M45

The shifter cable is bent. Should it be straight? Should I just straighten it? Since I don't think I should take the transmission out, it might be a real chore to replace it.

The interior of the case seems undamaged too.

The transmission seems to be in good shape:

Hi, With reference to my previous thread: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=94264 I got the car back home, and took a bunch of parts off. It was time consuming but fortunately everything was reasonably accessible, with the help of my Haynes manual. Here are some pictures:

How or where does one find one's transmission code?

Look's like it is in comparatively decent shape. Good work!

Hope the new pictures help. I've replaced the radiator before, which I'd rate as the low end of medium work on the car. I did it with help from this board! On other cars, I've replaced water pumps, rebuilt 4-barrel carburetors and helped a friend take an engine out and put a new one in. I've decided to try to get it home tomorrow and I'll be able to make better pictures then and get parts of to get a better assessment of damage. Everyone who is helping out is real cool! Happy New Year!

Wrecked shifter cable:

Busted drive shaft U joint:

More cracked AT housing:

New Photos: Cracked transmission housing:

Ok, First, thanks to all who've responded! This Board is great! I've seen the car on the hoist at the shop and the transmission case is cracked. So I'm looking at replacing the transmission, myself. Another possibility would be to sell the car if anyone would buy it as is, and try to find some beater for even less money. I'm guessing that almost nobody would buy it, so scraping together the bucks for a replacement (used) transmission is just about my only choice. I wonder if a manual transmission (and flywheel) would be less expensive than an auto (it is AT now). I generally prefer driving manual, and I wonder if a manual would be a little more fuel efficient. I'll post new pictures in a few hours.

The shop called. They say that the shifter cable is broken, there may be damage to the transmission (they are talking replacement), and there was some mention of the rear differential. They think that the cost of repairs would exceed the value of the car, but of course they are talking about California mechanics' labor rates and new parts, etc. I'm going to go down there now and take a look and have a chat. With a little bit of luck I'll be able to take some better more extensive pictures. I hope to be back in four hours. I don't have a hoist at home, just a carport with four jackstands and a floor jack. Even so, I'm tempted (and financially motivated) to attempt some major work, if necessary.

That is encouraging. However, it dumped fluid on the highway, so at least a seal is broken, or worse. The car won't start, probably due to some kind of interlock broken, or maybe just a no-fluid warning lockout.

I'd like to keep this car if I can. It is in pretty good shape (missing some rear left trim, one hubcap, and the hood pull handle). Radio or speakers freak out on high tones or noise. But dash is uncracked and the car is comfortable with sunroof and electronic door locks. The images were taken by the light of the tow truck.

Hi, I've had an 88 GL-10 Turbo AWD wagon for just over a year, and I like it. I replaced my radiator (last year) with help from the USB forum for some finicky little details. Many thanks! The drive shaft going to the rear broke at a point just after the automatic transmission. This happened at speed on the highway, but I was able to coast over to the shoulder. Transmission fluid came out. I got it towed to a repair shop, Larry's Autoworks, in Mountain View, CA. They list themselves as a Subaru repair shop. If anyone can help me with information about what is involved I'm all ears. I took pictures (with a decent camera) and I'll upload them in about an hour. I'm worried that the automatic transmission may have been damaged. Replacing or fixing the AT is a hellish expense, I think. I need to figure out what to do. I can't afford another car and can't really afford a repair bill either. It's my "daily driver" (though I didn't drive daily) that I depend on, and I need a station wagon. I've done a bunch of work on cars from time to time. I only have a carport at an apartment and four jackstands, but I have gumption, and patience and a willingness to learn. I have a reasonable set of tools with wrenches up to 21 mm, and I'd be willing to buy some tools if it will in total save me money. I've gone to pick and pull yards to fix cars in the past, if that is what it takes. I will probably have to pay the shop some money for their time diagnosing, at least, so maybe I will be advised to have them do the minimum to get it driving. The front CV boots are broken and the CVs will probably have to be replaced soon rather than later, but I can do that myself, I think. Thanks in advance for any ideas or thoughts or info that you might share with me.

In the last photo (now also the avatar), Subaru eats unsuspecting human.

I suspect the TPS may be a cause of bad jerkiness. I've already rough tested the throttle switch and it passes. How do I arrange to make the resistance test (for smoothness over the range)? The manuals say to "backprobe" the throttle sensor connector, which I assume means to shove the meter probe tips into the connector where the wires go in. However, there doesn't seem to be room for that. Plan B is to separate the connector but, like most cars, the connector is overly difficult to open. Is there a special tool one can buy for this? Usually connectors are in barely accessible places and it is impossible to get a good grip or leverage or a reasonable way to depress the tabs. Is there an easy way to open them with standard tools?

