the_bard

I've heard this too, from a lot of places... it just sounds to defeatist, I guess . I've also heard that if you can get it cut out, welded over, POR-15'd, and painted over properly, you can save it. Which makes sense if you've got minor rust. This ain't minor rust, though. I wonder how hard it'll be to find another Loyale or GL up here in the Northeast that's in fairly decent shape. I've seen a few Loyale's here in Troy... but they're all worse than mine

My '92 Loyale is rusted up pretty bad, now that I've gotten a chance to really start digging into her. What had been a "wow, this looks like it might be fun" project has gotten me rather discouraged... Take a look here. (Dial-upper's beware: Lots of big pics.) Keep in mind that most of my mechanical experience has been related to old farm tractors.. The most I've dealt with body rust is disc-sanding down an engine enclosure from an old John Deere B, then repainting it by hand with Rust-O-Leum, or however y'all spell it. Growing up, if my father had a car that was starting to rust bad, he simply parked it and bought a new one. :moon: I don't quite have the heart to do that with my Subaru, though. I love the engine, and the tranny's still going strong. I'm looking at the potential of hitting 300k, and loving the thought. The rust has me really worried, though. I'm not willing to simply treat it, fiberglass & bondo it over, and keep an eye on it. I've got a feeling it's simply too far gone for that. :boohoo: I'm not going to be able to get to my parent's farm (closest access to a acetylene/oxygen cuttin' torch, plus an arc welder) 'til after winter. Hence the bad fiberglass job (I don't have the tools I need to do a good fiberglass job, either, nor the money to get the right tools ). I could wait out the winter, then bring it back home to the farm, and get it cut out and welded on over (and I'm willing to take the time off from work and school 'til I get it done). I'm not the world's greatest welder, either... haven't had all that much practice. That sheet metal looks really thin, so it's probably gonna be a :argue: to weld. And this isn't a engine enclosure on a farm tractor... there are a lot of serious rust holes in this body. What I'm trying to find out is everybody's opinion on my options? Is it worth my effort to rescue the ol' girl? Or should I find another Loyale or GL, preferably with little to no body rust (something that I can deal with, at least), and part her out? P:S. : Don't mention the lack of tread on the front tires... gettin' replacements Friday. Cash flow, ya know?

I'll throw in a fourth thumb for the power locks... the driver's door lock controls all five doors. Lock it, and it locks everybody's. Unlock it, and it unlocks everybody's. I find it really funny that I can open the door, lock it, shut the door, and then open it... I need to physically lock the door from the outside to prevent the door from being opened. Thanks for all the info here, too... I've been concerned about the rust on my Loyale, and I've been thinking about whether it's worth it to fix it (I'll have a post in a few minutes concerning this), or whether I'm going to swap it out for something else... I did notice tonight that I have a "Lo" light on the 4wd indicator on the dash, but no Hi/Lo selector. Is this a case of Subaru making the dash indicators universal? It also has just the single dome light in the middle... it's perfect for the rear passengers, can't see diddly in the rear compartment, and middlin' for the front seats. It's not something I'd want to read a map by.

What weight oil are y'all using when you're using MMO?

I've noticed the same thing with my '92 Loyale... the dash clock goes rather dim or out completely intermittently. A little research when I was putting a new deck in revealed that the clock, radio, hazard lights, horn (IIRC) , and automatic seatbelts are all on the same circuit. Unlike you, however, I haven't noticed any problems on the rest of the circuit when the clock display is dim/gone.

I've always sprayed a little WD-40 on the threads of new spark plugs... seems to make it a bit easier to remove 'em. Haven't considered what effects it would have on a cylinder/piston.

Here's what I did on my '92 Loyale, last week, when mine gave out. The hood latch & release mechanism assembly lies underneath the front of the hood, in the center (duh. ). If you can run a long screwdriver up from the lower right of the rump roast'y, towards the center (at about a 45° angle), then lever the screwdriver so the top pushes towards the right, you should be able to catch the hood "lock release" lever, and beat the lock... the hood ought to pop up. Then just open the hood like normal. I couldn't reach my hand up from underneath the car, since the radiator sits too close to the frame and what not. My grille wasn't helping either... I couldn't get enough leverage through the grille to release the lock. Therefore, I broke the grill . I grabbed the bottom, pulled it loose, and then yanked it upwards until it snapped. That gave me enough room to open the hood, and remove the top part of the grille :boohoo: . It looks like I'll be able to repair the grille... got the fixings for fiberglass running around somewhere, and some bondo... should be able to make the grille look like new, or a reasonable facsimile at least. Removing the cable wasn't too difficult, and was fairly straight forward (in other words, I don't think I need to spell it out ). I just haven't figured out how I'm going to replace it. I could cheat, and just dangle the chain (I mean, who's gonna steal anything out of an old rusty compact station wagon, that has a half shaft, assorted parts, and various tools in the back? It's only missing the gun rack... ). The end of the cable was frayed, so I can't push it back through its housing. The ends of the cable have attachments that seem to be permanently crimped (I assume) on, so it's not going to be easy to buy a bike cable or the like and jury-rig it. 'Course, I do know a junkyard with a couple Loyale's sitting around... I'll probably end up picking up a new cable there. If you need one too, lemme know, and I'll pick up a second while I'm there (last I checked, they had three Loyale's of various years there). That's assuming, of course, that you've got a Loyale, or a cable from a Loyale will work .

