PAJ

It's alive! A few rotations of the axle and love taps with the 5 lb gizinta on the end were all it took to lock er back in. It took longer to find my old drum brake tool than to slap everything back together and run her down the road. It's nice to once again hear only the faminiar differential hum back there. Thanks again.

thanks for the advice. I'll let ya know how it works out when I get the damn axle to lock back in place. (see my "axle follies" post)

Thanx G, Now that you mention it I can see that when it's all slapped together there's inward pressure on the axle and so it and it should stay put under normal circumstances. Now I can wonder if I knocked that diff gear outa joint and about getting dirt in the diff if the axle occasionally pulls out a millimeter or so. I was planning to finish up this evening while there was lght but had to do grave digger duty for a dead cat. It's always sumthin.

It bottoms out just like....well... it bottoms out. I wouldn't say an 8 punder but a 5 pounder for a few times before I regained my sanity. I started to get educated in the U-Pull it yard by playing around with looes axles and bearings lying around. All of the axles I tested snapped in and out of joint like clockwork, regardless of whether the circlips were on the axle or in the diff. I'll love tap the axle like you suggested. If that doesn't make it I'll stick my clean little prybar in there and see if it has play and if it'll give back a scosh or something like that. Maybe in the end I'll finally learn everything about Subie differentials. Here comes that puke feeling again.....

I've posted recently about my trials with a 99' OBW right rear wheel bearing, a broken ABS tone ring and and axle circlip inside of the diff. So now I'm finally on the ez installation half of the project when I only need a torque wrench and not a can of PB Blaster, a torch and a 3 foot cheater bar. Just one thing. The circlip was retained in the rear when the original axle came out. When I put the replacement axle back into the rear it won't lock in! It just won't lock into the axle groove. I can slide it way too easily. I fit the original back in and got the same result. I can see the ring is still in the groove. It's not broken but I wonder if it got damaged somehow. Or is it possible that I knocked the receiving diff gear back a bit when I tried to "tap" in an axle that had too few splines?? Crap. I'm going to see how it'll work with it like that. What's the worst that can happen???

Jumpin Jehosephat! Now when I put the axle back into the rear it won't lock into the snap ring! It's still in the groove but I wonder if it got damaged somehow. I'm going to see how it'll work with it like that. what's the worst that can happen??? Ponderous man ponderous.

Excellent advice dudes. I found that my replacement was already cracked in a fortuitious spot so the hatchet job was half done before I started. Dab a little Pig Putty behind the joints and let it harden overnight....... I'll bolt the beast back together this evening and see how she flies. Stay tuned.

Damn damn damn... While using my favorite persuader to bang the axle out of the Rt rear spindle on my 99' OBW I glanced off a smidge and hit a lug which came loose and of course broke the Aluminum ABS tone wheel behind it into 3 pieces. Naturally right after that the axle literally fell off of the spindle. There doesn't seem to be any easy way to replace the tone wheel with the one I took off of the original hub that I dissected. Any ideas other than smacking the hub out and then having it pressed back in at a shop or going back to the yard and pulling off another assembly? I was going to try and saw it in two and just bolt it on the spindle. Any comments or alternate schemes??? Tankz.

Well I compared the two business ends and it seems I didn't learn nuthin from Sesame Street cauz "one of these things is not like the other". One old one has 24 splines and the other has 22 and looks nuthin like the original. Crap. Back to the drawing board. Tried to fish the snap ring out with a hook but it does seem to be in a groove at the end of the gear and wants to stay there. i'll try to ease the replacment shaft in (once I get one) and engage it. I wonder if I can pull the CV joint apart and swap the ends.....

The old one popped out nicely but without the ring. The U-pull it one still had the ring attached. Uh-oh, don't tell me this is going to be one of those "they changed the diameter of the shaft or # of grooves in mid-1999" type of discussions... I've got to do some serious measuring and comparing.

How the heck do you get a stranded axle circlip outa the diffirential? I had a bad rear bearing on my 99 OBW and had to pull both the knuckle and axle that were rusted and going to be just inseperable without the patented puller. The axle didn't look so great anyway so I got a nice U-Pull it replacement for both and thought it was going to be a breeze, especially after fighting with that rear control arm bolt. Not. After it wouldn't go in nicely and then trying more muscle and a few whacks with the persuader I cooled off before I damaged anything (hopefully) and did my homework. Seems that the old snap ring is stuck in place the diff and beyond my reach. I'd like to avoid popping it into the differential so how pray tell do I fish it out? thankz. .