Please help me diagnose my 1988 Subaru GL-10 Turbo AWD Wagon with automatic transmission, and help me to fix it myself as inexpensively as possible. It has become quite jerky recently. It started a month or so ago, at about 60 mph or 3200 rpm on the freeway. It will be going fine and then lose power for a fraction of a second and then carry on normally for a few seconds. If I lifted off the accelerator, it would stop jerking; same thing if I pushed up the rpms. It seemed more prone to do this on warm days, but if the first drive of the day didn't have the jerkiness, then the car would run fine even if restarted warm or cold after stops. As it got worse, the rpm band prone to jerkiness got wider and wider until it was hard to drive it over 35 mph. When I drove it last, I could hardly get any power unless I floored the accelerator. Possible causes: 1) dirty or broken throttle position sensor TPS. I've heard that some kinds can be cleaned. 2) stuttering fuel pump. 3) clogged fuel injectors. 4) electrical problem, perhaps in the distributor. Only #1 seems to explain the RPM band. Other possibly related issues: I had been getting only about 20 miles per gallon city, and 24 on the highway, which seems low. This may be related to the right rear wheel, which does not turn as easily as the other wheels. Once (after I knew about the rear wheel), it may have gotten overheated after three hours of high speed highway driving. Thanks in advance for any assistance rendered.

Success! I didn't have to buy any fans or pumps. I ran it for ten minutes yesterday and will road test and smog check and register today (assuming nothing new crops up). It turned out that the radiator wasn't getting seated correctly in the bottom where the posts are resting inside bushings that sit in two holes in the frame. That meant that the top was too high and was hitting the front frame crossmember. Thanks to DaveT for providing the germ of the idea that made me look the third time and finally figure it out. Once it was seated properly, then the clearances were all good. Of course there are a hundred and one fiddly little bits to take care of. For example the old hose on the driver's side refused to go onto the radiator, and it needed to be cut anyway since the old radiator had a straight pipe and this one had an upward bend. So I got a hose from the parts store and it fit the radiator perfectly. However, it was too large for the water pump outlet! (Smaller pipe! Very strange.) It was so loose it wobbled. So back to the store to get a band clamp, since I figured that would provide a larger sealing area. The band clamp did the job, but I'll have to see how it reacts tomorrow after a hill climp up 1800 feet through the Santa Cruz mountains, in preparation for a road trip to the Eastern Sierras this weekend. Many thanks to all who took time to help out with comments on the two threads.

Success! See the followup thread: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=80272 Thanks to all for posting suggestions.

OK, bad news, the radiator fits in my 88 I've had two weeks, but can't put the engine fan in, can't even put the electric fan in. No room. The engine fan can't clear the nub of the water pump shaft to get mounted on the water pump shaft. Even if the engine fan could be mounted, it would have about 2 mm clearance, which is not enough to allow for frame flex and engine movement. I am going to try to resolve this ASAP, because I should try to get it smogged and registered by Monday deadline if I can. The electric fan doesn't fit, though it nearly does. It goes all the way in, except for a last half inch or so where the bottom of the bracket hits the (yellow) oil filter. The bracket can be bent, and/or ground away, I think, to get it to fit, but that may make changing the oil filter a little more difficult, but not impossible. For the engine fan, there are some possible solutions that I can envisage, none of them easy. It would be most desirable to retain use of the engine fan. 0) I don't want to return the radiator. It is a two row all metal one, a vast improvement over the plastic single row one previously installed that had crumbled (fit aside). The guy at the shop was helpful and gave me a price break on it. 1) The engine fan has a longer shaft than necessary. If I could find a fan that had a shorter shaft, by about 1/2 inch, there would still be clearance between it and the engine. 1b) I don't think there is any economic way to cut and rejoin the shaft and maintain a strong component. 1c) I may try taking it in (by bicycle) to as many auto dealer parts departments as I can find open on a Saturday, to see if any may have a fan with a shorter shaft and the same bolt pattern. Does anyone know of a fan that would fit? 2) If the water pump shaft could be replaced with one about 1/2 inch shorter, that would help, but I doubt that is possible. I think the shaft is integral to the pump and looks to be made of hardened alloy, hence cutting and rejoining is not possible. 3) There are rubber grommets with a metal inner collar that the bolts pass through the metal frame to the radiator. On the inside of the frame, there is about 5/16 inch of rubber that could be cutoff and a thin rubber washer used. That would gain about 1/4 inch. I don't think I could gain the equivalent on the bottom, so the gain at the fan bolts would be about half, due to the angle effect, so say 1/8 inch. 4) The bolts on the radiator side of the fan protrude about 1/8 inch past the nuts. Those could be ground down. 5) The engine fan could be left off, but the pulley kept bolted on so that the water pump turns. The fan could be replaced with an electric fan, but it would have to be a very thin one. For example a duplicate of the existing electric fan would be too thick by over an inch. 5b) If I did get a very thin fan, I'd still have to rig up some electric relays with switches and rig power. If the switch is dash mounted, then it is too easy to forget to turn on. If the switch is simply a relay piggybacked on the ignition circuit, then the fan would be on all the time, which might not be best. If I connected the fan power in parallel with the electric fan, it might overtax that circuit and it kind of makes the arrangement "all or nothing", a bit risky. I'd rather not go this route if I can avoid it, since it seems tricky and riskier. 6) I could take a sledge hammer to the top of the front frame cross member and maybe bash it in a quarter inch or a half inch. It would be almost impossible to do that to the bottom, due to a lack of clearance. This would have unknown effects on the strength of the frame and might shift some other things out of alignment. I don't have a chain or solid distant attachment point to be able to pull either member out the fraction of an inch. I don't see how I could get leverage to pry them out. Anyway, this approach seems like a kind of caveman desperation ploy. Prior thread about radiator coming out: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=80104 Old rad (came with car). Notice damage and repairs where engine fan would be. Any other ideas for gaining clearance? How much flex in the frame and the engine mounts would there be? How much clearance do I need?