out the propeller shaft might be suspect. Because now the transmission is actually driving the propeller shaft rather than turning it by dragging it via rear wheels so it might change the feel. My '94 has this kind of shake around 60mph or above if I let it sit too long and I can feel it under the driver seat somewhat. ATF changes can help if it is the transfer clutch; it did help in my '96 quite a bit too. I think a big part of what happens there is that the old fluid loses its dynamic frictional qualities pretty fast, and many people never even change it at all. So you really don't know what you're getting in a used soob. So a few changes can help clean out the junk and give it back the required frictional characteristics. I wouldn't necessarily call 8-9 quarts a small sump; that's pretty standard for an automatic transmission in a passenger car.

And stuff just sitting around just deteriorates unless you keep it indoors and heated in the winter. Outside it will just rust and rot over the years sitting there anyway.

That doesn't surprise me on the parts markup. I believe the general rule of thumb is to double the price on the part. I doubt that is exclusive to any particular chain. An independent shop might get away with less markup. Also the prices the parts stores were quoting you were probably a little higher than what they charge a repair shop that is buying a volume of parts from them on a regular basis.

Yes a lot of times the parts store alts are basically 'repaired' and not actually remanufactured. My '96 had a napa alt in it when I got it that was making a squeaking sound so it got replaced with the Subaru alt. You might check into the Subaru alt for that, there was a recall on them around that year for some potential issue with the brushes. Though if you already replaced the alt they probably won't do anything for it now.

If you are even a tooth off that can be enough to make it not start. Those oil leaks like cam seals and such really need to be addressed, since it's already getting oil on your new belt which wil shorten its life. Those idlers look like they've seen better days too, many times the idlers, esp that geared/toothed one don't make it to 200k miles. I'm assuming you were not turning the crank before you had the new belt on and lined up? If it hit any valves while you were turning it manually it would have stopped.

I'm not sure on the dohc, but on the sohc's the caps are easy to pull. In fact on the sohc it should be pulled because there is an o-ring in there that can be replaced.

Well if all that stuff was replaced and the toe was not at least checked, one or more wheels might be towed out quite a bit. That will make the thing really twitchy, like a 'horny snake' one person described it to me. Sometimes for track cars people like toe out, but only if the opposing wheels are towed out the same amount on purpose.

Yes that is the split flange. NAPA has them, but they didn't have the right size when I went there. Autozone had all the sizes in the exhaust section so I got a couple and used the one with the tightest good fit. I used new genuine springs but rigged up something using 1/4" stainless bolts and fender washers because I needed longer bolts than stock. You only need the split flange if the flange on either the rear cat or the pipe are gone. If both are gone two split flanges might work. I've seen them both ways, sometimes it's just the donut that rusts out and the flanges are in ok shape, or sometimes the flange on the rear cat also basically disappears.

Great, thanks for the info. Fortunately that part isn't too expensive I now see. Say what do you think about this? http://www.subarupartsforyou.com/cp_partlistbymod.php?subcat=Switch%2C+Oil+Pressure They have the same part # listed for every soob, even the SVX, except the one for the SVX is cheaper?

I think I've seen this discussed previously, but can the oil pressure switches leak right through the switch? I'm gearing up for some work on my '94 Legacy. The engine has quite a bit of oil over it and I thought originally it was the valve cover gaskets. But when looking at it closer, it almost looks like it's coming from the oil pressure switch under the alternator. Like that little spade terminal where the wire connects, it is wet with oil as if the oil is coming out right through the switch. Does that happen to these switches? Thanks.