Frank B

I've bought most of the ones I've had at flea market and swap meet "tool tents". Cheap and they break if you push them too far, but I once had a really nice surgical stainless steel one, benefit of dating a dental assistant, and it was awesome, the tool..... heavy, strong, sharp, but I broke it. So I felt that if that broke, it's me not the tool that's doing something wrong, and now I buy the cheap stuff. The seal is metal with rubber over it, so it's stiff and pops in and out. As long as the rubber doesn't tear form being old, dry, and cracked. It's best to get it out and wash the bearing to get all the old hard grease out of it.

I've repacked them before too, as well as serpentine belt tensioners. I've always used a good dental scribe, the end with a hook or angled point. That way the one tool is all that's needed. The point gets between the rubber seal and the bearing with ease then you rotate the tool so the point is pushing up on the underside of the seal, on the metal. Then it pops right up. The boiling method is great for motorcycle chains too!

+1 for the rebuild. get the kit from Subaru if it's still available. The kits I've used from parts stores are good, but the rubber parts don't seem to last. the kit will have the choke and needle setting listed, make sure you adjust them to spec. Also, pay attention to the base gasket, you want to clean the base of the carb and the manifold perfectly. A vacuum leak here will cause a bunch of problems. There is a vertical roll pin on the front of the carb, just above the base, behind it is a horizontal hole behind it. Drive out that pin once the carb is off, the idle mixture adjustment screw is in that hole. Carefully turn the screw in counting the turns untill it stops, but do not tighten it. remove it and spray carb cleaner in the hole during your rebuild/cleaning. Afterwards do a search or ask about adjusting that screw. start with the same position it was in.

Also consider which one your better at, you go and put a bunch of money into your car just to wreck it you'll be p'ed off. Good luck either way.

My 92 loyales spfi is a powerfull little engine, but I have to downshift out of fifth if I want to maintain any speed up hills. How fast is he going in fifth up these hills? If he's out on the interstate doing 70 or so, it would be fine in fifth gear. But if he's going 45-55 on a by-way in fifth, he would need to drop it down to forth to get up a hill. Is this car new to him? Is he used to driving more powerfull cars? Check the vitals, oil loss, coolant loss, condition of both(milky or normal),fuel pressure, engine temp, voltage from alternator, etc. It could be as simple as a tank of bad gas.

It's this mozilla firefox crap my wife put on this here electronic computer machine of ours, if the page is bookmarked it will only show the local location, not the actual web address. The site is a Colorado Unimog club site, how it came up when she searched for water softner info is beyond me..... Here; http://www.rockymountainmoggers.com/convert.html home page http://www.rockymountainmoggers.com/

file My wife stumbled upon this while looking for info on our water softner.......

Is the parking brake on? Change the fuel filter anyway, you never know. If it idles good and pulls well untill he gets up to a certain rpm or throttle position, it may very well be fuel related. Is he losing coolant? Is it running hot?

The dimmer switch in the column, the one that you flip back and forth fo hi to low beam.

That's awesome! So the backflush didn't do much? Must have been really clogged.

+1 for the switch

That's a good, quick way to back flush the heater core, as long as you plan to flush the system before too long. Reverse the hoses, drive a week, flush system, put hoses back to original position.

Could be the alternator/voltage regulator is bad and the high voltage is screwing with the various solenoids and sensors....

I've gotten a lot of crap about owning a subaru plenty of times, until I tell them I paid $400 for it and I get 30 mpg!!!!! Even better when I had the $150 GL10 !!! Or when you get to work in the snow when others can't get out of the driveway! You'll always have someone disagree no matter what you drive. You could be in a Ferrari and someone will say it's junk!

Get one of these garden hose repair ends at the hardware store; Remove both heater core hoses from the engine, put the hose connector above onto one end and turn the water on slowly, and gradually turn it up. After the water flows clear, switch hoses to reverse flow and repeat. Remember, your cooling system operates at 13 psi, your house water pressure is around 60 or more. So be easy with it.

http://www.surpluselectron.com/aaron/holley.htm http://www.carburetorfactory.com/expvw17.html http://www.mazdatruckin.com/B2200/5200.html I used to have a bunch of sites on these, but I deleted them now that I have an FI sube..... I sounds like it's too rich, or the throttle plates are open too far. I've used a Holley 5200 before, set it up with the proper jetting for a weber, and it was fine. With the larger carb, you may need to adjust your timing too. Did you install a fuel pressure regulator? I think they like 1.5 psi.

