NorthWet

Scofflaw!!! It was obviously retribution for your sins against the Gods of Vehicle Regulation! Glad you are safe. Could have been really hairy of you were at speed.

Changed out my alternator today. As expected, the voltage came up as it should without revving. Plus, the voltage stayed where it should, about 1.5 volts lower than where it has been recently. McBrat, good luck. Definitely change out that alt before it leaves you in a world of hurt.

OK, not an issue with soldering, as I have ElecTech experience. But my problem is separating the unit to get at them. On all other alts that I have worked on, the back case came loose from the stator/rotor/front housing pretty easily. IIRC, the one time I tried that with the soob it frustrated me. Any hints? Or is my memory flakey?

I've had several STANT-brand t-stats (for various cars) fail as early as one month after installation. They don't fail hard (closed), but just seem to open far too early. And none were the "fail-safe" ones that stay open after an overheat. My first thought, also, was that your cool running car was a t-stat issue.

Hey, oddcomp, you are not the only one having "special" dreams about VNT turbos. If you find any for less than the price of a cheap new car, let me know. If you could get a couple, they could find new homes in a BIG hurry! And I bet that T3 would fit nice on my fullsize van.

Almost a hijack: Anybody have any luck disassembling the GL-series alternators? I think that I tried once, and have a few partially torn-down ones that others have tried and failed on. I used to replace brushes all the time on other styles (Datsun, Mistu, GM), so would be nice to try that on soobs. ("all the time", 'cuz I have around 500k miles of road behind me...) End of almost hijack.

The spark plug gap has more to do with the coil and the spark plug wires than anything else. Wider gaps need higher voltages generated by the coil and conducted by the wires. The higher the voltage, the more energy in the spark, and the greater the chance of successfully igniting the fuel and air mixture. If you have a similar ignition system to what is installed on US-version Subarus, then the gap should be similar. The suggested 1.0-1.1mm should be good.

There are S/R 5-speeds (at least some with diff lock) for '88(?) and up cars, and of course the RX trannies.

Funny that you should ask... my alt (non-XT6) started doing something similar a couple of days ago. I haven't dug too deep into yet, as week-long deluge here makes it inconvenient. Anyway, first thought was worn brushes, but the voltage stays slightly too high on mine, so I am beginning to think VR. I'll swap it out and have it tested, hopefully tomorrow.

The FSM for the d/r 5 speed shows the hi/lo gearing above the diff in the front housing; this is also where the hi/lo selector linkage attaches. Far easier to do on the input shaft than the output, as the torque it has to handle is limited to engine's, not multiplied by gearing.

The trouble going in might be fork (stress the "might"); any noise it might cause would be grinding teeth-to-teeth. If it won't go into reverse with engine off and some finagling to line up reverse teeth (rocking car, etc), then it is unlikely to be just a clutch issue. I don't have any good ideas for you to try, not until the clutch gets changed. Sorry.

I can't recall hearing problems with cracked heads on non-turbo engines, but then I am a little focused on EA82Ts. I don't know where non-turbos would crack their heads, but shill might be worth a look into the exhaust port. (A whole lot easier than on the "T", too!!!)

Metal cut-off saw is faster, louder, and more fun!

Reverse gears aren't constant-mesh (non-synchromesh), so actually have to slide together tooth-to-tooth. Sometimes really hard when clutch is not right. Can you put the car in reverse with engine off? May take some rocking the car back and forth. If so this probably points to just clutch crankiness. Possible also that you bent the shifter fork by applying too much pressure as reverse started to "fail".

Oops!!! This is what happens when typing after double-shift... Should have read "85 GL-10", not '84. I will edit original post. Thanks for catching my brain-fade!

Is this on your EA82T? Usual procedure is to pull the (exhaust) crossover pipe and look at the port-runner divider to see if obviously cracked or weeping coolant.

"How come heaters never fail in the Summer???" Well, amongst other things that went wrong coincident with me pouring Techron Fuel Injection cleaner into my tank, my heater core started to leak. I think that I shocked the car by paying attention to it after a couple months of neglect. Anyway, I will be tearing my dash apart and plan on taking pictures that will be combined with a write-up so posterity can share my pain. I plan on using a replacement heater from my parts car, but will also check at my friendly radiator shop for price and availability. (That way, people can send ME the check for $200 dollars for a $65 core! ) If anyone has a special request for behind-the-dash pics, or a suggestion for a similar maintenance procedure that requires yanking the dash or is clearer with dash removed (pedal box swap???), let me know. If I can meet multiple needs with one PITA task I would feel better. *edit - I should have mentioned that this is on an '87 T-Wagon - end edit*

Which part do you want me to elaborate on... the *EXPLODING* part?! I assume the design, so: Dumb simple device, don't try to think too complicated here. All it does is uses air passing by the end of the tube to suck the fumes out. It usually points down so gases go under the car instead of into vents, plus any oil also drips out. (:mr yuck!) The rearward side of the tube's end is cut away to enhance the sucking effect (think of fuel discharge tube in carb venturi... same thing). My '58 Triumph had a road-draft tube, and after a hard drive we smelled like blow-by.

IIRC, the 2-speed gear set is on the input shaft inside of the final-drive case on the front of the transaxle. Nothing fancy.

If this is what you have done, you are running a small risk of having a crankcase explosion. The pre-PVC (BTW, mid-60's not 70's) engines used a road-draft tube to created a partial vacuum to draw off blow-by gases from the inside of the engine. If all that you have is something that kind of filters any air moving in/out of the engine, then you have a potential for build up of explosive blow-by gases. A road-draft tube is simple to build: Just a tube hanging down to the underside of the car, with the tip cut at an angle opening the tube towards the rear of the car. IMHO though, it is a bad idea to eliminate the PVC system. The car was designed/tuned to run with it, and it really does no harm IF the oil is separated/filtered from the blow-by. Doing without it is worse pollution wise than running with your gas cap off. Plus blow-by gases stink horribly and because they are oily will cling to fabric (interiors, your clothing). Just my 2 cents.

True, cast aluminum would crack before it flexed much. But we are talking steel wheels here. And non-cast aluminum flexes just fine, depending on treatments and composition... just look at how much airplane wings "flap". Glad to here that your wheels worked out. I ran across the same problem a few years ago after student driver destoryed a tire and I had to "borrow" wheels for our '84 (*edit -should be '85 - end edit*) GL-10 from an '82 GL. Lovely noise....

We might be able to tell how close to max'd out the injectors are by looking at a usable Megasquirt map. As in, what is the duty cycle (on time, whatever) of the injection map when the engine is near max power/RPM? (My terminology may be off, but please forgive as I have been awake far too many hours.)

Yes, that was the one. I looked at it again after I posted. The door is open a crack, with them saying that contacts of a couple per week might make them reconsider. I am willing, as I have a few clutches to replace in the near future.

I would be concerned about clearance when actually driving on them. Cornering flexes wheels enough that hubcaps pop off, so you might want to think about if you really have enough clearance...

Oddcomp runs a SAAB APC unit that controls limits max boost based on knock sensor input. Cheap JY parts. IIRC, the main drawback is that it allows boost as high as turbo will go, but its boost floor is set by whatever the stock wastegate is setup for. (I.E. - it won't go below stock boost limit.) The SAABs were set for something like 4psi base boost.