Fairtax4me

Dimming of the other lights when the brake lights come on is pretty normal. There will usually be a drop in voltage when the current demand goes up as the brake lamp bulbs come on. There are 5 of them, so it's a significant draw. There should not be any noticeable change in engine speed when any lights come on. If there is, then it's because the supply voltage to the ECU is dropping, or there's a problem with the body ground to the battery. Most of the time the problem will be at the battery. Corroded battery terminals or corrosion inside the cables. Check the battery cables carefully and make sure they're clean at BOTH ends including the smaller wires. Since the problem changes with the radio fuse pulled out, that probably means the radio is pulling too many amps for the supply circuit. It could help to run a larger power supply wire (with a fuse) from the battery + to the radio. That doesn't mean the problem is solved, but it will decrease the electrical load going through the wiring that runs inside the car from the underhood fuse panel. If the battery cables check out clean the next step would be to remove the fuse box under the hood and check the pins in the connectors on the bottom of the box for any corrosion.

How far do you have to press the pedal for it to stumble? If you press lightly just until the brake lights come on does it stumble? (Would indicate a possible electrical supply/ground issue) Or do you have to press the pedal far and/or quickly? (Possible vacuum leak/booster problem)

I don't remember the VIN exactly but if you look on the drivers strut tower there should be a metal tag with the original engine and trans ID numbers. If it starts with TZ it was an automatic TY means it was manual. Likely it was an automatic since a manual to auto swap is 10x more work than going the other way. Harness HAS to be swapped to go from manual to auto since the AT cars need the TCU and harness and MT cars don't need any of that. I don't remember any outside identifiers for telling the FDR on the rear diffs. Pretty sure the only good ways to determine that are to count turns or open it up and count teeth. Gary makes a good point though. There should be a VIN stamp on the trans somewhere and decoding that will at least tell you what year and model the trans came from which may help determine the FDR.

Take the belt off and see if there is any play in the power steering pulley.

Oil/fluid extractors generally only work when the oil is hot. If the oil is cold you can forget about using them entirely. I use a fluid extractor on boats with inboard engines due to the difficulty of reaching the oil drain plug and cleaning up the oil afterward. Takes about an hour to pull 6qts of cold 15w40 marine engine oil out.

Yeah those rails are tough but they have sections that are made to crunch like that. Usually with the right tug they will stretch back out. I recently had one that the bolt holes where the rear bumper attach were stretched down and it took a 5lb sledge and some serious swing against a pipe to get them pounded back to flat so the bumper would sit right again. Still wasn't perfect but it went from a 3" gap under the tailgate to a maybe 3/4" gap.

I try to avoid using anything by National because of repeat failures and inconsistency with the sizing of some of their parts. For a seal like this I go to the dealer or order from an online dealer, or search the dealer part number on Amazon. Sometimes the shipping cost on Amazon makes it prohibitively expensive to buy just one part, but if I have an MT split its usually to replace the bearing at the back of the input shaft, so I order the bearings and seals together. The big question here is why the input seal on the trans needs to be replaced. Usually the only reason that seal fails is the bearing on the input shaft has play and allows the shaft to wobble which causes the leak.

Either the sensor was damaged during the work of the connector isn't plugged in all the way.

Fans work when you unplug the sensor. Wiring/relays/fuses for the fans is fine. Sensor is dead.

I didn't like smearing RTV on the seam between the head and the block on a tractor to stop a major oil leak coming from the head gasket... But it worked... And saved me, at least for the time being, from having to yank the cylinder head off a 35 year old Diesel engine to put a head gasket on it... 0.o So yeah. If it looks too difficult to replace, clean the pudge out of it and goop some RTV on there. Ultra grey works awesome. So does permatexs' new ATF pan sealant.

You didn't learn anything if you didn't drive it! Put the new axles on it and drive it. Just this weekend replaced a cv axle and intermediate shaft on my buddies accord because he had a vibration from 45-60mph. It got worse when accelerating. Splines in the intermediate shaft were worn and causing the inner axle joint (which plugs into the intermediate shaft) to wobble when under load. Replaced both, vibration gone.