Oh, and if it were to be relays, ask for part number PLRY1 at autozone, it is a Pilot brand relay that's 30 amp, and less than half the price of the original replacement, it was $7-8 I think.

I guess it could be the relays, but it is odd that they both go at the same time. Do the taillights work? Once when I had a headlight relay go out, the taillights went out to. The relays are under the dash next to where the ECM is. Have you been driving this car since? Is the output from the charging system ok? Maybe the alternator or voltage regulator is bad and it overloaded the bulbs?? Odd that they would be the only thing to go though.... Check all the wiring that you can access, even the stuff that you think isn't associated to the headlights. Maybe since it's a low mileage car, and sat for extended periods, that a rodent made a home of it and got chew happy on a wire some place...

The lack of heat shown on the gauge is a big clue. If you don't trust it you can install an aftermarket coolant temp gauge from any parts store or $20 or so, but you need the metric adapter to mount the sender to your engine. I mounted one once in the same spot the temp sender for the dash gauge was, just didn't have the working dash gauge for a while.

The upper hose is where the hot coolant goes from the engine to the rad, the lower is the coolant going back to the engine after the heat has been removed from it in the rad, so all that is normal. But while driving the gauge should not drop, it should go to about 1/4 inch above resting position(start up) and stay right about there. I know temps are different between Colorado and Virginia, but last week it was 4 degrees when I left work one night , and after a brief warm up, the temp gauge climbed up 1/4 inch and stayed there for the 40 mile drive home. It sounds like your thermostat is stuck open. Not uncommon to get a bad new thermostat. Take it out and you'll see if it's open or not. Sometimes you can tap, and I mean tap not hit, the thermostat housing with a little hammer and it will jiggle it enough to close it. But to be sure get a new one. That $7-8 part can destroy an engine. You can put a piece of cardboard in front of the rad covering about 75-80% of it and see if that makes a difference. If it helps, you need a new thermostat.

It does sound fuel related. Replace your fuel filters first. Then if it persists I would say a proper carb rebuild may be in order. Even though the one mechanic sprayed it out, it may have to be disassembled and properly cleaned(jets removed, etc) . It could also be gunk built up in the gas tank since it didn't have regular use. Water is heavier then gas and sits on the bottom of the tank, rusting the tank and holding the dirt and dust from the fuel. The subaru gas tank draws from the bottom so we don't have to worry about it too much, but the bottom isn't flat, it has a hump in it to clear the rear differential. So it may be laying in one of those low spots then sloshing around a bit. When you fill up it will stir it up, then over time fit will settle, like overnight. You start it up the next day, drive around a corner or bumpy roads then it stirs up again. it may come down to dropping the gas tank to clean it out. You may be able to dump two cans of Sea Foam or another strong cleaner into it and run it out. And start staying away from "cheap" gas, like no-name discount brands. Stick with BP, Hess , Chevron, Exxon, etc. The additives or the amount of the additives are better. You need good detergents right now, not saving 30 cents a tankor less for cheaper gas. Oh, and every time you fill up, actually fill it up, the space above the fuel is where the condensation forms, less space, less water. After you get that in order, give it a proper tune up, plugs, wires and such. Here's some info to get you started. http://www.autozone.com/addVehicleId,1162301/initialAction,repairGuide/shopping/repairGuide.htm?pageId=0900c15280067039 http://www.autozone.com/UseCase,S001/UserAction,viewSimpleDiagInfo/Parameters,info/getInTheZone.htm

If you burned up a fusible link, chances are it blew a fuse, or melted a relay somewhere too. With that ignition fuse blown I'd trace the circuit, maybe there's another fuse or fusible link that's been added. Get a spare relay, or use your AC relay, and just start swapping out one by one trying to start along the way. Does the engine crank fast or slow, maybe the battery is weak and isn't enough to fire up the ignition??? Add a few ground wires while your in there, from intake to case(block), intake to body.

Carbureted engine? When you press the throttle, does the engine grown and try to stall or does it just keep idling? It could be the float sticking in the carb.

I see it in your pics now. I've never seen that on a Subaru.

I never noticed it much on the rear, but it isn't going to wear down any more than it would on a car. And I've never had problems with the rear wearing down, just the fronts.