N0TKG

Thank you! That bit of information just made my evening a lot birghter. I have an old 85 GL in the weeds that I was going to rebuild years ago, before I got sick. The timing covers are off that thing. If it is not raining tomorow I think I will experiment a bit with that and see what I can learn.

There is a good chance your drums are still useable. They may need turning, but in 40 years of doing my own breaks I've never yet had a drum that I could not put back on the vehicle and re-use. Some were not very pretty, but they work. Good luck.

Thank you for the replies. The belts, seals, etc were all replaced 10K miles ago. The problem is that the left side is not turning, and that issue combined with a distributor that will not budge leads me to believe that there is probably something broken or jamed in the distributor shaft that also has the cam stuck. Given that the car was showing symptoms of bad timing that gradually got worse before things quit leads me to suspect that the distributor was going out, then something finally broke and became jammed in there. I've never had one of these open, so I don't have a mental image as a reference. The other disadvantage I have is hands and arms that don't work very well any more and that slows me down big time. What took me an hour to do 15 years ago might take me a day, or a week. If I can do it at all. So if there is any possible way to pull that distributor out of the engine that does not involve removing the engine from the car, I need to find it. Sorry, I don't know any Rosenbergers. I knew some Rosenburgs years ago, but not a Gale.

My 91 Loyale had started to run a little rough and it was beoming difficult to start, and the millage was dropping. I suspected a timing problem. Then one day this spring she would not start at all. It would turn over, but not fire. I crawled under the dash and found a crank angle sensor code. I was able to determine that the distributor was not turning, so I suspected then that I had a broken left timing belt. I am disabled and was not able to work on anything at the time, so it had to wait until I my hands were working better. Yesterday my neighbor and I pulled the timing belt covers. The left belt was stripped at the crankshaft sprocket and the camshaft sprocket would not turn. We tried to pull the distributor but it will not move. It seems that somehow the distributor is stuck to the cam or one has the other jammed. Do any of you have any ideas as to what may be going on inside? And does Anyone have any suggestions as to how to pull that distributor out of the engine? Advice is appreciated. Thanks

A 32 year old car with a broken axle and some rust that has been parked for a year is probably not going to attract many buyers. To anyone other than Subie fanatics it is just scrap metal. If it starts and moves, offer $100 and see what he says. Good luck. My fist Soob was an 81 GL wagon. I will always regert seling it.

I am in here with a similar question. I am having to do the timing belts on my 91 Loyale (with AC) and figured it would be a good time to replace the water pump while I can get to it. I ordered a water pump (GMB 160-1130) and when it arrived today and I opened the box I see their notice inside the box telling me that this pump is for a non AC car and that I should be using 160-1140. I've been working on my E82s for over 25 years and until five minutes ago I never knew there was a difference in water pumps (all my other Soobs were non-AC). The insert indicates that the 160-1130 is 110mm and the 160-1140 is 105 mm. I ordered this water pump on Amazon. I see that they also have the 1140 but that one says it is not compatible with my car. So, what is the situation on those pulleys, water pumps, and the AC? I have pulleys on old parts cars but without going outside to look at them I am guessing that they will probably not work with my AC. Thanks in advance for any suggestions on this one.

It's too windy to work on anything outside but I started the car and drove around pasture for about ten minutes until the temp gauge was near the red. The upper hose was hot and the radiator felt warm across the top. Down by the thermo switch it felt slightly warm and the lower radiator was cooler than my skin and cold at the lower hose output area. It sure does seem like a plugged radiator. I found a new radiator on Ebay for $60 so decided to buy it instead of messing around with the old one out of the '85.

I am 18 miles from town so I always have at least two running vehicles, usually three or four. LOL I had to drive in to town to buy a new thermostat gasket so I decided to pick up a thermostat while I was in town. If I want OEM I would have to order one, so I just bought what was available. I aimed a flashlight down into the radiator and it is looking rather slimy down there so I am thinking that is the most likely problem. This thing has been coming on gradually over the past six months. I should have a relatively warm day later in the week so I plan to drain the radiator and see what comes out. I have a radiator here that I took out of my old 85 GL. They look the same, but some sources show it as compatible, other not. What do you guys think? If it fits and the engine runs normal I would not see it as a permanent solution. I'd still order a new one. But this old one is here, now.

