Fairtax4me

Yeah, the junkyard I get just about everything from is ~65 miles away. About $25 in gas to go there and back, usually works out if I find something I need and it works. But they don't have that many Subarus.

Sounds ready for the scrap heap. Amazing how much money people will waste on crap. Then they somehow think it makes the car worth that much more? :-p

That'll work. As long as your tires are the same circumference it doesn't matter what kind of wheel they're mounted on. Honestly though, I'd just go buy a full set of steelies from a junkyard and have all the tires swapped over. Pop some hub caps on. No more problems.

Squealing noise? These typically make a wirring grindy noise like the trans has rocks in it. A squealing noise might be one of the needle bearings on the pinion shaft, or it could be the pinion and ring gear have worn excessively. There are so many bearings in these and so many tolerances and clearances that need to be set and checked that it's very difficult and extremely time consuming to do a rebuild on one of these transmissions. Buy a used one with a warranty, even if its just 30 days that will give you enough time to get it put in and decide if it's good or not.

Well after patching up the exhaust where the flange fell off of the rear cat I got a chance to drive the car and actually be able to hear the transmission. Main shaft bearing is shot in this one too. The synchros feel alright though so Im tinkering with the idea of just replacing the bearing.

How many miles? Automagic or manual transmission? Recurring issues generally mean the sensor is probably not at fault. How long does the code stay away after replacing the sensor? Days, weeks, months? If you just reset the code how long does it take for it to come back? Have you done any diagnosis or had any diagnosis done by a dealer or mechanic?

I was only looking at it from a dual range swap point of view. Did the old transmissions have the issue with the main roller bearing wearing out? Seems to me I read a while ago that they were not as prone to that because the main shaft had an extra bearing right behind the input shaft seal. Not like I need to do another transmission swap right now, but the DR idea has crossed my mind several times in the past few months. I might just have to go back and grab it this weekend. :-p

5th is the one that's outside of the main case, with the big lock nut next to it. They count down from there with the tiny gear at the other end being first gear.

A beautiful 86 GL in the junkyard has a 5 speed dual range trans still in it. The car looks great, not rusty, not wrecked, no apparent reason for it to be on the junkyard. So the big question is, at 168k miles, what bit the dust? The engine or the transmission? Is it worth me spending a few hours and a couple hundred bucks to get the trans and linkages to possibly do a swap?

Yeah you can see the wear pattern pretty clearly as you grind the valve. The new valves have a black surface because of the heat treatment and the seat area becomes shiny as it gets ground. I did that valve job on the cheap. I just stuck a new valve in it and put it back together. If the heads have a lot of miles it's probably a good idea to put new stem seals in while you're at it.

Same thought. Check all the sensors and tone rings. Make sure they aren't full of metal shavings or some other kind of crud. Beyond that, the ABS computer may be bad.

I've had to pry the engine and trans apart on every Subaru I've pulled an engine or transmission out of. I coat the crap out of the alignment pins with copper paste before I put them back together.

Could be the release bearing rattling around.

If you split the block you can just yank the halves apart and let the pistons w/ rods and all flop out on the bench. Getting the straight pins out of the block is probably gonna be the hardest part. Pistons are aluminum too. You can hammer the wrist pins out once they're out of the block. Then toss the crank and rods into the crate with the other steel parts. You'll get more for straight steel than for plain scrap.

There are only two bolts that hold the caliper on. they are the one with the rubber boots over them. Remove those, and the caliper will lift out of the way. To replace the rotor, you will have to remove the caliper bracket which is held on by two bolts, the upper of which is the one circled on the left in your picture. The lower one is directly below that about 4 inches. Brake squeal can be caused by a number of things. It doesn't always mean the pads are worn out. Quite often it's just uneven wear. There's a spot in the pad that doesn't wear correctly, or it creates excess heat in one spot, which causes the pad to vibrate making the squeal you hear. There are some fancy sprays you can put on the rotors and pad surfaces that will help even out the way the pad slides over the rotor. Mostly it just causes the pad and rotor to wear in a slightly different pattern. It fills in low spots and accelerates wear in high spots for a short time. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. It could also be caused by the calipers sticking. A common issue on these. The slide bolts get rusty and the calipers get stuck and cause the pads to drag on the rotor. This causes one pad to overheat and squeal. It will also warp the rotor if left alone long enough. Cleaning the slide bolts is pretty easy as long as they aren't completely seized. Remove them from the caliper, clean any old grease/dirt/rust off of them, the re-install with plenty of fresh high temp brake grease.

Does it make the noise when sitting still but not in gear?

Timing belt slapping the cover. Sounds kinda like this?

The bottom part of the ball joint stud doesn't seem like something that would break. But I guess if the wheel fell off it could have been ground to a pulp by the ensuing meeting of the road and control arm. We need pics!

OUCH! Yeah, it's good to hear that you're OK. You got really lucky it landed on the passenger side. After seeing that, I think the wagon I saw in the junkyard with the full roll cage had the right idea... these older cars just don't have the roof support that newer cars have. At least there are a few parts you can still use!

For $200 plus shipping from Australia? I can find someone with a welder and make my own.

Yeah I know the trans would, but I don't think it would be worth it to ship it from MT to VA. :-p I'm gonna pull the fog lights off and see if they have a part number on them somewhere.

I saw that in the classifieds. Don't think any parts I need will swap between first and second gen cars though. Speaking of first gen parts though, do these look like first gen Legacy fog lights?

#1 Probably a sticky IAC. You might need to remove it and spray it out with Intake and Throttle Body cleaner. But another thing to check is the brake booster. Engine running sitting in park, press the pedal down slowly and listen for the sound of air hissing. You may hear a "whoosh" as the pedal goes down but it should stop when the pedal stops. If any whoosh or hissing noise continues when the pedal is not moving, the booster has a hole in it and is acting as a large vacuum leak. #2 The bower motor is grounded through the fan switch. Check the connector on the back of the fan switch, make sure it's plugged in all the way. The mode control panel shares the same ground, if that works then probably the fan switch itself is bad. Radiator fans on with the defrost is normal operation, even with the engine off.

They can, but the O2 will not affect running when cold. Knock sensors typically set codes when they get bad enough to cause misfires. I had a problem with a cold start misfire. It was a bad head gasket. Coolant was weeping into cylinder 4 as the engine cooled down down. When started it might misfire for 5 seconds, 30 seconds, or sometimes not at all. Check your coolant level.

Wheeewwwww... the repair list is a lot longer than I hoped it would be. Well over $1,000 if I have to go with all new parts. From the front cat back the entire exhaust is about to dissolve away from rust. Filler pipe is shot, lots of oil leaks, power steering leak (pump seals), rear struts, battery, a door lock actuator... Junkyard here I come! Got a clutch kit on the way though so I can pop the new transmission in it and hope for the best. :-p