Geez... you guys take Sube's places I'd be scared to take a farm tractor through.

Here's a good one: On my way home from work tonight, I took my usual route. Everything was decent on the way home... stopped to help some kid out with Saab (had spark, wasn't gettin' gas, his father had left ten minutes beforehand to get a tow...), but other than that, it was the usual drive. I get off 787, and stop at the light, preparing for my turn left onto the bridge that takes me over the Hudson. Light turns green, and the oncoming traffic is turning right onto the bridge. A bright red pickup truck, lookin' all shiny and new. I give it the gas, take 'er on up to 3,500 RPM's, shift, wait for 3,500 RPM's, shift into third... as I'm working my way up to 3,500 again, that red truck gets on the gas, and accelerates his way to several car lengths ahead of me in a matter of seconds. He then proceeds to stick his hand out his window and wave at me, backwards. Apparently he figured I was tryin' to race him... and here I was, sittin' in my little 90 hp Loyale, just trying to get up the bridge at a decent pace. Who'd have figured? 'Course, then again, maybe ya had to have been there :brolleye: :-)

It's just an idea for right now, at least... I've got enough things more important to fix/tinker with on the car than improving the turn signals. After all, the car's been around since '92... and nobody's hit it yet, right?

I've heard that sulfur smell can be a catalytic convertor goin' out... second hand knowledge, though. I've never experienced it myself, so I don't know for sure.

That might just explain why it won't go from fifth to reverse. Ya know, it makes sense...

I've noticed something that seems rather peculiar to me... on my '92 Loyale, the turn signal lamps are buried within the bumper pretty deep. Where they are right now, it'd be pretty difficult for any car approaching from the side to see the turn signal... the bumper's in the way. I had assumed that the lamp next to the headlight functioned as a turn signal, too... found out that it isn't the case. Here's a pic of the lamp in question, at least on the left side... it's the only yellow one in the pic. The obvious answer to me is to rewire that lamp up so that it's used for signalling a turn, in addition to being part of the parking lights (its only discernable function right now). Considering that the white lamp just inside it also functions as a parking light, I wouldn't mind having that yellow lamp function strictly as a turn signal, if need be. How difficult would it be to wire it up in such a fashion? The next question that needs to be asked: Why didn't Subaru wire it up this way to begin with? I've worked in a engineering/manufacturing facility before, and I realize the little things can be overlooked quite often, but it seems to me that somebody would've thought about this at one point or another in the design stage...

Only a few days of snow a year? :-\ Yep, I'm in the wrong side of the country. In Troy, we're lucky if the streets are plowed clean for a few days out of the winter season. I'm still stuck on the idea that there's gotta be some surefire way to keep salt from getting at the underside of my Subie. I'm hoping I'm going to be able to stop the rust that's already there, too... I have really fallen for this car

Back from my flying days, we'd check for the presence of water in our fuel tanks by draining the sump that was on the bottom of the tank. Basically, you'd drain a bit of liquid off the bottom of the tank into a clear vial... if the stuff was tinted blue (110 octane AVGas is dyed blue), you were fine. If it was clear, you had water in your tank. Following that logic, water ought to be sitting at the bottom of your gas tank, assuming 87 octane has a density closer to 110 octane than water. Ya worry about things like that when you're several thousand feet above the ground Edit: One of these days I'm gonna learn how to spell... but it won't be today...

I've managed stop that grinding going into reverse... after I've come to a stop, I shift into fifth, then into fourth, and finally over to reverse. Stops the grinding, and I don't feel like an idiot waiting 'til I can shift. She usually won't go from fifth to reverse, though... gotta swing it back on over to fourth first. *shrug*

.I'm noticin' a lot of y'all are from the Northwest... anybody have a plausible explanation for that? Around here, in the Northeast, Sube's are known for being great snow vehicles (one of the main reasons I love my 4wd Loyale so much)... does the same hold true for the NW too? And how's the salt up out west? My Subie's got a lot of rust-rot from the amount that NY lays down... might be a good reason to move out west .