I just did mine on my 98' and it was a real bugger. I used PB for the first 2 days and whaled on the nut end just as Fairtax suggested. Still nuthin. Finally I heated it a bit with a propane torch and it begrudgingly turned with a 1/2" breaker bar and cheater pipe. Felt like 200 ft-lbs. Gotta watch that you don't get the flame too close to the rubber boot or you'll be replacing it. I wasn't worried about annealing the bolt since I'll find another at the U-Pull It yard. Of course I then discovered that the CV is also frozen stiff. After waiting another day with more PB and breaking my favorite gear puller I finally removed the knuckle and axle together. Life is good.

Ahhhhh.... I pulled the wheel and checked the caliper. The pads have nice even meat and they slide fine. The caliper itself seemd fine also. I looked again at the lower control arm (or whatever you call it) and could be that the bushings are worn out. Alas, you're spot on about things wearing out. I shake & rattle more than roll these days. Perhaps it's time to pick up a Subie from the new millennium with a blown engine/trans and breathe new life into her. The hard part will be thinking up what to name her... : )

Ahhhhh.... I pulled the wheel and checked the caliper. The pads have nice even meat and they slide fine. The caliper itself seemd fine also. I looked again at the lower control arm (or whatever you call it) and could be that the bushings are worn out. Alas, you're spot on about things wearing out. I shake & rattle more than roll these days. Perhaps it's time to pick up a Subie from the new millenium with a blown engine/trans and breathe new life into her. The hard part will be thinking up what to name her...

I did wonder about the vac hose but it seems tight and it's just that right front. She no pull to da left or to da right on braking. Only da normal slight shaka shaka shaka dat many of us experience. I've never had a peep from the ABS. It'z just gotta be somewhere in the suspension, but why the bloody pedal drop? Nipper would probably have something to say. I crawled under her today and found only tight bolts. That and a trans drip from the one pan bolt that got sheared off when I over torqued just a bit... I'll pull the wheel tomorrow and see if there be anythin up with dat chumpie. Perhaps I missed something at the ball joint. If all else fails I'll lash a kid to the fender to directly observe the phenomenon when I do a terminal brake check at 70mph. Thankz.

Hi all!, It's been awhile since I've needed any of your sage advice so here goes. My 98' Legacy OBW with 275k has been doing something odd since sometime shortly after I made the 2.5 to 2.2 swap earlier this year. It all seemed to start after a particular hard braking. There was a piece of junk along the side of the road that I just HAD to have. When I trounced on the brakes I felt and heard a loud CLUNK from the front, and thought "something definitely shifted here". I've checked under the beast thinking that there was something I forgot to torque, but everything seems to be tight. Since then, the symptoms are that the brake pedal will drop almost to the floor, usually on a particularly hard stop or when shifting from reverse to drive. Most of the time the with the accompanying clunk from somewhere in the right front. One pump of the foot and the brake pedal is back to normal. I looked at the ball joint but it seems ok. Can't be the wheel bearing cauz I've driven maybe 10,000 miles in this state. Any ideas? I'm out of em and I'm sure the State inspection man will gig me good on this one. Thanx dudes.

So I followed the directions on the sealant tube. Of course I put too much on and a really nice fat bead came out the edge. It had me let it sit for an hour and then instructed me to tighten the bolts 1/4 - 1/2 turns. Now that ot's all set up should I torque them to ~ 3 lbs or just let it sit since the gasket is all formed? thanx.

Thanks for the replies all! I'm off to do battle with my Ultra Gray. BTW it's a 98 OBW. I swapped the engine AND the tranny this winter in the great frozen outdoors. This should be an ez hour or so, then I'm off to make a brake line for my 86' slant 6 Dodge D100.

