Singlecoil

I definitely need to check my PM's more often

My subie is in the shop for the persistent loud clunk in the right rear when it goes over bumps. At first the swing arm was suspected, but now they are looking at the struts. Apparently these are adjustable? How hard are they to adjust and how do you do it? I understand they aren't easy to find. What should I expect to pay to get new rear struts? This is for a 1986 GL wagon. Thanks.

Thanks a lot for the tips. When they replaced the engine, they put in new sparkplug wires, plugs, etc. Probably not the disty, though. It does have California emissions on it, and the ECS light periodically lights. I had that looked at in Seattle several years ago, and they said it was some little part that cost around $350 and didn't do much. A piece of black electrical tape suddenly appeared over my ECS light. Is the O2 sensor easy to replace and cheap? Thanks again.

Update: I've had it back in the shop for adjustments but it still seems largely the same. It seems to idle fine when cold, then at normal operating temp it idles rough. This is a factory new EA-82 with about 4000 miles on it. The car is a carbeurated '86 GL Wagon with California emissions. Is there a way to tell if the cams are the correct ones, as Renaissance Man suggests, without tearing the engine apart? Anything about California emissions that might cause this? It seems like the old, worn-out engine got slightly better mileage and idled smoother. They've checked for vacuum leaks and tweaked the basic specs all they can. Thanks.

Don't tell me there's another 86 GL Wagon in Anchorage with no rust (your pictures looked pretty good)? I thought I had the market cornered on that one. I going to look into the camshaft deal like Renaissance man suggested. This car always got 27 mpg on the old engine and now it doesn't and doesn't ping on regular. If it is getting more fuel because of the cams, that could explain both, no?

I have about 1000 miles on my new engine and it has been idling just a little rough since it was put in. I mentioned it to one guy at the shop when I had the 300 mile oil change and he seemed to think it was just breaking in. I've also noticed the mileage seems to have slipped by about 3 or 4 mpg. Could this be a simple mixture adjustment on the carby? Why would that have changed from swapping the engine? I put super in the old motor to prevent it from pinging, and notice the new motor takes regular just fine. Thanks.

I saw him at the junkyard in West Seattle today, (I think that's what he said his screen name was) so he does still exist.

Update. The resistors in position two failed in about 2 hours. I replaced them with a different brand, but still 1.8 ohm 5 watt resistors. The NTE resistors are of a larger diameter once the ceramic is removed, and will (I hope) dissipate the heat better. They look like this: (Pictured is a 1.2 ohm but the 1.8's look the same)

Ok, my bad. I did the search before I posted this but got frustrated at all the links that went nowhere. After it was suggested I search again, I found the archived thread with all the good info (perhaps too much). I elected to tap into the mad scientist in myself and tackle this dilemma feet first. I found some 5 watt ceramic coated resistors and decided to wire them in parallel, as SubSandRail suggested, to keep the temps down. One of my OEM resistors, the one for fan position three, was intact. I needed only to fix the ones for position one and two. I was shooting for .9 ohms for position two, and .7 ohm for position one. I purchased two 1.8 ohm resistors, and couldn't find two 1.4 ohm so I ended up with two 1.2 ohm units for fan position one. Wiring them in parallel would halve those ratings, yielding .9 and .6 respectively. The first order of business was to take a hammer, and smash the ceramic coatings off. They were too bulky, and I thought they would not let the resistors cool fast enough in the airflow. Here's one of each of the resistors (I used two of each). Then I soldered them in parallel, and soldered them into the resistor block. I plugged them in, held the block in my hand and turned on the fan. In position three, the OEM resistor got hot enough to glow. When I held it up to the airflow, however, the glowing ceased as it cooled rather quickly. The same for my two in position two. The glowed pretty good, but didn't under the airflow. Position one didn't glow much at all. There is a metal casing they mount into in the air duct, so with that and the airflow of the fan, I'm not too worried about it. Of course, the wife has instructions to immediately select position four if she smells anything burning. How much am I saving on this? Is it worth the headache? I'm not sure at this point. The resistors cost $2.00 total, so that saved about $62.00. The block is easy to get to thanks to the awesome photo I found on this site. I can tell I'm going to be spending a lot of time here. Here is a photo of the finished, soldered project. I had to twist the resistors I fashioned into a more diagonal orientation to get them to fit inside the stock duct opening. Of course, do this at your own peril.