My Subaru is having overheating issues. The problem first appeared last summer when I would be driving around in town in 100 degree weather but once back on the highway heading home she would cool back down to normal. But the problem gradually became worse. Sometimes the fan would kick in, sometimes not. Offhand I can not remember what I did to check the fan last summer, but I remember that it was not the problem. The past few times I have used it the fan has not ran and the car would overheat if idling too long, but if I ran the heater I could keep the temperature close to normal and then once at highway speed the car was ok. I had decided that I would bypass the fan thremo switch so that the fan would always run and was waiting for a nice day to do that. During all of this I have checked the exhaust for any sign of coolant smell and so far nothing there. I've had head gaskets go on a couple of GLs over the years and it was usually easy to know when that happened. Yesterday I had to make a quick trip to town. This time she ran hot on the highway, and even with the heater going I could barely keep the gauge out of the red so I turned around and headed for home and planed to hot wire the fan. When I got home I noticed that the top radiator hose was hot, the lower hose was barely warm, and the fan was not running. This morning I put the thermostat on the stove and it opened just before boiling, so I figure it is OK. So now I am thinking I probably have a radiator that had been gradually becoming plugged. Does this sound like it could be the problem?

I could be wrong in my thinking, but I am afraid that if I left the covers off I'd get a lot of ice build up around the belts, tensioners, etc during the winter. When I open the hood after a strong wind I find a solid mass of hard packed wind blown snow. Anything that was warm when the engine was shut off is coated in ice. Even driving through deep snow causes issues. I have to remove the crash pan from under the engine during the winter otherwise it collects a block of ice that keeps on growing.

I have an extra set of wheels and had knobby 185/80s with studs mounted on them for winter. Now I can't find them anymore.

I finally got the cover off and found the broken belt hanging in there. So I ordered the parts and will start taking things apart while I wait for parts to arrive. Thank you to everyone for all of the advice!

With the rotor not turning, the driver side belt is probably broke. Maybe. I had the belts in the back of my mind for some time now, but it was a bad summer and too many other things got in the way. I bought the car a year ago for $500. It only had 110K, but idled bad and stalled at intersections so the owner wanted to get rid of it. The only thing wrong with it was a bad gasket on an intake manifold. A $3 gasket and I had her purring like a kitten. On my 85 GL I did the belts every other year. But there was not much too it. No AC so it was just pull the radiator and a couple hours later everything was done. But I knew the Loyale was going to be MUCH more work and I am much slower so I put it off a bit too long. I once broke a belt in my Geo Metro. I always carried a spare, so on the shoulder of the interstate I crawled under the car and 45 minutes later was on my way again.

I managed to reach three of the four bolts on the driver side cover today. I do not have much feeling left in my hands so that slows me down considerably. It's a bit frustrating that something so simple as timing belts turns into a major project for me. I checked with one shop, they would do it for $420. One and 1/2 hours labor and the rest of that is parts. As suggested, I checked ebay and can find the kit for $65, so I think I am going continue to do this myself. The car has meticulous maintenance records since new and shows that the belts, etc were changed at 85k miles. She is now up to 125k. I probably should have went ahead and changed them last summer when the weather was warm!

I feel like a newbie asking such a simple question but I'll ask anyway. Is there any way to be 100% certain that I have a broken timing belt before I start removing the radiator, AC, etc from my 91 Loyale? The last couple of trips to the gas station I noticed my mileage had dropped from about 29 to 18 so I knew something was not right. Last week when I started her up to go into town I noticed that the engine was ticking. I checked the oil, that was fine, so I headed down the road. Two miles later the engine lugged for a moment, then died. She turns over but will not start. Given the drop in mileage and sudden new ticking sound, I was pretty sure I lost a belt. Today I removed the distributor cap and turned the engine over a few times. The rotor didn't go anywhere. On my old 85 GL changing belts was not much of an issue. But the Loyale has AC and a lot of other stuff in front of the engine that I never had to deal with on the older car. And since the last time I tore apart a E82 I have become disabled. It takes me about five time longer to get anything done than it did before. The colder weather will probably make my work even slower. So I am wondering if there is anything else I should try in order to be certain that I have a timing belt problem before I start taking stuff off the front of my car?