Geez, I hope so... It's gettin' embarrassing stopping down at the parking lot quickly after noticing somebody beginning to pull out, and either grinding the gears or having to wait several seconds before I can reverse Thanks for the tip

Just wonderin' who out there might be in Upstate NY... or the northeast for that matter ;o). I'm located in glorious ol' Troy, NY, and I'm seeing a couple Loyale's around lately, along with some four-doors. I don't believe any of them are on the board, but it's worth a shot

Subject says it all... with all the crawling around I've been doing under the car lately (switching out half-shafts and ball joints), I've noticed two surface rust spots on the frame, on either side of the engine. It's not bad... looks like something I could hand sand and treat with POR-15, and get away with. It's got me wondering about the rest of the body, though... the rust has gotten the rear wheel wells pretty badly, and both front fenders. My original plans were to knock as much rust as I could off, treat the edges with POR-15, and then fiberglass and bondo a replacement in. I'm fairly sure I can get it looking reasonably well (I'm patient, spent a lot of years playing with plastic model aircraft... looks like it's the same ideas, on a different scale... I ought to be able to pick it up). I'm worried about how structurally safe it is. The holes in the rear wheel wells are pretty bad, to the point where it makes me wonder how much salt and water have been sprayed inside the body... where I can't see. Seems to me that the car's going to last a year or so if I go ahead with my plans... after that, my fiance will be out of college, and money won't be quite as tight. I'm wondering whether it'll be easier just to sell off the Subie for parts, and pick up another one (Yep, I'm addicted. ). How's the availability of Subaru's down south? Out of the "coat the road with salt" states, at least... I'd like to find something along the lines of my Loyale without the rust. Seems to me that I'll have to get outside of NY to do that... at least I've got a year or so to do the searching . Which brings me up to another question... once I've found it (it's not a question of if, it's when... I'm determined), does anybody have any tips to keep it rust free? I'm figuring on redoing the underbody with POR-15 (if it lives up to the hype I'm hearing) and building it up from there. 'Course, I could just move out of NY...

You'll have to pardon my ignorance... I know as much about transmissions as I do about the internal workings of my computer's processor... yeah, I get the major concepts down, but don't ask me any details :-\ I've got the same problem in my '92 Loyale... intermittently goes into first pretty hard, and reverse has been grinding every now and then, if I'm not careful. Worn synchro's? I've never heard of anybody replacing/repairing synchro's before, so I'm assuming it's an integral part of the transmission, and I might be better off swapping the tranny first.

After having the passenger side front drive shaft swapped out on my '92 Loyale (4wd), I'm noticing a lot more clicking in the turns... and it's only been about 150 miles since I swapped 'em. Knowing that my original problem was not solved by swapping the shaft out, I figure my old drive shaft is still good. I'm thinking about pulling the right side and replacing the new shaft with the old shaft... but the clicks seem to be coming from the left side. That leaves me with two questions... 1. Are the front drive shafts interchangeable? Would it be possible to take that old shaft that was on the right side and put it on the left side? If that doesn't stop the clicking, I'll take that drive shaft and put it on the left side... if they're interchangeable. I'm also not sure if the axle's would have a "preference" for side (due to natural wear & tear). 2. I didn't check the size of that new drive shaft, compared to the old one... they seemed the same size when I put the new one in. If the new shaft had been slightly shorter or longer, would that be causing the clicking? P.S.: The hood release broke off, too... add that to my list

I ended up knocking my axle out of the housing with a good 3 lbs. hammer and a short piece of 2x4... it came out surprisingly easily, too. Getting it back in wasn't so fun... I ended up using a hefty screwdriver, the castle nut, and a few washer to pry it back in, just like Ed said. That worked for a while, until I was forced to put the hub/rotor rump roast'y back in to get enough leverage (once again, like Ed said... I'm seein' a pattern here ). Broke the screwdriver doin' it, though... To get the drive shaft off the stub, I ended up pulling the lower bolt from the sway bar attach point, along with the bolt holding the "upper" end of the lower control arm. That gave the housing enough play for me to remove the shaft. Here's one for Ed ... without his tips & hints, I'd have gave up.

I ended up knocking my axle out of the housing with a good 3 lbs. hammer and a short piece of 2x4... it came out surprisingly easily, too. Getting it back in wasn't so fun... I ended up using a hefty screwdriver, the castle nut, and a few washer to pry it back in, just like Ed said. That worked for a while, until I was forced to put the hub/rotor rump roast'y back in to get enough leverage (once again, like Ed said... I'm seein' a pattern here ). Broke the screwdriver doin' it, though... To get the drive shaft off the stub, I ended up pulling the lower bolt from the sway bar attach point, along with the bolt holding the "upper" end of the lower control arm. That gave the housing enough play for me to remove the shaft. Here's one for Ed ... without his tips & hints, I'd have gave up.

I'm originally from Elmira, NY... but I'm up here in Albany for the time being. I might be around the area the week after Sept. 19th, though. It's not like it's that far away... only a three & a half hour drive or so.