CNY_Dave

Factory bearing with grease already in place has been my choice.

BTW napa has the 12x1.25 tap in the sprk-plug repair section, 6 bucks. Used my brazed-on lug nut though.

Ball joint is in. Tool worked great! Got the area around bolt pretty red to get it to loosen. I shielded the CV boot well, don't think the wheel bearing took a lot of heat.

Well, now I have lots of time to work on it. Got laid off today.

I thought in the south they just fell out when you asked them nicely?

Have you checked the diff fluid levels? Here is my bad front diff noise

A squeal is less likely to be an axle or diff. More whine, or more squeal?

I'm counting on heat, planning to get the threaded end a bit red. I have plenty of metal plates to use to shield the CV joint, and the acetylene torch can get it cherry (and hopefully loose) and I think I can can cool it before the wheel bearing takes a lot of heat.

Lowes- useless. No 1.5 black pipe caps (I have the rest of the black pipe bits already), and get thisd- they stopped carrying taps (not that I was too hopeful they'd have the right size). I cut the head off a 3/4 grade-8 bolt and used a 1/2-inch black-pipe union to join the bolt and a spare open-ended lug nut, brazed with a tight-fit.\ Ground/sanded off the chrome at the coating on the bolt first. Those gold bolts- cad plated? Plenty of air etc when I did it, now the garage is frigging cold.

As I understand it, you pull everything off the front, and the tail shaft and MPT, so the valve body doesn't get disassembled and the internal spinny bits except for the front drive shaft stay in place. I went the used-trans route as you can get one knowing the mileage, and doing the R&R myself it was affordable. I plan on keeping the car long enough it would have been worth $1500 having the one in there repaired, but finances didn't allow.

Drill into the end of the pinch bolt? Does that mean a new bolt is required?

Lower ball joint time- yay! Detected a tiny bit of wanderlust in the sterring, bit of play in a lower front BJ. I have cleaned the gap to expose the bit of the BJ and threads, heated with the blue wrench and let some kroil hopefully get sucked into the joint and threads. I guess I'll be searching for that homemade BJ puller thread... I will keep the slot doused with penetrating oil, and will heat the heack out of the part the bolt threads into when I pull it. Next week hopefully...

Does the 4cyl radiator have 2 top hose connections? Is the 4cyl radiator big enough for the H6?

I always open a window or open a rear door (so the snow from the windshield doesn't fall in the car). Paranoid drives home, others try to figure out how to call triple-A with the phone and work access badge locked in the car

I've only been off dial-up a couple years, no cable, no DSL, sure as heck no fiber, satellite's a scam, finally had to go with a 3G modem (verizon mifi).

The way to check a hub (if it falls outta the race it's way bad) is to look at the fine lines on it wgere it goes into the race. Fine scratches along the length where it was pressed in/out are fine, any scratches that go around or any discoloring shows the bearing race has been moving on the hub. It's not so much that if it rotates the rotation will damage the bearing, but that if it rotates the inner race will not be held perfectly centered and the balls/rollers and race contact points will be overloaded, too few balls/rollers will be taking all the load. When they get overloaded they fail quickly. Also, if one race spins and the other does not spin with it, the face where the races contact each other will wear and the bearings will at first get too much preload (axle stretch acting like a spring), then as it wears they'll get too little.

The TCU and much of the car harness are different for VDC. You can put a VDC trans or just the rear bits into a non-VDC car, you just need to control the lockup clutch manually. The mpt in the vdc trans is designed to be locked or free, not to be partially slipping. It is the same size in diameter as the non-vdc MPT but has fewer plates.

It will need a new hub as well, that one will be loose in the inner race.

Don't forget to check the neutral/park switch interlock, just because it's easy. Try starting in N, even turn the key and then move the shifter a bit.

Oh, that's why I didn't catch it- I was thinking vdc/non-vdc 4eats that were mated to an H6, all the H6 outbacks that gen have the 4.11s.

Is the VDC front diff different? Thought it was the same. I am pretty sure 4EAT non-VDC and 4eat VDC are identical except for the rear housing and the VTD center diff with VDC instead of the mpt. All the magic is in the TCU and the center diff.

I would say the chances are good the valve body is OK. If you can pull the solenoids and give it a good visual inspection I'd say you can be sure. Bigegst concern might be if you pull a solenoid and you see it may have loosed chunks into the valve body. Not likely, but something to check for.

On fusible links, if the gauge is known it can be purchased at auto-parts stores, you just have to cut it to the correct length and solder it in.

Make sure the ABS light comes on key on, engine not started. Check for power to the unit, key on.

Could it be the fuel pump isn't running briefly to prime the system when the key is turned on?