Hmmm. I definitely should have come here first. I didn't know this site existed until I did a google search on resistor blocks the other day. The verdict is: a cam bolt wasn't torqued properly, which worked loose and somehow got caught in the timing belt and knocked it off its track. They admitted that it is their fault, and are covering cab fare. AAA picked up the tow. So I just looked at the CCR site. It doesn't have prices, but I'm probably afraid to find out what one of their engines would have cost, anyway. Lesson learned: This is a great site for sube info. I think when one of my other cars goes t.u. I might buy an older wagon with a burnt out motor and slap a new one in there. Seems like a much cheaper way to go than a new car.

Does anyone know what wattage the resistor block resistors are rated at? Someone mentioned that they were 1 ohm each and that tests correctly for the one I have left. My local electronics store has ceramic covered 5 watt ones for 50 cents each. I broke off the ceramic coating and revealed the coiled resistor that looks similar to the OEM ones. Unfortunately, they only had .8 ohm, and 1.2 ohm. It seems to me that the .8 one would make the fan turn slightly faster than a 1 ohm and the 1.2 would make it turn slightly slower. The .8 might operate cooler as it is resisting less current. I'm not sure what the watts has to do with it. Should I get the lowest watts I can find or the highest? A buck is sure a lot cheaper than $60 for a new resistor block.

Thanks so much for the replies. I asked them if it was a rebuilt engine and the owner said, "No it is factory NEW. There aren't many of those left, either." They are giving me a 12 month, 12,000 mile warranty, so I'm not terribly worried about it costing me anything. These guys do fantastic work and truly love Subarus. The kind of mechanics where you take it in for one thing, and notice later that they made adjustments on other items that needed it without charging you. I had the engine on this car rebuilt by the clods at K**'s Auto Repair in Seattle when it had 98,000 miles on it and leaked oil like a seive. I found out about a year later they used the wrong gasket sealer (the blue stuff) and it started leaking oil EVERYWHERE a year later. 20,000 miles later a timing belt snapped on the freeway, and 60,000 miles later the head gaskets went, resulting in this new motor. The options I was presented were, $1400 for a used engine with 127,000 miles, $2000 to reseal my engine, or $2800 for a factory new engine. Since this car has no rust for some reason, it was an easy decision. The total for the new engine, clutch, right front driveshaft with C.V's, right front ball joint, and tires rotated and balanced was $3350. They open in about an hour so I'll let you all know what the problem was. I'm just glad I don't have to wait several days for some major work. I hope.

I have an 86 GL wagon that I just put a factory new engine in, along with a new clutch. They put new oil and water pumps, new heads, timing belts, the whole shebang. She ran just like a fuzzy little kitten until about two hours ago. We've only put 300 miles on this new engine. The wife was driving at about 40mph in fourth gear, when she said she felt it lose power, "like a strong wind suddenly hit us" as she put it. She down-shifted to third, but it was still weak. We were coming to a stop light and had to stop. The car died when she put the clutch in. She was able to restart it with the key to get through the intersection and pull over to the side of the road. We tried starting it with the key again, but it wouldn't start. It seemed to be laboring quite hard; it wasn't just the starter turning, the starter seemed to be working very hard to turn it the engine at all. Oil pressure, volts, and coolant temp were perfectly normal when this occurred. I was pretty baffled and called the tow truck. Nothing was leaking from the car. I looked under the carb for a loose vacuum hose but couldn't find any. There was an unhooked wire under there, but I'm not sure what that was. Could this possibly be caused by a timing belt that slipped? Could that have trashed this brand spankin' new engine? I have heard that timing belts can harm these engines when they fail. Is that true? The car was idling a little rough when we picked it up after the new engine but it was getting better. I mentioned that at the shop today when I was getting the oil changed and he seemed to think it was normal for a break in period. Any thoughts? Thanks.