Yo. I'm swapping out my 4EAT tranny pan that came with a nasty gash in it with the one off my old 4eat boat anchor and can't for the life of me find the torque specs for all those little 10mm bolts. It can't be much since they were wayyy too easy to remove. I'm not complaining. It's great to finally remove bolts that don't snap on me or require a 1/2" drive and a cheater bar. So I'm all set up with my Ultra Gray and have the mating surfaces nice and clean (mostly anyway) so all I need is the number. How much do you guys spread on anyway? Left on my own I'll tend to slather too much on and likely get it all over the insides of the pan. I also found it strange that after only 2000 miles on this trans the new fluid I drained out looks darker than I would have expected. Any experienced observations? Thanks in advance. P

I heartily concur with yer diagnosis doctors. I did that exact operation just yesterday on the 2.2 that I slapped into my 98 OBW. The temp just wouldn't stay put without the heater on. I operated by bloodletting and doing an exploratory. As expected it turned into a Durastatectomy. I replaced it with the OEM one that was in my 2.5 and burped it according to Dr. Nipper. The patient recovered immediately and now purrs like a kitten.

HA HA! It's alive!!! After spending most of Sunday getting the dog together only to find that the bastard overheats unless the heater is blasting, I perused some threads that advised checking the thermostat to see that it was OE. I was skeptical to say the least, and didn't want to drain the coolant again, but after seeing what the last chimp that worked on the 2.2 did to mess up the timing belt installation I thought I'd better give it the hairy eyeball. Of course it had a dinky aftermarket unit in there so I slunked with my tail between my legs to the dealership to get some MORE stuff. Since I'm cheap and I didn't want to pay $$$ for a new one I just got a thermo gasket and coolant conditioner. Back at the hooch I "borrowed" the 98' OE one off of my 2.5 and slapped her home. I used Nippers method to burp her and I'll be damned, the thing worked perfectly. I just used the outback to return the 2.5 core to the bone yard so I'm now an official EJ22 club member. Who'd a thunk it? Now on to that increasingly persistent coffee grinder sound in the rear. It's gonna be ugly cauz it's a mass of rust that ain't been touched in many moons....

HAHAHA!!! Mucho thanx dudes! Now I can feel a bit better at the start of my reconstruction. I've already come up with what looks like an extra piece of the center timing belt cover gasket, but for the life of me can't figure out where the hell it goes. It's just a screw hole and ~ 3" piece. The center cover is pretty much covered by what I've got so I'll be damned if I can figure out where it goes. Maybe it's off the 2.5 and got mixed in with the 2.2 pile..... Ahhhhhhhh.......... : )

So I finally got my idlers and belt in the mail from Import Experts and I'm all set! The marks on the belt are there in the correct position to make the job easy as cake. I lined everything up perfectly and followed the instructions. After letting the tensioner do it's thing I rotated the crank (to the right of course!) for 4 cycles and saw that the marks didn't line up with the tic marks. I was off each mark by 1 tooth. WTF? I removed everything, read the instructions again, and took another crack at it. The damn thing did it again! All the cam and crank reluctor tic marks are in the proper position and the belt marks are all off by 1 tooth, probably due to some cosmic law, so I'm not overly perturbed since I have the right # of teeth on each side. I just wanted to know if this is a regular occurrence or if I'm retarded somehow (like all my friends say). : ) Thanks

Unfortunately I'm on the PottsTOWN side not the PottsVILLE side. Big difference. More fun up North side since you've got the Yuengling brewery and the neat Carboniferous Fern fossils. Thanks John C. I came to the same conclusion. I've been nickled and dimed to death so far. My 450.00 engine is up to 650.00 right now. For some reason the import expert e-bay site doesn't have timing parts for 97. I'll have to go to their website. Next time I'l take my chances on the 100 buck u-pull no return/no warranty EJ25.

I'm on the right side of course! Near Reading. Farrrr away from youins. This damn thing is pissing me off at every turn now. Either the belt skipped, or whoever did the last belt job missed the left cam mark by 2 teeth. the belt didn't have much slack and the tensioner looks good so I vote for a knucklehead job. The thing really must have run like poop. How do you know if the idlers are shot? Everyone here swaps em out religiously, but I've seen a couple articles that say they rarely go. They sound like skateboard wheels and the ones on my 2.5 that have 265K on em look and sound better. I'm tempted to swap em out, but know that I'll probably spend the 100 bucks it'll take to get new ones. Ahhhh more $$$. The last person who changed the water pump didn't reinstall a gasket seal between the unit and the engine so dirt flew in there as well as through the gasket missing from the center cover. Ponderous man, ponderous.