Arty

Update- Just went to a local mechanic to see if they'd be willing to flip the u joint for me (I really don't want to mess with this if I can avoid it at this point) and I was warned that the clock spring in the steering column is out of phase now and he'd have to take the whole thing apart to put it back together correctly, because if not, the airbag will deploy and kill me. I get this feeling that that's not entirely true, but if it is, someone please let me know.

So I guess it is directional? I tried to get it off the steering shaft, but it just wouldn't budge at all. Maybe I can try and convince it a bit more.

Wow, it's been a really long time since I've posted here. Anyway, the title says it all- Are the u joints of a steering column (in this particular case, a 2006 Legacy 2.5i Limited wagon) directional? I ask because I had to replace the steering rack on my car and when I finally got everything buttoned up and aligned well enough to go have the alignment done professionally, I was horrified to realize that the steering wheel was now upside down. What did I do wrong? Please, someone tell me there is a quicker way to fix this than having to go all the way back to having to lower the steering rack again to uncouple it from the u joint and turn the wheel 180 degrees.

I too need to know the answer to this, but it seems that the answer to this question is one kept a secret by the wizards of Subaru. I can not believe how difficult it has been to get a straightforward answer.

Since I ran into an issue with the new water pump I installed being faulty, I'm going to kill some time by taking off the oil pump again and redoing the seal. But here's my big question- How on earth am I supposed to get the oil pump free from the grip of the ultra black? It's putting up a very impressive fight

Yeah, that's always my biggest concern. Especially since you can't see if it went on correctly after you put the pump on. This fear will be nagging at me for a very, very long time.

To update- I went out and bought Ultra Black, so thank you for the suggestion. But I will say that Ultra Grey was shockingly strong. It blew my mind. So if Ultra Black is stronger, I have a feeling I'll be just fine. I will be applying it tomorrow.

What about ultra gray? it's what i have right now

My Dremel did nothing for me, unfortunately. All it did was bounce around the hole. I was worried about causing more damage to the already bad area. I'll call the machine shop tomorrow and see if they're willing to not be jerks and help me out. Though I usually find that some guy with a Subaru and a stupid problem is generally treated like garbage at places like that, and I am just not at all in the frame of mind to deal with that right now. Maybe if I just buy a really big c-clamp...

I was considering adding a new bolt, but I don't want to compromise any more strength from the block in the process. But this car isn't our only source of transportation and money is ok. But, yeah... saving the hassle would be nice. There is a machine shop super close to me. Maybe if I go bother them long enough they'll consider letting me drop it off there and taking care of it for me. I've done this timing belt thing enough times that I could probably drive there (maybe a mile and a half at the most), tear it down to where they need, have them do their thing, and then put it back together to drive home and totally finish then. Who knows. All this over a freaking bolt. A single bolt. One of my cars uses lasers to match the speed of the car in front of me while the computer changes the suspension settings thousands of times a second. And then there's this bolt...

Yeah... they are pretty pointless. But it was good for the placebo effect. I have actually had extractors work a couple of times, but never in a car. But you know what works surprisingly well for stuff like this? Vampliers. I knew last night that I'd be ok with two broken bolts because enough of them was left sticking out that I could lock my Vampliers on them and pull them out. And I was right. But the one on the oil pump, man... it put up a fight and it won. One of the only times my Vampliers failed me. Buy Vampliers.

Actually, yeah, you're right. Crap. I didn't even think of that for some reason. Thank you for pointing that out, because I never would have seen that. There are two more problems with this, though- 1- The bolt is long gone by this point. It's just the back end of the extractor now. 2- I don't own any welding equipment and, for reasons I can't really get into, I can not be even remotely close to welding equipment. That being said, I think I've more or less resigned myself to the fact that I'm going to need to look into getting a new block soon. I was planning on actually buying an engine to rebuild just to have around, so maybe this is the reason I needed to do that. This particular engine is already in pretty rough shape, so if this is what does it in, then at least I know what happened. Meanwhile, I have a '95 EJ22 with over 200k miles on the clock rusting out with a giant hole between the IAC valve and block and it chugs along like a tank. Funny how some things go.

I tried many different ways, nothing worked. I'm starting to wonder if there was possibly something wrong with the threading in the bolt hole before I put the bolt in Yeah, I've decided that the extractor is part of the block now. The bolt is the second to bottom on the left side (if you're facing the front of the car) on the oil pump. I can't help but think that there is a way to work around a missing bolt, especially on something with so much torque already holding it down and with such a heavy seal around it like the oil pump's gasket. But I guess we'll have to wait and see. I hope it's fine. Otherwise it's time to order a short block.

