WoodsWagon

I know you said that you replaced all the seals, but did you replace the valve stem seals too? That involves removing the valve springs to get at them. The smoke at startup suggests oil puddleing on the top of the valve, when you start, it gets sucked in/ burned off, and gives you the puff of blue, but still good comp. I have one bad valve seal, and I burn 1qt per 1k miles. It sucks because I replaced them all, I must have chipped it or something.

MY MOM shift's her taurus manualy in the winter. If the linkages were so weak that they couldn't put up with a bit of extra use, you would hear of them breaking all the time if the car was parked for an extened period and the cable rusted. That's right, all the lever is moving is a stupid cable, just like the E-brake cable. Nothing fancy about it, and unlikely to wear out with manual shifting. I don't think that putting the car in manual mode 1st locks it in 4wd either, so there is no binding issue. The question was: Is shifting an automatic OK? The general consesus with supporting evidence is: Yes, but it may not be needed most of the time. Two people disagree, but don't present much in the way of evidence except "an experienced mech. I know said so" Well, an experienced mechanic I know who worked in a subaru dealership for a long time still thinks that the EGR system works by reburning the exhaust to make sure it's all used up. Experienced mech's can be wrong. As for the age coment: We drive since we are 15.5 years old on the street, often much younger off-road. You pick up a fair bit of experience in that time, the rest of the years are just honing the skills. The problem isn't the age, it's the I'm right, your stupid and wrong attitude. Note my age.

The EJ22 we pulled out of Konrad's car had a plastic one. the receipt in the glovebox claimed that the engine had been swapped out of a 1990. The plastic plate was leaking all over, both metal ones I've seen (both out of 1992's) were fine. Plastic sucks. Only thing I can say about the engine with the plastic cover is that it had the injector tops at a 45deg angle instead of both straight.

To clarify, "vibration and stress" may include 60' burnouts on 215/75R15's. The ej22 puts more force on everthing, and I've also been wheeling the piss out of the car. I think that the bolt just got jostled enough that it got a little loose, then started spinning it's self out with the vibration from the shot CV joint.

97mph, calculated off spedo reading, and I believe it. I-91 coming down the conneticut river valley in vermont. 30" Mud King tires, SPFI howling. Cooked the exhaust gaskets right out, the manifold must have been glowing! Crossing expansion joints on bridges got sketchy, the car was drifting at that speed.

I have to figure out how to patch that whole area back together. It looks like I will have to pull the dash and HVAC to get at the backside of the firewall where the piece that's shearing off attaches to. I'll put some bolts through and use them to squeeze it together so that I can weld the rip back down. I think I have to get my drivetrain out of the way to. Mutherf'r, and I thought the car was doing great.

Federal auto parts in Riverton Wy has 2 70's wagons in real nice shape. One has hood vents, the other doesn't. Most all the interior and exterior was there. Didn't look too close, we were tresspassing after hours. It's a closed yard, so I'd suggest doing the same and then asking to buy the whole car.

I didn't and now my car's body is trashed. The front bolt and lift block on the strut rod mount on the passenger's side fell out. This let the strut rod work the other two lift blocks back and forth untill the metal of the unibody began to tear. I now have one captured nut 1/2 way ripped out of the body and the whole area around the other one is cracking and tearing away. If I had driven it tomorrow, it would have ripped out. All the consequences of my car coming apart in rushour traffic would have been nasty. I only noticed it because I was under checking an exhaust leak. I'm hoping a good welder can fabricate some patch for the whole area, but worst comes to worst the body is trash. It would have been fine if the bolt hadn't come loose. I torqued everything down when I last assembeld this area, so it loosened from vibration and stress. My advise to anyone running a lifted rig is to check the tightness on EVERY bolt under the car at least once a month. What you don't notice can kill you, or worse, the car full of kids on their way to school that you plow into.

That should snap axles no problem.

The threaded holes are there for the maplight, and there is space to fit the wiring in with the auto seatbelts and there is a spare connector under the dash for it to plug into. All you have to do is cut the hole in the headliner. The plugs for rear speakers are in the doors as well, you just have to cut the hole in the door trim panel.

Yeah, but it's getting into the axel to put new boots on it that sucks. Plan lots of time if the car's rusty.

If you ever have an axle apart for any reason, reboot it. It's the boots that do them in. I've never had one blow, but I've had 3 go bad because the boot tore.

With that kind of rocker panel rust, 600 is crazy money. Sell that sucker as fast as you can. One thing to consider, your sister's friend may feel cheated when someone points out the kinda shape it's in. Could get ugly.

