McDave

Rockauto.com sells the 'center silencer' and 'rear silencer' for about $250 plus shipping, so your quote of $390 w/labor included sounds about right.

If it has the original thin metal shims on the back of the pads, I'll reuse them but I don't glue them to the new pads or calipers. It just makes them hard to get off without damaging them the next time you do a brake job. If you don't have any shims go ahead and goop the backside of the pads. If the pads came with stick on shims, I would throw them away and goop the pads if you don't have the correct shims. When I did my brake job last weekend, one side had no shims, the other side had stick-on shims that had slipped, and both sides were squealing. Since my local parts store didn't have the correct shims in stock I went ahead and gooped the new pads. I will have the correct shims on hand the next time I do a brake job on this car though.

The GM Ignition Modules contained 14 transistors mounted on a heat sink, the metal rectangular area on the bottom of the IM. Since the modules were mounted in the distributor rather than the engine block, the idea was to transfer the heat from the module to the cooler aluminum distributor base. Unfortunately the early 1975 and '76 transistors weren't up to snuff so failures were common, even with the dielectric paste. It didn't take them long to make better modules, but many didn't know what that tube of "grease" that came with the modules was for, so they still tended to fail anyway when it wasn't used. So bottom line, I agree with 2X2KOB that it won't make any difference since you wouldn't be helping a hot electronic component transfer heat away to a cooler surface.

We do a half dozen brake jobs a week at our shop and we always use the best pads we can find that works best with the least amount of comeback complaints from customers, and with cost a distant secondary concern. Day in, day out, year around NAPA's Application Engineered pads has fit that bill. Sometimes the AE pads have very little metal in them, like the Mercury Grand Marquis I did yesterday. On other applications there's so much metal in them you wonder if they'll be noisy. They aren't. I can't recall ever having to replace their pads under warranty, they've been that good. NAPA's Adaptive One Ceramix on the other hand have caused some comebacks so we've quit using them. A couple cars came back with brake squeal and one came back a couple days later with enough brake noise it sounded like they were metal to metal (my boss/sidekick did that job and his hearing isn't so good). We even had a couple trucks where the pads were too thick to fit over new rotors. They look good on paper, and worked fine on most jobs, but as they're fairly new and the number of applications in stock is low, we really didn't install that many of them. Their return/fail rate was way too high for the relatively small numbers we installed. Nothing but NAPA Application Engineered (AE) for us now. As usual, your milage may vary.

Bingo! You just put into words what I've been thinking.

Or it could have simply been a poor connection at the knock sensor connector and the r&r made the connection good again.

What works best for me is to jack up one side of the car at a time and have someone else move the tire back and forth while you watch the joints closely. Tell them not to jerk the tire back and forth hard, just enough to take up the slack. Take a drop light or flashlight under the car with you. Also while you're under there, have your helper take a long breaker bar or 2x4 and pry up and down under the tire so you can check for lower ball joint play. PS Use a jackstand next to the jack while you're under the car just in case...

If it is wheel bearings you would have play when grabbing the tire at the top and bottom, as well as grabbing it on the left and right.

At a steady highway cuising speed, engine fully warmed up, lightly touch the brake pedal. Don't press it enough to cause braking, just enough to say disengage the cruise control. Watch the tach, it should increase a couple hundred rpm, then drop back down when you let off the pedal. Note: This has worked on every make of car that I've ever tried it on. Knowing that Subaru likes to do things differently though, I wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't work on them. Someone will be along shortly, I'm sure to tell me if I'm wrong.

I wasn't so lucky. Sunday I started with the left front, even though, like Braap it sounded like it was in the right front. The bearings were fine in the left but the right had water fouled grease and one of the bearings was a bit rough. I also changed the pads and rotors at the same time. Result? Still had bearing noise and still had brake shimmy. (sigh) This morning I replaced the rear bearings and resurfaced the drums. The right side bearings were fine, but the left were adjusted too tight and the outer bearing showed signs of heat stress and some transferring of metal on the race. Result? Brake shimmy gone , still have bearing noise. Looks like it's time to start prepping the spare transaxle since the differential carrier bearings must be the culprit. I like working on cars, but I like it even better when I'm getting paid for it. Maybe I'll go back to being a brain surgeon.

Have him take the transmission pan off and check the connector on the duty pressure solenoid. The mechanic probably broke it when he jacked the tranny up and dented the pan when he pulled your motor.

#1 = boring. #2 = nice street car color. #3 = a bit too much. #4 = nice street/race colors. Again my choice would depend on the car's intended purpose, #2 or #4 being my favorites. Is it done yet?

Yep. Bonus points if it has a good strap or chain to lash the tranny down to the jack's cradle. I'm getting too old for GD's method.

The play could be in the inner tie rods too, the ones under the boots in the steering rack.

Had the donor car been in an accident? If so where was it hit? I'm inclined to believe it was already cracked and just happened to fall apart when you removed the tranny, but then I wasn't there to see what happened. If the tranny wasn't damaged in a bad accident, it will probably be fine as long as you tap the dowel pin into the engine block, and then if you don't end up with a bunch of up and down play in the tranny once it's mated to the block - before tightening the bolts or TQ. Worth a shot, imo.

Sure it does. Check this thread... http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=91424

From the smoke kit article:"Also, most of the electrical devises in early Datsuns were copied from Lucas." Well no wonder Datsun had to change their name (to Nissan)!

You can rent transmission jacks. Worth every penny.

Were the spark plugs sooty black?

It's setting an idle control code because the neutral switch on the tranny is acting up so the computer doesn't know when it's in gear or in neutral. A shop with a scanner that can read data will be able to watch the switch's actions while jiggling the shifter. The neutral switch could also be the source of the fluid leak and is related to it acting up.

Ooops, forgot what we were working on.

GD is probably right, but your symptoms also describe a stopped up catalytic converter.

The Felpro Permatorque head gaskets are great since you don't have to go back and re-torque them. Hang onto your wallet when you go buy the valve cover gaskets from the dealer. The two gaskets and nine grommets (2 packs of 5) will set you back about $50.

Amen! It's getting worse all the time too. One exception in the aftermarket is Beck Arnley. I've been using their parts on imports for 30 years and they've always been first rate. Otherwise the dealer gets all my Subaru business.

It sounds like the coolant sensor is working right since it idles up when cold and returns to normal after awhile. I would suspect fuel flow. Possibly a gummed up injector. A bottle of Techron in the gas tank sure helped my SPFI run better. Past that I would check the fuel pressure, particularly since this is a SPFI conversion. It should be 20-24psi measured at the fuel inlet on the throttle body, at idle. Then pinch off the fuel return line near the TB for a couple seconds to see if the pressure will reach 38-50lbs, also at idle. Don't leave the return line pinched for more than a few seconds. Also check for fuel volume while you have the hose disconnected. Have someone crank it over while you watch a coffee can fill up, or connect your green test connectors and watch the pump pulse the fuel out. Also scan the ecu for codes.