Did you drive it with the new axle installed? You'll hear some clunking from the differential as you spin the axle anyway because of lash clearance in the ring and pinion set and the differential gears inside the carrier. You'll also have some noise as the pinion shaft turns and moves the output drum that's back in the trans. That will move a bit and you may hear a clunk from the parking pawl hitting the drum. Tripod cv joint failure doesn't always result in noise but it can throw off the balance of the axle causing vibration especially when accelerating or decelerating.

Could be a handful of things but the expansion valve is likely what's causing the noise. It could be partially clogged with debris, could have moisture in the system, could have air in the system. Hard to say exactly without putting a set of pressure guages on it. As said earlier, take it back to the shop that just worked on it.

That sounds like a cv axle broke a while ago and the rear wheels were doing all the pushing, now the rear transfer drum has sheared off or the transfer clutches have worn totally out.

Axle or rear driveshaft. Diff bearings make a pretty obvious howl and grumbly sound when they start to fail and you'll have tons of glitter in the oil.

It is full of fluid right?

Nothing related to the fuel system inside the trunk unless someone has run a new hose somewhere to replace a rusted out steel line. Passenger side near the wheel well? Where does it come from? Where does it go? Cotton eyed joe!

It has a MAF sensor doesn't it? Intake hose loose, or the big hose for the IAC is loose maybe.

What issues? Year make model of the car?

Subaru didn't use anything like that, but who knows if someone replaced a damaged bolt with that sometime in the past. Either way, probably not important if it wasn't obvious there was a bolt missing when you put it back together.

Front diff is on the right side. ATF is on the left side under the heater hoses kinda behind the starter.

You have a parts car so you have everything. No harness swap needed, although if you want to go that far you can, but you'll end up pulling the entire dash out of the car to do it. ABS won't be affected, no key lock on the manual trans cars AFAIK, and speed sensors are the same so they're plug and play. All of that isn't worth taking the time to worry about. The only wiring you'll have to do is connect the reverse switch on the MT to the proper two wires in the existing harness so your reverse lights work. You'll have to connect the neutral position switch on the MT to the correct pins on the ECU so it knows when the trans is in neutral. Doesn't affect starting, but the ECU changes idle control and A/F ratio on deceleration based on whether the manual trans is in neutral. Also need to ground the MT identifier on the ECU so the ECU doesn't look for inputs from the auto TCU anymore. Those three are the extent of wiring that needs to be done to make it work with no CEL. Beyond that, like Gary said, it's transmission, driveshaft, rear diff (so FDR matches). Shifting pieces, pedal assembly and hydraulics. You don't NEED the clutch safety start switch on the pedal, though if it makes you more comfortable that's easy to wire in. Only other thing would be the cruise cut switch on the clutch pedal, which is also not necessary. Cruise will still work without it, but it won't cut out when you push the clutch pedal, so the engine will free rev if you push the clutch and/or take the trans out of gear while the cruise is engaged. Which when you think about it is kind of pointless anyway, because who really does that? If you tap the brake pedal or turn off the cruise first there's no need for a clutch switch.

bad temp sensor is common on those. There are two temp sensors on that engine. Which one did they replace? Another common problem with those is the idle control valve fails and they're very expensive and picky about replacements. We have quite a few members here who know those early EJs inside and out. You could start a thread asking for help with the problem and get some solid advice before taking it to another shop. Or get enough info to fix it yourself since these things really aren't difficult to work on.

It's the links. They're a pain to test on the car. I use a prybar to pry up and then down on the end of the sway bar right next to the link and watch very closely for the link to move. Even the tiniest amount of play in the link will cause it to make noise. Sometimes you won't actually find any play in the link until it's removed. Be sure to check front and rear. If you have any doubts, disconnect the links and zip tie the sway bars up where they can't hit anything and drive the car without them. Just be prepared because it will lean more in turns.

It's hard not to laugh sometimes when customers tell you these things! People are so ready to hand over that sixth-degree-of-connection diluted misinformation! And they'll trust anybody EXCEPT their mechanic.