Yeah, he's probably right. If you don't tighten down the axel nut properly, everything in the area gets damaged. You're lucky the axel didn't strip out in the hub. There's a cotter pin that holds the axel nut in place. If the origional mechanic didn't install it or reused the old one and it broke, then it's his fault. He may also be an impact gun type of guy. That often leaves the nuts with the wrong torque.

It's the front right one. It started after a decent wheeling trip with the bow wave breaking on the windshield... so i'm wondering if the water affected something. Tommorow morning between class I'll give you the wire colors and what I'm getting from them on both sides.

I'm confused as to how the headlights are wired on these cars. The one that works is only getting 12v at one pin, no matter whether the position is in hi beam or low, and the headlight does change beams. My other headlight is getting 12V at two pins, and is wicked dim. I'm assuming it's a ground that crapped out, but I don't know where they ground. I need a wiring diagram or something to help me.

Take a water bottle, like a 20 0z one. Fill it with gas. take off the intake boot at the throttle body. Poke a hole in the screw on lid of the bottle, and squirt a bit of gas down the throat. Have the friend crank it and work the throttle. Keep it running for a bit by squirting gas down it's throat. Fuel pumps can gum up from sitting. Tanks can be empty from sitting. Throw a few gallons into the tank to test. The gauge may not be accurate.

With the fresh fluid in the diff, it should last for a while. An old used car salesmen trick to quiet a noisy gear box was to mash up a banana(or two) and feed it down the dipstick. Make sure that you put it down the diff dipstick, not the tranny one. Did you have someone change the tranny fluid on the car recently? The drain plug on the diff is mighty tempting, and they might not have refilled it.

The ea82 clutch is close to it's limits with the EJ22. I'm running 215/75R15's on my car, and a 2.5k rpm clutch drop on good pavement lead to a lot of clutch slippage. If I start out on a dirt patch, the clutch will hold the tire spinning no problem. I reused the Ea82 PP and flywheel, and didn't resurface either. I also used a reman clutch disk. It is way easier to speed with the Ej22. Driving out to wyoming and back, 80mph is from a 1/4 to a 1/3 throttle. Passing people is awesome. You don't even have to downshift. Pull left, floor it, push right past and pull back right. Let off, cruise, repeat. I'm on one year's good behavior or huge suspended fine, so I didn't go higher than 90mph, which came real easy.

If your carefull with a dremel tool and a knife, you can make the sockets for dual filiment bulbs fit in the clear corner lights by the headlights. Wire it so the low-watt filiment and the side marker bulb are in parallel, and then run a wire up from the connector for the bumper turn signal to the hi-watt filliment. I modified mine so that the bulb sockets come out with the regular quarter turn. I think it's more visiable than the ones buried in the bumper. Use an amber dual filiment bulb.

Chevy vans have those too. Theirs coil back up with a crank and use a side marker bulb. Pick up one from any of the older full size vans.

The insurance company's pressuring the junkyard's to close to non-employee's is f'n Bull. There should be a system for people to sign a full waiver for any injuries sustaind. It's obvious it's dangerous, your taking a risk to save money, don't sue if you screw up. I'm dealing with a situation where there's rust free turbo wagons tempting me with their rear disk brakes and front hubs. It's a closed yard.. no go. Part of it is the jackarses that go in just to smash stuff up. Yeah, it's a junk car, but if you punch the windshied out, all the usefull stuff in the dash just got soaked.

Which brings back the question "Who's paying for the damage to the lumina?"

Just made a new story. I drove my uncles '71 bronco down to town at 9 at night to wash the engine off. Oil had mixed with red dirt to coat everything in a paste. Apparently that paste was sealing something important, because it would hardly run. I limped it to the end of main street. My uncle, who I had put in my Subi wagon (EJ22, D/R 5spd, 4" lift, 29" tires) as a chase vehicle, pulled in behind. We tinkered with the bronco for a bit, decided it wasn't safe to drive, as gas was pouring out of the carb and running onto the exhaust pipe. We traded vehicles, hooked up the tow strap and hauled the bronco home. Used 4wd Low to get everything moving and the car pulled the bronco just fine. Only disturbing part was that the weight of the bronco would jerk the rear of my wagon around whenever a bit of bounce would get going in the tow strap. 7 miles home, 45mph top speed, climing a grade to boot, and no problems whatsoever.

Our east coast has a penchant for rust and no respect for the jap cars, so the rustbucket's go straight to the crusher. Makes for a very small used subaru parts supply. The west coasters are spoiled rotten. I'm in wyoming right now, the J/Y's have rust free EA71's and pristine EA81's in them. As junk. You West coasters don't comprehend the problem's we have. I could send you pictures of the 2 EA82's in my junkyard, the're so rusty that most of the part's aren't worth using.