nickolai

2003 Impreza Outback Sport 5 speed I recently bought the car and it’s really fun to drive! Some noise coming from the rear end area above 30mph got me thinking I should look at the rear drive shaft universal joints and carrier bearing. With the drive shaft off there are definitely sticky spots in two of the joints. Napa, O’Reillys, and the local Subaru dealer all told me a very similar tragic tale: The U-joints are not replaceable and have no part number, but I can buy a whole new drive shaft for 500+ dollars. Not to be so easily discouraged, I removed one of the “non-removable” U-joints using a dremel and a steady hand, and took it to Napa and O’Reillys, neither of which could find a match in their stocked parts. Has anyone dealt with this before and happen to know of a U-joint that will fit in the 03 Impreza Outback Sport drive shaft? Thanks for any help!

Wow that looks great! How'd you paint it? Rattle can? Whole car or just matched the color?

Hey I recently moved to Kauai, I was wondering if there are any other Subie fans here.

What an awesome thread! I never had a tach in my 88 DL so I'm not sure of the rpms, but I drove that car back and forth to school for 4 years over a 25 mile mountain pass. Cruising speed was 45-50mph in third gear, for a good solid 25 mins, then shut off the engine and coast down the other side at 60-70mph! I did this an average of five days a week and the car loved it! And Damm could that thing go though the snow! I could never figure out why my friends wanted to drive these expensive 2wd pieces when there are awesome subies to be had.

Hmm. Well thanks for the info.

So I bought a new ea82 clutch kit from CarQuest for my five speed swap. The disc fits on the the tranny and the flywheel, and the pressure plate fits the flywheel, but the throwout bearing looks like nothing thats on any of my 6 other subies. The tranny wants the bearing to have little ears to clip to but the one that came in the kit is totally round. Looking at them both I decided it might be possible for the original one to come apart and have the guts replaced by what came in the kit, but the guts I got out of it were slightly different. Not to mention the fact that putting it back together would be a chore, because getting it apart required some bending. So whats the deal? Did they decide it doesn't need little ears anymore? I'm almost thinking I might just repack an old stock one with grease and call it good. (I know when it came out it was still doing okay.)

I never ended up driving the car much, but I had a loyale with a faulty clock and I was putting in a CB radio. I gutted the clock, but kept the faceplate, to keep the hole smaller, and mounted the CB right in front of the clock. Having the clock power wires already there it was perfect.

Well after looking at it for along time the other day, I decided the only thing to do was bend the shifter support to where I wanted it. It worked pretty well, and now it lines up with the bottom the shifter and the bolt on the underside of the car. So I'm wondering if maybe it somehow got bent in the year or so that it was laying around. Have all of yours lined up with the bolt under the car?

This is a little too far back though, plus its not even close to lining up with the bottom of the shifter, or the shifter boot. The engine is not in the car, but the tranny is bolted in at the cross member and looks to be sitting in the right spot on the engine cross member. Also the 4wd linkage is installed and works like charm. Hmm, maybe I put something on wrong but I can't think of how I could have managed it. I'll look at it again tomorrow. Thanks for the reply. Nick

So I finally got around to working on my 5 speed swap today. I'm putting a D/R from an 86 GL sedan in my 82 GL wagon. I have Jerry's kit, and it worked well. However, the two pieces of linkage that Jerry told me not to send him don't seem to be lining up very well. Here's a pic of what I'm talking about: The piece of linkage circled should be more about where the second circle is. This is the what holds the bottom of the shifter in place and it should be more toward the center of the hole in the floor. Also the piece connecting the shifter to the trans seems a little long. Has anyone else run into these problems? What did you do about it? I'm thinking of bending the linkage to get it to center. Any thoughts on that? Thanks. Nick

I have a spring compressor that looks like a gear puller also, and it was sort of difficult to get it to bite at the bottom of the spring, but with some patience I was able to get it. Underneath the spring will be a valve stem seal that pulls off easily enough with decent pliers. And I used a gasket scraper and wire brush to clean the mating surfaces of the heads/block, as well as autoshop degreaser on the rest of everything which worked pretty well. I Can't help you with the HLA's. I just left mine alone and tried to pretend that awful ticking didn't exist! I used cheap ebay head gaskets, and I highly recommend AGAINST this practice! I didn't have very good luck with them. Get the Felpro ones like everyone says. I did have good luck with the cheap ebay timing belt kit though, and have read accounts of others having good luck with them as well.

