M45

The car is for sale. Please see the For Sale forum and make an offer, or call me (clue quoted in second message, first reply). I am travelling and only have hours to dispose of the car. I have also posted a question in the Off-Topic about dealing with title when the car can't be smogged; awaiting moderator approval.

I think I cooked my Subaru's engine pulling a trailer over a 4000 ft pass. It seems to be sucking coolant into the engine. It won't drive for more than about a minute without the temperature gauge going into red. Occasionally the exhaust will blow white smoke/steam. The oil filler cap is missing, and it melted through four layers of aluminum foil I had formed a temporary replacement from. It smokes white steam through there and through the oil dipstick tube. I'm suspecting a blown head gasket. I'm stuck in Ludlow, California in the Mojave desert, sunburned, stinking of burnt coolant, trying not to kick myself too hard. There are two service stations in town, neither works on cars. There may be some kind of repair service available, capabilities unknown, mainly helping motorists install belts and such. Crazy ideas go through my head. I have all my tools with me, but no oil pan, not really a place to work, though that might be possible. Should I dump my toasted luxury turbo GL-10 with all the conveniences and walk away? Should I get it towed to Barstow, 50 miles away, and fixed if possible, at horrendous expense? Should I languish here in Ludlow, get parts shipped in by FedEx and attempt to fix it myself? Would the block be ok/warped/cracked, how can one tell? Heads need machining? ... Then what? Anyone want to buy a toasty but otherwise lovely GL-10?

The shop fixed the car, two days ahead of schedule. It was as though they got the driveshaft rebuilt instantly instead of taking two days. Nobody was more surprised or pleased than I. Drove it 15 miles on the freeway home last night. Smooth as silk from 75 mph on down. There had been a rattle at low speeds and that went away too. I assumed the rattle was from wheel parts in the right front, but it might have been the U joint itself rattling, in addition to the throbbing.

Thank you one and all, I have decided to have the repair shop send it out to a place they use to rebuild the U-Joint. It will cost $280, which is less than the $400-450 other places quoted me. Thanks to the member who offered a used driveshaft. I think this approach is my best bet for a combination of expediency and cost savings. The advice here was very helpful for me reaching my decision. Thanks!

Driveshaft U Joint snapped at 65 mph on the highway, cracking open the rear transmission case.

Thanks. The car is in Mountain View. I'll look into what I can get done.

Take in the whole drive shaft? All four sections and three U Joints for balancing?

It's the front U Joint of the three U Joints on the drive shaft. The care is 4WD (always four wheel drive). This is what I want to avoid (the catastrophe in December):

Yes, I think so. I have a 1.8 turbo engine with Automatic transmission. On edit: here's the engine code:

My driveshaft U Joint has almost failed. I replaced it in January with a used driveshaft from a member here, but it only lasted about 700-800 miles. That's the chances you take with used equipment. Now the car is making the same throbbing vibrations as before and the U Joint is visibly loose. The car is in the shop and they can't get the part. They say I can get the U-Joint itself rebuilt at a shop for $280 or I can get a new one from Subaru for over $500. The shop talked about replacing all three U-Joints at once or rebalancing the whole drive shaft for mucho bucks, but I only want the first one replaced. Getting to a pick your part boneyard would be very difficult on my bicycle. Please advise. I'm trying to leave California and tow a trailer to the east coast, and would like to have the car reliable. (Like, yeah) At this point, it is the only thing preventing me from leaving a couple of days after the car is road-worthy.

Check the U Joint. When mine failed in December it cracked off the rear transmission case. Don't let it go much longer at all.

Well, strange developments. First, the missing clue that I didn't want to skew the diagnosis is the fact that the boot on the left front CV joint is broken. However, ... something happened that may point away from the CV joint. The other night I was going up the driveway and I heard a loud bang from the rear of the car. At first I thought I had smacked the rear differential on the pavement, bottoming out, or had almost jumped a curb. I even went back to see if I could see scrape marks, but nothing was visible. Interestingly, the next day I immediately noticed that the chattering on turns from the front left had disappeared and there was no slipping or chirping from the rear tires. It seems that somehow the problem fixed itself! It is strange and fascinating that what seems to have been a problem in the rear differential would create symptoms and sounds in the left front! I wish I knew what had happened. The only hypothesis I have is that somehow the rear differential was out of whack from when I had installed the driveshaft. When I did that, I had to rotate the rear portion of the driveshaft about 5 or 10 degrees to get the bolt holes lined up. At that time the rear wheels were firmly resting on the ground. Could that have caused it?

