canajun2eh

I would have put a heavy piece of round hollow stock on the shaft before doing the last bend. You'd use the hollow stock (which should slide on the shaft) as a slide hammer. Saves a lot of wear and tear on the knuckles -- you would never miss! Subaru tool numbers (you can buy them from your dealer): EA82 engine: 399094310 ER27 engine: 499097300 You can use the one for the ER27 (XT6) on an EA82 engine. It's longer because you need to be able to get at the middle pair of cylinders.

I can see where the "let me make my own choices" folks are coming from. You can turn off the daytime running lights simply by pulling the handbrake up one notch. I think the DTR laws are really stupid -- they should have been written so that the tail lights are on as well as the headlights. There are far too many people who drive around with their DTRs on when they should have the headlights on. I spoke to a couple of them -- they hadn't realized that the tail lights were off!

It's part of the emission control system. There are 3 hoses: two from the engine compartment, and one from the fuel tank. Excess fuel from the carburetor or the injection system is returned to the fuel separator. The fuel separator lets the excess fuel drain into the tank, leaving vapours behind. When the engine isn't running, vapours can build up in the tank. These vapours pass through the drain hose from the tank to the fuel separator. The fuel return and fuel drain lines are at the bottom of the fuel separator. The vapours are sent from the fuel separator through the second hose to the charcoal canister, where they're collected. The vapour line is at the top the fuel separator. When the engine is at operating temperature and running at more than 2,500 RPM, the purge control solenoid valve opens. This solenoid controls a hose between the charcoal canister and the intake manifold. When the engine is running as stated and the purge control solenoid valve is open, intake manifold vacuum draws accumulated vapours from the charcoal canister into the intake manifold, to be burned by the engine. Note: I might have some of the details wrong, but that's the principle.

Take the sending units out of the tank, and clean up the resistor pad. Use some fine emery cloth. The resistor pad is the one with all those wiggly black lines on it. They're not supposed to be black. Use a sharp knife blade to clean between the tracks too. The problem is caused by high-sulphur gas. Here in Canada, two brands are notorious for causing problems (Shell & Exxon), others are much better.

Right. The fuel pump controller is a blue box mounted against the driver's side wheel well, up under the instrument cluster. This thing works by energizing the fuel pump relay when the ignition switch is in the "Start" position and also when the engine is running. "Engine running" is determined by the box seeing the same ignition pulses the tach sees. In fact, the fuel pump controller and the tach share the yellow wire from the coil. The fuel pump controller shuts down the fuel pump when you switch the engine off, or when the engine stops because of an accident. On cars that have an ECU, the fuel pump controller is built into the ECU, but it works the same way. Good job!

There's a connector by the accelerator pedal (left drive) that often comes undone.

Nope, can't be a belt tensioner. There's only one belt, and the tensioner is automatic. I strongly suspect you have one or two collapsed hydraulic valve lash adjusters. It's not likely to be the whole bank of 8 adjusters. Getting to these things isn't all that hard. You don't even have to remove the timing belt. Simply remove the valve cover, and you can then unbolt the rocker arm assembly. The valve lash adjusters can be pulled out fairly easily. They might be bit sticky because of oil suction. Pull each adjuster out individually, and inspect. Bad ones will be very obvious. You should put the good ones back in the same place (don't mix them up). Inspect the part of the adjuster that the rocker arm touches. There should be no pitting, and it should be very shiny. There's a replaceable o-ring on each adjuster. Sometimes the adjuster itself is still good, but the o-ring has failed. Part number for the o-ring is 13396AA000 . Cost is around CA$2.50 each, compared to around CA$35.00 each for the complete adjuster. I suggest you buy two lash adjusters (intake & exhaust are identical), and 8 o-rings. You should also replace the valve cover gasket and the valve cover bolt gaskets.

It's a warning lamp, to tell you when one of your brake lights is burned out. It won't warn you when both are burned out, though. <p> It beats having somebody stand behind your car to observe the brake lights while you tap the brake pedal.