Just ran across you story. That sucks that it blew up right away. I definitely agree with you about liking the EA82 body style over the Legacy, although I haven't actually driven a Legacy, I think my car is way purdier! The head gaskets on my EA82 just blew for the third time in the last 2 years or so and I finally decided that I am done with that engine. I'm going to drop a rebuilt EA81 in the car and am expecting much better results. To be fair to the EA82 though it was my first and second time resealing an engine and I didn't use the Felpro gaskets or have the heads resurfaced. Since it sounds like GD will be resealing yours, it will probably last a lot longer than mine, but I would still never turn on the A/C if it was my car. It adds an extra load to the engine, plus it warms the already hot air that cools the radiator. Bad combo for an engine so prone to overheating. Sorry if I sound like I'm bashing the EA82. I think all in all you will be happy the car especially if the body and interior are nice. I still don't regret buying my car even it has blown head gaskets 3 times. The awesomeness of the rest of the car makes up for it! Good luck.

When I was playing basketball in high school (and gas was cheaper) I used to have to drive to school every day (30 miles over a mountain pass). I would work every Sunday and make $25, put it in my tank on Monday and go from fuel light on to full tank of gas. By Friday my fuel light would be on and I'd start the process over. One weekend I had to go into town so I grabbed a gas can and started off with the fuel light already on. I made it about 30 miles on fairly level road before it ran totally out of gas. Dumped in the 2 gallons I had with me and it started right back up and kept going. It didn't seem to plug the filter or hurt the pump. Oh I almost forgot: car was an 88 DL Wagon EA82 SPFI, analogue dash.

I'll trade you for an EA82 that needs help! What do you mean the front diff is wiggling? Do clarify.

Thanks a million!

So someone just told me about about a cheap 92 Legacy that they think needs a fuel pump. Now I don't know too much about the EJ series, so I'm wondering where the fuel pump is located. It's not in the tank is it? (I haven't looked). Also, if it does turn out to be the fuel pump, will one from an SPFI EA82 work in a pinch? Thanks. Nick

Well thanks for the help everyone. I never did get it figured out, and then last night I blew the head gaskets AGAIN. Oh well. At least my rebuilt EA81 is almost done so I can just say goodbye to the EA82 for good.

I gotta say, the old Subies been doing pretty good for all the abuse I've given it lately. The last head gasket job seems to have sealed well, and it's been nearly five months with no overheating! Anyway, I'm hoping you all can help me solve a mysterious electrical issue that has recently cropped up: So I go out and start up the car one night (88 DL EA82 SPFI 5spd), and the headlights are noticeably dimmer, growing brighter as rpms increase. My first thought was bad alternator, but it's been a couple weeks and a couple hundred miles, and it still starts up just fine. I am sure that the battery is being charged. Starting at the same time as the dim headlight issue, the radio will mute for about 2 seconds on most downshifts, and each time the headlights are switched off. Like I said, I have been driving for some time with these issues, and they don't really seem to be getting worse, but I would like to take care of it before they do. The only place I can think of where the headlights, radio, and rpms cross paths is at the alternator, but it's at least still charging that battery so I know it's not totally dead. The only alternator test I know how to do with my multi-meter is to test the battery volts with the car running. I get 14.2v across the battery with the engine at idle. Anybody got any other alternator tests or ideas? Thanks in advance for any help! Nick

I'd start with checking all the fuses, and fusible links.

I can't recall any of the ones I've seen weeping, and I can't imagine it would be good. I've never used pipe dope on an engine, not sure how it reacts to heat, but other than that I wouldn't be afraid to try it. I do know there's supposed to be a thin metal washer to aid with sealing. Maybe it just hasn't been tight enough?

Yes, they are wrist pin ports. And yes it's fine to pull them. Just don't lose the thin metal washer that goes on it. If you don't have an allen key big enough, just find a bolt with the right size head and turn it with a pipe wrench, or double nut on the other end of the bolt.

The disty drive gear slides onto the the crankshaft right behind the front main seal. There's a small woodruff key on the crankshaft that keeps the gear in the right spot. When you check the gear, make sure this woodruff key is in place, and that the inside of the disty drive gear is in good shape. Best of luck. Nick

Yellow arrow = These are the solenoids. Green arrow = There are two plugs like this, one for each solenoid. Make sure they're plugged in. Red arrow = This hose supplies the vacuum from the engine. Check it to make sure you have vacuum up to this point. If not, this is your problem. Blue arrows = These hoses go to the 4wd switcher on the tranny. Fwd/4wd depends on which one has vacuum at the moment. Make sure they're plugged in at the tranny. If they are, and it's still not working, try swapping them on the solenoids.

Just behind the driver side strut tower are two solenoids that open/close the vacuum to the 4wd on the tranny. Make sure there are no vac lines unplugged in this area. I can post a pic if it would help you.

I had someone PM me about the A/C delete, but decided to post the pics here in case anyone else is interested. This is a 100% bolt on mod! Be sure to get the bolts with the brackets. This is what the alternator looks like with the A/C compressor gone: Here are the brackets you will need: Red arrows = You will need to get these from an ea82 that was not equipped with A/C. In my knowledge this would be 85-89 DL/GL. Blue arrow = Don't forget the spacer under this bracket! It won't clear the metal radiator hose without it.