First, many thanks to those who helped with the transmission case / driveshaft job, including parts! It's running great, no leaks. Now I'm experiencing a noise coming from the left front when I make turns at low speed. It is a kind of clacking sound, about 3-4 clacks a second. The car runs fine at speed and makes gentle turns at speed. Another symptom is that when I'm turning at low speed and have to apply power due to incline or sharpness of the turn, one of the tires chirps, but it seems to be a rear wheel. It is as if the fronts or a front wheel not getting enough power and the rear is attempting to compensate. Finally, the front right wheel makes a tzinging metallic sound that is speed dependent, as if some bit of metal is hitting something, but it is not regular in frequency. There is one or two other bits of diagnostic info which I will hold for the moment because it would skew the diagnosis. In other words, I'm hoping for detective work and ideas that would either break my main theory or strengthen it by surviving scrutiny. Thanks for your interest.

Thanks. I figured it was probably just the dowel fit and so I kept going. The rear case is a replacement from another vehicle, so it hasn't been on this one. And it would make sense to engineer the dowels for a tight fit so that there aren't any leaks out that way. I'm planning to attach the driveshaft this afternoon and the exhaust parts and then fill it up with AT fluid and turn it on and test it. We'll know more then if I did a good job.

Today I bolted the rear transmission case (extension case) onto the 88 Subaru GL-10 Wagon, Turbo AWD AT. What worries me is that the rear case had a gap of about 3/8 inch when I put it on and I had to use screwing down the bolts to draw it all the way down to the transmission. Is this normal? Or have I horrendously bent something internal? Prior threads on this project: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=94264 http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=94481

I figured out how to get the shifter cable off. Here is the bend. Now I need to figure out how to unbend it! Also, the plate is warped, particularly at the top hole.

They are clean. I scraped off the old gasket remains on the case I'm installing and I ran some 600 grit paper over it to make it very smooth and clean.

You got me just in time. I was working on it today, but got a late start, so I didn't get to actually putting the gasket on. I had thought I might use a very thin layer of sealer, but based on your advice, I will install the gasket dry with no sealer. Thanks!

I got Permatex Sensor-Safe Blue RTV Silicone Gasket Maker. I intend to use it sparingly as only a gasket sealant (I got the regulation gasket). There were many varieties of Permatex at Kragens. I think this will work fine and help if I use it very thinly, but should I have gotten something else? Is it possible to simply use the gasket with no sealer?

Thank you for the part number! The local dealer had it in stock and I got it at $5.80. They didn't have the other parts in stock. I don't think I can easily check end play. I am going to proceed on the notion that the replacement case is an exact replacement and will work well because I'm not replacing the inner parts (as illustrated in the photo with the gears). Thanks for the repair manual and the link. I don't think there is any internal damage to the transmission. (I certainly hope it is all ok).

This what basicly happened. I moved to a new place up a long very steep hill. That may have stressed the driveshaft in ways it wasn't before.

Thanks to two USMB members, I have a rear transmission case and a driveshaft. Thank you! I am having trouble finding a gasket for the case. I went to a Kragens and they directed me to a "filter kit" that they said would have the gasket. I'm thinking it might be the wrong gasket (probably the bottom pan gasket). Kragen's online site via CKS / shop.oreillyauto.com seems to indicate that there might be an "A/T Case Gasket", but it is grayed out. They seem to have only a "Transmission Pan Gasket". Somebody on a VIN thread said that NAPA was the only one that got parts right, but their site was completely clueless about 1988 Subaru models, giving me no options that make sense for GL-10 (not even Loyale or Legacy). Googling for it or using Google Shopping results give me hits for pan gaskets or O-ring type seals or expensive transmission rebuild kits. Do I have to buy raw gasket sheeting and cut my own?

Glad to hear it. It sounds like if I can bend it at all to make it straighter, that might be enough, even if it isn't perfect. This could be important!

Drive shaft U Joint rear part: