Alexx

I found the name of the person, "Albert Klein" "1963 VW" He actually went through many engines and ended up somewhere between 1.5 and 1.6 million miles. However, I cannot find the article where his car was crushed by some huge vehicle that rolled over on top it. I vividly remember both stories, first of his achievement, then his car getting crushed and him surviving.

I recall reading about an elderly gentleman who was near 1 million miles on his VW bug when it was crushed, like a bug, but a big truck. He was devastated. I'll have to try and find the original article and if I do I'll post a link. Happened in the early 80's I think in the Pasadena, California area.

Front wheel drive only subarus would not have a rear differential, correct?

Oh yeah, if I take the oil out and then can't get the other plug loosened I'm in trouble. Anyone have a picture handy? (I'm not asking anyone to shoot a shot, just if someone has already shot it). Can I use that synthetic stuff? I think it's called jolt or shock??? Should the car have been driven prior to draining the oil to make sure it all drains, and if it's 100 degrees out, does that make up for not driving the car prior to draining the oil?

How does the rear axle get lubed on a front wheel drive Subaru? Thanks in advance!

The car is actually running Ok right now. But I'd like to have some place I can go to occassionally. The last time Roo Builders rebuilt my carb and it's still fine, but I'd like a steady idle. It's not too bad, but I notice I can't use the cigarette plug as a charger because the voltage output irregular, probably because of the not perfect idle.

Thanks for the lead. A bit far away from me but perhaps way better than nothing. May I add that they need to be specialists in carburetors?

Anybody have any recommendations?

SOA might bill the owner of a 1.7 million mile car for loss of income because they never bought a new subuaru. Lets do the math, 1.7 million miles divided by 250,000 miles per car equals about 7 subarus worth of money the owner would owe SOA. No wonder he doesn't want any publicity just in case SOA comes a calling.

I really like the 81 wagon. It feels more like a regular car with that extra room for putting a lot of stuff in.

Thanks for that, but it is a bit disconcerting to actually see your own response at the top, the page full of topics, yet it's a mirage. I thought something was wrong because the topic number five on page one (the first four I had responded to over a two hour span) was dated Dec. 18th, aka three days ago. I suspected that maybe the forum had been down for everyone else and that I was the first one to get back on. But a couple of hours later when the new two new topics I started (one about fuses, the other asking where everybody was) only had 1 and 3 views, I knew something was wrong. LOL, I just didn't expect my posts to be gone forever.

Our posts were only a minute apart, so that's why you didn't see it. Kind of bummed about those lost posts, I spent a bit of time on a couple of them, well over half an hour for the three lengthy ones.

Well, you see the message right above yours right, the email notification states the name of my topic, which now doesn't exist. I started that topic, but it is nowhere to be found, and the topic number has been reassigned. I guess forum software is "developing" to the point where we can all be on the same forum but each not see the same thing, how sad. This entire morning, all I saw was posts that dated to Dec. 18th, then my four responses. lol, after three hours, there were only 3 hits on my topic, and they probably were all mine. Don't mean to be paranoid, but this can't be a good thing, everywhere else I was this morning I had no problems.

Check out this email notification that I just got a few minutes ago. Hello Alexx, pleiad7 has just replied to a thread you have subscribed to entitled - I'm confused. This forum is dead??? - in the Older Generation of Subarus forum of Ultimate Subaru Message Board. This thread is located at: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=68867&goto=newpost if you click on the link, it goes elsewhere.

I posted four messages this morning. For some bizarre reason it was as if I was the only one posting. Now I see that those four posts appear to be gone, as if I never made them. I spent a bit of time on a couple of them. Also, the dates just below my four posts were all from Dec. 18th and earlier. Can somebody explain what happened?

I found this link about 80's subaru's and engine specs. What might be unique about it is it seems to address service bulletins that wouldn't be found in the ordinary manual. http://www.rebuiltautoengines.com/subaru-dl-articles.html

Somebody who has done this in the past claimed that there actually will be a clacking noise when the valve is properly adjusted, that when it's not properly adjusted is when the car may be too quiet, and in the process cause the valve to miss because the valve is not clearing properly, which then causes shake in the engine. The clacking sound the rocker arms make may have to do with the pitting that develops as the engine ages, that's how it was explained to me anyways. The measurement is trickier as the engine gets older because of the pitting. Are there online pictures that show how the adjustment is done?

