el_freddo

Have you tried to free up the moving parts then clean up the contact tracks? If you manage to do this it’s an easy check to see if it will work before reinstalling Cheers Bennie

@Blackroses34thats rough to say the least mate. I hope everyone is safe and well! All the best. Bennie

Fingers crossed if the light illuminates again it’s not the death nell for this engine. All the best! Bennie

Wasn’t there some models fitted with a low oil warning light? Could this be an issue? If the issue is wiring and it’s related to whatever crash the car was involved in, it could be an intermittent issue that would be hard to diagnose when stationary. Although if that wire was damaged I’d also think that many other wires would possibly be damaged too. Hopefully nothing sinister! Ask your daughter to photograph the light before start up and ensure she’s interpreting the illuminated light she’s seen correctly. Cheers Bennie

Dual range has a lever for 2wd-4hi-4lo. Pulling a fuse will only switch the dashboard lights off. The PT4wd uses a push button on top of the selector to activate a set of vacuum solenoids that moves a diaphragm that acts on a lever. If you pull the fuse that provides power to this circuit, you’ll probably be deactivating other electrical items in the vehicle and the gearbox will remain in 4wd. If yours is Auto, press the 4wd switch and it will deactivate the 4wd system. If you’re using your wipers the 4wd will automatically activate for better traction in the wet. Why do you want to try disabling the 4wd system? If you have any of the manual setups and you’re stuck in 4wd, you might be experiencing 4wd bind. You can over come this with two methods: 1) Jack up one wheel, expect it to spin when the bind over comes the traction. One it’s in the air you should be able to slip it easily out of 4wd. 2) Drive your car on a loose or slippery surface turning left then right with slight pressure on the 4wd lever or the 4wd switch in the Off position. Driving in a straight line on the same surface will eventually achieve the same thing, it could take longer though. You could experience/hear a bang like noise as 4wd disengages. I hope this helps. Cheers Bennie

Rear diff and moustache bar needs to come out. Disconnect all fuel lines/hoses and vent tubes. Disconnect the filler tube. Unbolt and drop out. I recall there being a difficult bunch of hoses that pass through the chassis rail that need to be disconnected. Other than that it wasn’t too hard to do. Watch out for all the crud on top of the fuel tank falling as you drop it out. That was well over a decade ago now Cheers Bennie

Yeah wow, I wanted to give a like, laugh and the sad emoji to that one @PostalLeggy! Sitting on the console doesn’t seem like a bright idea! Cheers Bennie

Your struts will be oil filled if genuine units and gas filled if aftermarket - even if they’re KYB, aftermarket is gas. Oil/air/gas filled has nothing to do with coil overs, that just the design of the strut and are usually adjustable. Coilovers are usually used for lowering your vehicle and reducing its suspension travel for performance handling or a crushed disc if daily driven on crap roads. Have a read of this as I think it might be what you need to know/do: https://www.offroadsubarus.com/threads/6839/ Hopefully that helps! Cheers Bennie

Nice Legacy mate! So weird seeing those with a flat roof - ours were ALL the “raised roof version”. I never knew there was a different one out there until someone was frothing over one with the raised roof… Here’s my (still not going) AUDM RS turbo Liberty for comparison: ^ that’s an old pic now. The rims went to my sister’s Gen3, they didn’t like our local potholes, so they’re toast and I’m right down the rabbit hole with chasing a water leak issue - the body is almost completely stripped of fittings and the interior basically gutted trying to find the issue. That ditch, I’m sure your leggy enjoyed the offroad adventure All the best finding the series 2 front guards and lights! I didn’t realise there was such a difference between them! Cheers Bennie

Under bonnet brown fusible link fuse box is what I think @Blackroses34is talking about. Cheers Bennie

G’day Harrison, What you’re aiming to achieve is not for the faint hearted. This is a project for sure, and you’ll experience many ups with some very low downs - to the point you’ll be ready to burn it. An aftermarket engine management system could be the easiest way to go if you’re wanting to drop a turbo engine in it. Otherwise learn how to read multiple wiring diagrams and cut down the turbo management loom yourself - or find someone to foot for you. The S-GT also an impreza of the same era? Asking because if it is, get one that’s written off and basically do a body swap - as in swap all the drive train and wiring in yours for the donor’s. If you’re using factory wiring cut down, you’ll have to pull the dashboard out. Aftermarket management should be able to be done without pulling the dashboard. You will need a tuner to dial everything in to ensure the engine doesn’t self destruct with the aftermarket management. AWD stuff I can’t see any issues with swapping the rear cradle etc. Someone more in the know than me will hopefully correct me if I’m wrong. I didn’t realise Subaru produced front wheel drive vehicles this late in the piece. Are you sure it’s not AWD? Cheers Bennie

