idosubaru

good guess, the FSM shows a spindle just like you said. looks very simple indeed. those are easier to replace than the AWD units? i'll be like my old school 60's vehicle buddy, replacing bearings with every brake job! :lol:

impreza verses legacy is going to come down to personal preference. i prefer the ground clearnance of the legacy/OBW's, but the impreza's do drive and handle really nice....naturally since they're lower to the ground. legacy's tend to get nicer stuff too....options, accessories, etc, just depends what you like. i wanted VDC and side impact air bags, and the larger capacity due to kids, only available in the legacy's for what i was looking for. if space is ever going to be a concern due to kids, traveling, outdoors, equipment, work, etc, get the OBW if it's larger. Plan ahead. People often buy something and then a year or two later realize the extra space would have been nice. in general i'd lean towards larger if you use you have any life situations that are nice to have space for. for the most part subaru doesn't change much so the engine and transmissions in the legacy's and impreza's are identical unless you get an H6 or the STi Turbo with DCCD, etc. so that imp and leg will have the same engine and trans...and lots of other interchangeable suspension bits too, so relaibility wise they're about the same. 2005 is thrown around as the year that headgaskets shouldn't be an issue but there are a handful of reported headgaskets issues so far. hard to say, many just get fixed because they're so new, under warranty, valuable, so it's not "seen" as much until they start to age. hard to say if those are anomaly's or indicative of anything. subaru's extended 100,000 mile headgasket warranty was applicable to 2000-2004 2.5 liters. a friend of mine is looking at a 2003 OBW with an H6 for $9,200, i might go look at it with him with 75,000 miles. nicer vehicle and engine in my opinion, he's leaning towards and H6. cars101.com has all sorts of good information to compare models and options.

copy that. i have no clue what to look for but i can take pic's. another thought is that the next hub i could get from a FWD vehicle. those are probably less prone to failure, no worries about bashing an axle out when they remove it, and bearings are easier to replace maybe?

not that i'm aware of. don't see any signs of repair. one owner, great shape, blown front diff, guy sold it cheap and seemed to recount most major things about it. he could have missed something. i just found his email address and asked him, ha ha. we'll see if he responds. Yes to GD - i have one or two of the old hubs. Time is not something I have a lot of, maybe I'll have the shop across the street disassemble them. I have so many failed EJ hubs in my garage hopefully I can tell which came off this LSi? Okay - question, which would you do? 1. have a friend that owns a shop do an alignment on it and pay particular attention to that wheel? Shouldn't they be able to tell if something is off measurement wise...though I had it aligned already. 2. swap the entire rear assembly with lateral, transverse links, and strut.

i wouldn't worry about it. when you do major engine jobs it's fairly often that you'll get a spot of grease, oil, cleaner or something somewhere that burns off on first start up. or prior to the job coolant gets in the exhaust and burns off after the job. or during pulling the engine, power steering fluid or coolant spill into places that burn off later...etc. smoking after pulling an engine or going as far as the head gaskets isn't that strange at all. they generally run poorly, particularly if they have HLA's instead of solid lifters, when first started too.

try radiatorbarn.com, really cheap sometimes. as for retrofitting the neon....or any other radiator, sure tear it up. radiators are fairly simple devices, the differences are all fitment so if you can get it to fit then you're golden. use hoses as adapters - if the outlet is too small, a small hose cut to fit just over the outlet tube will allow a larger hose to slide over it.

not all transmissions were dual range. in addition to GD's list: XT's and Loyale's don't have dual range. RX's were all dual range. curious - why 1980-1989? not 1979? not 1990?

I didn't remove the used knuckles, so don't know. Hard to imagine the only two bad ones I ever got were the two I put on this car. Though anything is possible at this point. Nip: don't think bearing installation is the issue since once new bearings were installed, next two times were an entire used knuckle assembly.

Had an alignment earlier this year. It appears to be relatively even wear across the tire.

i agree, bizarre. i've done enough hub swaps and bearing jobs that i'm fairly certain it's not anything like that. as for an entire set up that's a great idea. problem is we don't really have any decent pull it yourself yards close enough and most stuff is rusted to 1*!&!@*@* so getting it off with carry in tools is a gamble. i'll call some yards and see if any can grab me the entire thing. maybe someone parting one out here that can grab me the entire thing. i wonder what the newest rear set up is that i could use? that might reduce the rust issues.