I think my engine needs a valve job adjustment. It's beyond my scope to do it for a number of reasons, time and expertise being the two biggest. Who should I trust to do this adjustment, a subaru dealer or an independent mechanic and what criteria should I use to determine who to take the car to, it's an 81 DL wagon. I heard that over time the rocker arms can develop pits in the ends and that can mess up the measurements. Also, when properly adjusted, the car makes more noise than before, is that correct as well? What are the consequence of improperly set valves, and how can one tell if they need a valve job? Is it an inevitability after x amount of miles no matter how well the car is cared for, and how many miles would that be?

Is there a direct correlation beween compression and miles per gallon? If so, and I assume there is, anybody want to take an educated guess? For instance, when a car is new, the compression number is probably around x, and the mpg is usually y, When a car 10 years old with 150,000 milies on it, the compression number is probably going to be around x, and the mpg is usually y... When a car is 20 years old, with 250,000 miles on it, the compression number is probably around x, and the mpg is usually around y....

Very informative, so we're up to 5 bucks a charge, range not known. "Who killed the electric car" is an excellent documentary to check out, it's available on DVD. I haven't viewed it yet but one thing I did hear was that the oil companies did indeed buy up some type of battery patents and are sitting on them.

I saw a converted car exactly as you described. It was a 1990 rabbit. 8 batteries in the front, 12 in the back. A metal skid was installed under the car to support the batteries. One drawback was it only charged at 110 volts versus 220, but they claimed that was probably better for the life of the battery. Some of the cost savings to consider are, no motor oil, no anti-freeze, and no tune-ups. Over those five years of use, at 12,000 miles a year, one would purchase approximately 2,500 gallons of gas, aka between $5,000 to $6,500 in fuel expenses. I don't know how much electricity would cost to charge the batteries approximately 600 times to reach 60,000 miles, but at two bucks a charge that would only be $1,200.00 There does appear to be a significant math savings. I suppose the downside is the safety of these cars. If that battery loaded rabbit rear ends anybody, it will probably feel like a sledgehammer to the car that gets hit from behind by the Rabbit. One of those battery cars goes spinning out of control on an icy road, yikes. However, there are allegations that the oil companies bought up the best battery technology and are sitting on it, this technology may significantly reduce the weight issue.

Was the car driven across the country, was that a claim or was it actually done? Anybody know anyone who knew Stanley Meyers?

I went to the first annual altcarexpo and depending on how much it costs to actually charge an electric car, it does seem to actually be much more "fuel efficient" than a gas powered car or even a hybrid. The oil industry did a huge PR job on U.S. consumers back in the 90's to completely diss the use of battery run cars. They basically got their way when it came to declassifying SUV's as trucks, and the U.S. MPG average dropped from around 27.5 mpg to just over 20 miles per gallon in the past 12 years. Additionally, the oil industry apparently did such a good job whining about how electric cars would lead them to bankruptcy that they pretty much killed the integration of the electric car. Whats fascinating about our power grid is that at night there is much more energy available (typically when you would recharge your car) and that as more and more solar and wind energy sources come online, the "grid" gets cleaner as time goes on, so as long as breaking down the battery is not a long term bio hazard, it's a no brainer to integrate battery technology for running our cars.

You didn't mean motorcycles did you? It's a shame the reporter didn't actually demand to drive the water vehicle for a day or two, Meyers could have simply followed him in another car if the water car was not big enough for two people. I've heard that the oil companies regularly buy patents from inventors that have a breakthrough product. For instance, battery technology has really advance by the oil companies may have bought up the latest technology to foil electric car advances. Apparently charging an electric car costs around a buck, making it something like 10 times more efficient than a fuel based car. Although I don't know what happens to the batteries once they are no longer functioning.

I suppose if one pulls a seat from another car they should sit in it first to make sure it's comfortable. Could you imagine just seeing what looks like a decent seat and forgetting such a minor detail as actually sitting in it first before pulling it. How about this idea. I pull the Subaru seat out of my car. I find a wooden platform and reattach the seat to the platform by creating a seat template in which I can actually fasten the seat to the wooden platform. I pull the subaru seat off and then take the wooden template with me when I go Seat hunting. If a seat fits on the wooden template, then it will fit on my subaru (this is starting to sound like Cinderella). I just don't know how complicated the wooden template would be to make nor how dimensional it would have to be depth wise.