What manual? If it's the Subaru service manual, go by what it says. My XT6 service manual says to use a new head gasket, but doesn't mention gasket sealer. I don't use gasket sealer on any gaskets. Some types of sealer are very difficult to remove, and scraping will damage the aluminum surfaces of the block and the head, leading to expensive and difficult machining later.. My vote is "no". Some advice: Clean the threaded holes in the block with a thread chaser. Thoroughly clean the head bolts too. Oil the bolt threads before installing. (Very important, to avoid stripping the threads in the block!!!) You can make a thread chaser from an old head bolt or some other type of bolt with the same thread. Using a hacksaw, cut two slots cross-wise about half the length of the thread. Turn the thread chaser into the hole you want to clean until it starts to bind, then back it out all the way and clean the slots. Repeat until you can thread the bolt in all the way by hand. Be patient, don't hurry this job.

DO NOT use bolts when attaching the exhaust to the head!!!! From experience (2 different engines) I can tell you that this will work in the VERY short term, but those bolts will damage the threads in the head. Nothing but major trouble afterwards. New studs are very inexpensive, compared to the trouble you'll save. Here in Ottawa, Canada, new studs can be bought for under C$ 3 each. You don't even have to buy them from a dealer -- I bought mine from a company that specializes in industrial fasteners (bolts, nuts, etc.) You should replace the exhaust nuts too. They're stainless steel. Don't use lockwashers under the nuts -- use plain round stainless steel ones. Apply liberal amounts of anti-seize compound when installing the studs and also when threading the nuts onto the *new* studs. Apply more of this stuff afterwards. DON'T USE BOLTS. Hint: The head has two pairs of threaded holes for exhaust studs. Only one pair is in use. If your Y-pipe has flanges that can be rotated, you can install new studs in the unused pair of holes in the head, and then put the Y-pipe flange into the alternate position. Unfortunately, not all Y-pipes have this kind of flange.

You should post your question in the Australian Subaru board: http://www.ausubaru.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl Australia is a LOT closer to Malaysia, and they also drive on the same (left) side of the road. There's very little rust on Aussie Subarus, and there are a LOT of old ones around.

You should replace the timing belts as a pair. If you haven't messed with the distributor, you don't need to worry about finding TDC of the compression stroke. You might find the job easier if you use a dab of white paint or white-out to mark the flywheel. Mark the ignition timing as well as the camshaft timing. Line up with the center of the 3 marks on the flywheel. Line up the timing hole on left camshaft sprocket (the one with the timing belt closest to the block) with the notch at top of timing belt rear cover, and install belt and tensioner. Turn engine clockwise through several revolutions (an even count), and re-check mark alignment. Correct if necessary. If you pass the flywheel marks, DO NOT back up. Instead, just continue turning the engine another two turns. Turn engine an odd number of revolutions and stop with the center of the 3 flywheel marks lined up. The side just done will now have the sprocket mark lining up with the notch at the bottom of the cover. Line up the camshaft sprocket hole of the side not yet done with the top notch of its rear timing belt cover. Install belt and tensioner. Turn engine through several revolutions (even count, again), and re-check mark alignment for the side just done. Correct if necessary. The camshaft timing marks are aligned correctly when one side's mark is down while the other side's mark is up.

Don't use bolts. You can't tighten them properly without stripping the threads in the head. (I speak from experience.) Studs and new stainless steel nuts aren't all that expensive, and are readily available from your dealer. It's false economy to use anything else. Be sure to apply anti-seize compound to the studs before installing the nuts. Apply more to cover the nuts after installation and tightening.

Yes. The link from the output of the alternator to the battery is simply a piece of wire with a fusible link. In your case, any fuse with a rating somewhat (but not too much) higher than the rated output of the alternator will achieve the same thing. I've seen fuses used in parallel. Two 35-amp fuses in parallel equals a 70-amp fuse.

Our local alignment specialist will NOT do an alignment if the car needs new rubber. Therefore: Replace the tires first, and then do the alignment on all four corners.

I'd advise removing the cylinder heads, removing the valves, and using lots of compressed air to blow those shavings out. You can use water to flush out the intake ports too.

Helicoiling shouldn't be necessary after you've extracted the broken bolt. As with the cylinder head bolts, you should carefully CLEAN the bolt threads as well as the tapped holes in the cylinder head before reinstalling the intake manifold. Don't forget to oil the bolt threads. Obviously, you also have to clean the holes in the manifold that these bolts go through.