DBG

If you're pretty sure the car has been wrecked, and it only wants to "get away" from you in 4X, it is likely one or both of the rear trailing arm assemblies got bent up. You'll see if they are pretty readily just by looking under the back of the car. The quickest and cheapest short term fix is keeping it slow, or just driving around front-wheel only. I've rarely found a reason to engage 4X mode with most of the snow around here unless I've been having fun off the roads.... Or I got into a ditch by sliding off the roads. Heh. The longer term fix is replace the rear of the vehicle. DBG

Bendecker, if you've got a frame to use, and want to go with DIy injection molding, you can try to do something like this: If nothing else, it could be a hell of a mess! DBG

So... How does that hitch mount fit with the bumper/frame? I got a few that need more hot hitchin' action, but I abuse them a lot. Will I tear the bumper off? Is it the regular interior 4-bolt mount? I'm rather interested.... The best I've towed with a Curt Industries mount hitch was an '88 Grand Fury police edition on a dual axle trailer, so I'd like some serious frame warping capabilities if it won't just straight tear out......

Probably final post, as I've had the car up and running for about 2 weeks without the problem recurring, though with a really odd solution: I replaced the alternator with one out of another vehicle after it murdered two batteries. Both alternators bench test as good, both batteries that died did so on the old alternator within about 2 days. Vehicle is now as happy as it could be, I think, the CEL went from blinking to just being on, and the oil pressure gauge now reads at about 25psi with the engine off, but the no-start is gone and in operation the GL is as fine as ever it was. I'm strong in the belief that they might not have wanted to fuel the steel foundry furnace with orphaned children when they made that particular car....

Further information, this might be related to the charging system, though I have no proof as of yet. It has failed a few more times, mostly at random, but will allow the starter to pull it in gear, then double clutch to start. I'm writing it off to demonic possession. I like things that make no sense.

Heh. I "accidentally" filled mine with mud and then let it rust for a year. Yeah, throwout bearing, possibly clutch cable, possibly clutch fork... Mine's kinda musical and I will be sad when it fails. It's had a year + since that happened, and does not really seem to care much, though. Dropping the clutch makes the sound a little shorter, at the risk of glazing....

So, warm and no snow, moonrocks? I'm south end, but think I have something running that can make it there.... Or anywhere else near Pyramid. If anyone wants to go south side, there's several fascinating areas around here. The avatar photo top left is from American Flats, which can be easily near-road accessed, or by going up Jumbo Grade and scaring quads and dirt bikes... I'm the newbie to the board, where to?

Okay, it gets stranger.... Haven't bolted everything back together quite yet, but it will drag start without a problem. And it will intermittently key start, or use the starter to get it rolling and then it will fire with a little coasting. Once the engine fires, it has a slightly high idle, but seems to have no other problems whatsoever. Shut down is fine, no dieseling. Is it possible the throttle body injector is fubar'd? Other thought, is it possible for the starter to fail and operate at half speed somehow? It was great for dragging the car around in first and reverse, but didn't seem to move like any other that I've had to starter drag with....

HEhehe... Only a very talented few here. Not knocking cops in general, some area departments go out of their way to train their officers. Here, they kinda fall off roads and smack into people by going the wrong direction on one way streets...

Well, I don't know anyone personally yet, but am willing to do so. If I can get my merry-go-rounds less broken down by then.... My last runner spent from Wednesday at 3 A.M. until just now stuck up above the Granite Construction Lockwood site..... Spun a timing belt. Any of you locals-ish like working on stuff for pay? Holy crap I got broken stuff.... Pop a PM.

The right turn is what does it for me, Subaru a long time ago even offered an "upgrade" to fix that, which is just a larger tube going to one side of the PCV to not make it suck in the oil. I keep one of my cars that way so I can "James Bond" my freeway entrance. I've successfully shut down 4 lanes of traffic, and haven't clogged the catalytic yet. The engine bog kinda sucks, but no one is really catching up to you, as they can't see.... Heh.

Heh. Pennzoil is a parafin, or wax, based lubricant. It has its uses, but not in my engine. The way I do oil changes is when it both turns black and starts burning at about the same rate as my gas gauge, but I do drive older (EA82) engines. Alternately, I try to go about 3 months, but I drive a lot in wacky conditions... I have found the older Subys prefer "dino oil" or cheap crap, especially without a bypass filter system, but I'd have to agree that the shop is just trying to take you for what you've got. If you're trying to do right by your engine with any kind of regular oil change at all, the overpriced additive filled stuff will do nothing for the Subarus.

If you're really bored, you can keep the mileage matching with a spare odo cable and a power drill.... Hook it up and let it spin overnight or so. Heh.

I'll have to believe that it may be a timing belt issue, but it is odd that I can't even get it to pop or belch while turning it over. I know the driver's side belt is intact and turning the disty.... At any rate, I've got a good mechanic pal that is gonna have a look at it as soon as he can. I'll keep you all apprised of the good times.

Hmm.... Do you not like the existing 4wd selectable? I prefer my diff. lockable 2/4wd to modern AWD systems, I buy tires a LOT less often. Are you making some kind of sleeper race beast or something?

Hmmm.... I have read many previous posts to this, does this sort of thing just occur at random? Demons? Replaced the distributor today, still on time as far as I can tell. Nothing was done to it when it wouldn't restart after a 5 hour overnight shutdown. Weirdly, I now no longer have the coolant temperature sensor error on the ECU, but I still have the crank angle sensor and now ignition switch come up in D-check mode. Without D-check connected, it blinks 6 times, which I can't find a corresponding code for. Spark is good, fuel is solidly there. I will try "airing out" the engine again later in the week and maybe try to drag start it, but have never dealt with this issue before.... Usually stuff breaks AFTER I work on it, not before. Compression tester I borrowed is now in the garbage, as it was broken. I'll get a new one of those later in the week as well.

Eliminated bad engine ground as a possibility, compression tester on the way. You are just talking about the securing screw on the rotor, ya?

I've not got anything that new, but one thing that can happen is a bent trailing arm on the rear wheels.. If you've ever been off mobbing, you can tweak one of those easily. It's most noticeable when you throw it into 4 from front wheel, the rear of the car will "pass itself" as you described. They don't have to be badly bent, either.....

Fuses are fine, both the #5 and the four wire links in the engine compartment. I'm beginning to believe it is some weird timing issue, the muffler exploded nicely when I had my housemate crank it over while I held a lighter behind what's left of the exhaust. Got a cool shrapnel hit on my shoulder too. Is it hard to believe my favourite tool is a hammer?

So, I have a festive thing. Parked my '87 GL one fine evening, and the following day it would not restart. I have checked fuel supply and spark, no broken timing belts, replaced coil, popped the intake off and poured a couple drops of gas into the throttle body, all sorts of things. Only error codes the ECU gives me are "crank position sensor" and "coolant temperature sensor". Though I've had nearly every failure you can think of on the few of these I've had over the years, I'm finding this one kinda disturbing. My other running '87 has been that way for quite some time with externally leaking head gaskets and all sorts of other anger issues, and the one that doesn't run is the one that I've got the closest to functional investment wise. Anybody got any ideas?

I don't know about the tach, but I do know about the speedometer. The cable that comes up from the transaxle has seals that routinely fail, and the gear oil from the transaxle case will work it's way up the cable and into the speedo housing. It's also why your car can start smelling like gear oil for no real reason... Dash pulling fun, and a fair bit of electrical cleaner can change the sticky speedo, I'd guess that the oil can get into everything in the instrument cluster and muck it all up. Never had a tach fail me yet, though.