syphon

Zap, You met my ex-girlfriend. She made an account here way back in the day and posted twice I think. You met her at Evan's creek a couple years back. That should count, right?

You can do it with almost any deck with a removable faceplate. Just solder wires onto the contacts on the back of the faceplate and connect those wires to the contacts on the deck itself. As tex said, you need to put a switch on one of those wires so the deck knows when the "faceplate is off", although that's only because this particular deck has a swivel type faceplate. (sorry for stealing your thunder, tex)

I'll bring the shrimp platter.

I've class tonight, so I can't make RR. I can make it to Texas on Sunday though.

So, word on the street is... party at Tex's on Sunday? We could have a nice little BBQ or something.

I still have a big bag of Pizza Rolls we didn't eat at the Super Bowl Of course, I'll probably have eaten them all for dinner by next Sunday.

Nice! I bet the wagon will sound glorious now! I always thought those components sounded a little underpowered. They sounded great, but were pretty quiet.

For what? the Components in the wagon? PS: You suck, now I have no plans for tonight. Maybe i'll work on getting my Undead Warlock to lvl 36.

I'm no-go for Wednesday, I have class. I thought you were going to Tex's tonight?

Haha I'll bet the cat hates you. Try to pet it and see what happens!

I thought Noah told me he wasn't gonna be in town for the big game? Or is he going back to cali before Sunday?

You may not want to look any further than South Everett or so... the commute up I-5 could be a LONG one if you were coming from any further south.

I greatly preferred the Hood River venue over the one in Shelton. Can't wait to see everyone there again. PS: I am available for nearly any kind of help you need... would love to help, in fact.

Too bad you can't be back here in Seattle for the game, Noah.

Smart service is great for big jobs... and it seems like you got a good quote from them, but I wouldn't take a car in to them for anything I can do myself. I mean, I've got a friend that works there, so I hate talking smack about them, but everytime I get a quote from them, it's more than double what I expected it to be. My front left caliper seized once and needed to be replaced (it was partially seized for a while... very limited damage to the rotor). They insisted on replacing every piece of my front brakes, over $700, IIRC. I bought the $80 caliper and replaced it myself, and brakes have been working great for the last few months. My friend was quoted $550 or something to do the clutch on her Legacy. She walked out the door paying almost $800 all said and done. (once it was apart they insisted on replacing some other part... I forget what. I don't know where the other charges came from) I wouldn't hesitate to question the quality of their work, but I find them to usually be very guilty on the "over-estimate the amount of work needed to make the most money possible" schtick.

I can't imagine you'd have to take the engine out just to do valve cover gaskets. I've only done them on an EA82, but the bolts were maybe 1.5-2" long... plenty of room to do it with the engine still in.

Everything came back together perfectly. Car performed great on the test drive, so I guess it's a success (unless you count the added $150 expense for the new Hub). Suppose I should do rear bearings next.

it's more common to swap in a WRX engine, or an older JDM STi engine (which is also a 2.0 turbo). You can turbocharge them though... sure. There are lots of turbo kits for 2.5 RS's.

I dont think that matters... as the front 2 wheels are still rolling and the rears aren't. Even though it's in "N", the Differential is still working (I think). It's the same reason you can't tow an AWD car on 2 wheels.

Oh, I definitely have to. There's a very loud hum coming from the rear, one or both of those bearings is on its way out too. The car just turned 100k, so lots of things are wearing out.

Dammit, turns out the bearing spun on the old hub so I have to get a new one

I dropped the assembly off at the machine shop this morning. I'll be trying to put it all back on the car tonight. Any tips on this procedure? I figure I'll slide the axle in, then bolt it up to the strut. From there, I'll connect the tie rod end... then try to muscle the thing onto the ball joint. The axle slid out super easy, I hope it goes back in the same. I've had bad experiences trying to get an axle free of the bearing

Well, the machine shop is charging me $60 to seperate the hub from the steering knuckle, pack the new bearing in, and re-assemble it. While searching USMB, I found a thread of someone asking for "pre-built steering knuckle+hubs", because he thought he saw them for sale somewhere. However, nobody replied to it I figure, I paid something like $80 for the bearing and seals, plus this other $60 for the machine shop. I also have to have a loaner car for a few days while my car is waiting for the new bearing. If some shop sold a whole package, I'd probably buy it just to avoid having my car down for several days.

Awesome car. Here's my black '98 Legacy GT (in Wagon form)

Thank you very much, I think this was the tip that did the trick. I went out and bought a bigger hammer last night (all we have here is a tiny hammer and a full size rubber mallet, neither really worked well). I grabbed a spare tire jack and jacked the steering knuckle up a tiny bit, then it took 2 or 3 good solid wacks to pop it free. I guess it helped once the whole assembly wasn't hanging by a spring, eh? Thanks much for your help guys. I got the whole assembly off, and tomorrow morning i'll drop it off at a machine shop to have the new bearing pressed in.