So remove the throttle return spring?? Cheers Bennie

I can send you the part numbers of the seals. Plenty of RHD vehicles around that the seals would be needed for. I should be able to pull them from the VIN I have stored on my account with the OS parts site. But making stuff for locally available seals to fit is a good way to go about it if you can pull it off. The dudes in the Jeeps, are the LHD or custom RHD orders (probably taken off the line for our market!)? In Australia our rural posties drive RHD vehicles, they just scoot over to the opposite side of the road to put the mail in the mailbox. It’s common practice here. The only LHD type vehicles we have here are dual control rubbish collection trucks. I’d say they’re driven from the LHD position 90% of the time… Cheers Bennie

You won’t get check engine light issues for a transmission swap. Your NA Subaru is probably a part time single range 4wd. The AWD versions don’t have a push button for AWD, they’re always mechanically driving all four wheels with a push button on the console to lock the centre diff for the 4wd mode. Being that your turbo wagon is auto you might find the diff splines are the same as the NA manual box, only because it’s an auto. Diff ratios, if the stickers on the back of the rear diffs are the same you’re good to go. If they’re missing just swap the rear diffs over, they’re a direct swap and easy to do in the L series. Instrument cluster centre with the auto settings can be swapped out for the manual one, then work out the wiring pins for each light to work properly. Might need to re-route some wiring from the auto shifter to the manual gearbox for reverse and the 4wd lights. You will need to bypass the auto start inhibitor switch so this isn’t a problem when starting. That’s all I can think of atm from the top of my head. Cheers Bennie Edit addition: there might be a vacuum line from the intake to the auto to block off. Not 100% sure on the turbo models, the NA definitely has one so keep an eye out for it

This might help: http://www.rslibertyclub.org/forums/archive/index.php/t-102810.html Hopefully you might find a DIY write up on these sorts of swaps to make sure there are no changes between the models of Liberty/Impreza/WRX for fitment. I can dig up some AUDM VINs to run through partsouq for part numbers or general comparisons between different generations of the Liberty/Legacy platforms if that helps you find a suitable replacement. The drive to Canada could be a goer for gathering several racks if you can afford the extras - but that’s a lot of effort and fuel with driving! Could be the quickest way out of this situation too - grab two or three racks, shove one in to keep you going, build up a good one to swap in later, have spares to do the same with the one put in as replacement no1… Let me know about the VINs as I’ll have to do some digging around for them on the web cross referencing regos to get the VINs Cheers Bennie

That engine in the impreza is a super mean package from what I’ve been told. I think there were two that were done over here at one point. Dunno what happened to them though. I hope the VSS wiring is a simple fix for you. Cheers Bennie

^ what @heartless said. Can’t swap panels between platforms. I’m not even sure if impreza bonnet can be swapped with the equivalent year forester. Gut tells me no. Front ends are not interchangeable. Some mechanical parts *might* swap over but this would depend on what part you’re wanting to swap. Why do you wan to swap the impreza bonnet onto the legacy anyway? Cheers Bennie

You need to quote distance to fuel put in the tank until it was full. For example, our family bus just got 1254km to “a tank” (two actually). Breaking that down we put 158L of diesel into the main and aux tanks. That further boils down to 12.6L/100km 7.9km/L). Not too bad for a 2.5 ton vehicle that’s 18 years old with 380,000km on the clock. Put that up against my Brumby. It got something around 450km “to a tank”. It’s fuel usage was 8.6L/100km (very stoked - 11.6km/L). But it’s got a 55L tank vs the 170L of the family bus, and I don’t run either of them dry as that would be very inconvenient :p Cheers Bennie

Steptoe is onto something. Injectors are batch fired in pairs. Can’t remember exactly which ones are paired together though. Cheers Bennie

Can’t help you there. I thought you were asking where the location of the fuse box was. Put up a wanted ad in the sales section of the forum. Cheers Bennie

Oh wow, I didn’t expect the seals to be completely different! I hope you manage to get something back together to get you going again. You’re still using a Gen1 on the postal route? What about shipping a RHD Liberty wagon from Oz? Crazy idea I know but it’s newer and RHD that you seem to need. Just the $$$$s are the killer in this economic climate! Cheers Bennie

The phase 2 are “better” because the cases are stronger and the gears a couple of mm wider on 1st and 2nd. I can’t remember if they widened 3rd to 5th too. Cheers Bennie

There’s a brown box with three or four fusible links in it, mounted to the side of the radiator overflow bottle. Internally, the fuse box hides behind a removable panel above the driver’s feet near the driver’s door. Pull that panel off to reveal the fuse box. That panel will have the diagram of fuses on the back of it so you know what’s what Cheers Bennie

When it refuses to start, do you have voltage where it needs to be? Eg: at the ECU power wires, ignition coil, do you get spark when turning it over when hot and not wanting to run? If you have spark does it try to fire up with some start ya bastard or aero start sprayed down the intake? Cheers Bennie

Direct swap. Will need to ensure the rear diff ratio matches the gearbox ratio. Swap the centre console to accommodate the dual range lever. Everything else will bolt in the same. Fair effort on the ‘87 with its history!! I’m guessing it was only a roll onto its side type of rollover? Down here anything that involves the roof in a rollover is an instant ticket for a write off - unless you know someone who’s really good at re-grafting a replacement roof and pillars to your ride. Not a common thing to happen here. Cheers Bennie