I was able to get one snapped bolt out... not the other. The other will not budge. No amount of extraction tools did the job. One of the tools broke in the broken bolt. No idea what to do now.

I come to you all with great shame, so please go easy on me. I managed to snap two of the mounting bolts for my oil pump today. This was after torquing them all down and obviously after applying the gasket maker. All the other bolts are fine. So here is my question- Can I make it by with those two bolts missing? I can't help but think that the other bolts are sufficient in terms of tightness and location to keep the broken bolt holes sealed with the gasket maker in place. If I CAN get by with it, how long do I have? I really can not go without this car for any real amount of time. The car is lightly driven about 20 miles a day, give or take. Please tell me I'll be alright until I'm able to go in and fix everything... please?

Just an update- I can't get the car to recreate the problem. I am very happy about this, but I fear it will happen again at the most inopportune time. Like my 500 mile road trip I'm leaving for tomorrow. I tested the grounds and all seemed to be ok. The only thing I noticed was that the negative lead on the battery is *kind* of loose. But nothing else seemed out of the ordinary. All lights checked out fine and all wires are where they should be. Also- my wife's Legacy decided that it no longer needed a proper seal around the oil pump and now it's leaking all over the place. So I've got that going for me. Never a dull moment with cars over 10 years old.

Boy oh boy, this is gonna be oodles of fun. Alright... I'll go out and start raising my blood pressure here in a little while and report back with my findings as soon as I can. Thanks for the help so far, everyone.

Oh man... that's a lot of grounds. Any suggestions on where the best place to start would be?

Hey, USMB. Long time no talk. So I am currently experiencing an issue with the A/C in my 1995 Legacy wagon. The compressor will no longer turn on unless I take the A/C fuse out from the engine bay relay box and put it back in while the car is running. After varying lengths of time, the compressor then turns back off and I have to repeat this cycle. This is totally new to me and I've run out of ideas as to what to do next. Things to note- 1- Nothing has been altered since the last time I used the A/C 2- When it's running, the A/C is great. No real issues to speak of 3- This isn't only sudden oddity to happen with this car recently. For some unknown reason- much like the A/C issue- if I keep my car's ignition in the ON position (not ACC or Run), my dash glows very dimly and so do my exterior lights. In the "on" position, these lights shouldn't be on at all, much less so dim. 4- Probably related; if I have the A/C button turned on inside the car, whether or not the compressor is running, the light behind the A/C button dimly flashes with the rhythm of the turn signal. If anyone has any ideas on where to go next, pleas let me know. I'm running out of patience. Thanks!

This. I know there are panel kits which would allow for aftermarket stereos and a double vin stereo would work, but I'm not even going to begin messing around with that. I'll probably just get one of those in-line 3.5mm adaptors which run to a specific preset radio channel, but even that isn't too important right now. This is my wife's car and she doesn't care at all about the stereo as long as it picks up NPR. I'm going to focus all my attention instead on my new-to-me car of another manufacturer. That's going to be so much fun I almost want to smash my head into a meat grinder just thinking about it. I appreciate the offer, but I think I'm just going to let it go for now.

No, none at all. It reminds me of the days where I used to take a universal remote control to school with me and mess with the volume on the TV we had in class. It drove the teacher nuts and made me crack up. It just goes WAY up, then drops to zero, then slowly climbs to 12, then down, then MAX, then 12... you get the idea. All very smooth, but very, very fast. Thanks for looking it up! I tried looking it up very briefly and couldn't find any matches. It would be great to have volume controls on the wheel. That and a factory 3.5mm input. Man, what I would give for that to be in that car...

Nope.

So in my wife's 2006 Legacy i Limited wagon, 4EAT, the radio volume will randomly start going up and down at extreme levels with no form of consistency, pattern, or any other issues being present in the car, despite how much I try to get something else to act weird. It will go months without doing this, then go crazy all day long, then go back to normal without even being touched. All voltage readings have come back normal. Any thoughts?

I guess that would actually make more sense now that I think about it... the rear wheels remained locked after it snapped. And as little sense as this may make, the snap felt close to the handle. I'd love to take the center console off, but someone stole all my f****ng tools, so I'm going to have to wait a little long I suppose.

No... how would I go about finding out?