2002 OBW H6 with rear VLSD. Rear passengers side tire is wearing noticeably faster than the rest. No torque bind, no noises, car runs and drives fine. The VLSD units are sealed right so if the LSD if failing fluid change does nothing right?

I'm beginning to think something is wrong. The newly installed hub sounds lnoisey already, particularly on bumps, humps, turns, etc. It's light, but time will tell...but it seems like the other replacements all did the same thing, started making noise almost immediately after replacement - I forgot about that detail. Got vehicle at 120 - replaced first one at 125k. Next one at 142k - so it made it 17,000 miles. Next one at 160k - so it made it 18,000 miles. I'm thinking there's a pattern here. Noise comes back right away and lasts the same mileage twice in a row? So the next question will be what is causing this? One vehicle owner (prior to me), garage kept, no rust. Stock wheels/tire size. No accident that I'm aware of. Knuckle is attached to the strut, lateral link and transverse link, seems like it should be one of those right? I had it aligned a year or two ago and while I don't have the numbers or anything they said it aligned just fine.

no and no. i mean there might be some minute variance in length but legacy, impreza, forester, OBW, WRX..etc axles are all interchangeable all day long so if there's a difference it's small.

what's impressive is a Ford Exploder with that many miles on it. Salesman....has something to gain....claiming that many miles on a Ford....that's not an inline six....i'm calling BS on the salesman. :lol: Guy I used to live with had a honda accord for like a decade and gobs of miles. He went over 30,000 miles without changing regular dino oil. There's plenty of stories like that, I don't think it points to the efficacy of the methods. Some people value incidental experiences, and that's cool not everyone needs to be numbers driven, but they don't show much statistically or quantitatively.

that's no good. how do they dictate fault in a situation like that, i've always wondered how that shakes out? though each state has different fault laws anyway.

given the lack of oil it's not worth fixing. just drop another one in place. as for books, you really only have chiltons, haynes, and Subaru FSM's, that's your only options really. we have the Subaru XT Factory Service Manuals hosted at subaruxt.com for free digitally. The XT was an EA82, though we have the 1988 which were 4EAT - but the trans removal will be identical. just download that and you're good to go. i also have the 1989 EA82 Subaru FSM.

EJ axles won't work in XT6 hubs, you'll need EJ hubs or "make an axle", if that's even possible. i've heard of "axles too long before" in a couple threads before too. someone will probably know more, i can't recall why/what happened.

Torque values for 1996 Legacy FSM: Axle nut: 137 ft-lbs (AWD and FWD) Lateral Link bolt: 101 ft-lbs Trailing link bolt: 72-94 ft-lbs Pretty sure I did this, but it does says to torque the axle nut with the wheel removed:

well, i don't recall but i bet you're right. probably something like "man i'm making sure this thing is GOOD AND TIGHT to make sure i don't loose this one....grrrrr...errrrrrrr."

you sound certain it's a transmission issue. it's not possibly a wheel bearing or something else, though on 2WD i can't think of anything else to be confused with it? you checked the fluid level? that car is capable of some really high miles, i'm surprised you're having this issue. definitely worth swapping another trans in. i'd recommend an ebay timing belt kit next time you're into the timing belt. all new pulleys and belt for only $60-$80. can't beat it and you get rid of all those old pulleys and bearings. i doubt lakeside is anywhere near me but i have a 2WD legacy MT.

yeah, just with a disassembled rear CV cup in place as a holder.

GD - it is an EJ18, does that answer the hard driving question? nah, i don't do hard cornering. i mean we have really twisty mountain roads here that are pretty terrible so the suspension gets a work out, but i don't push the limits by any means. well blow me down, i hope i did overtighten it.....twice? hard to imagine i deformed two different hubs, but worth the torque wrench yet again. junk is probably too strong. i've replaced more EJ bearings in my short EJ experience compared to the much longer older generation experience where i've never had to replace a bearing. no matter, they're really not that big of a deal, they don't leave you stranded.

quit calling my arm out of calibration! i've never used a torque wrench on axle nuts. never had a problem before and i've done countless hub swaps, axle swaps, etc. since i have one though i'll put it to use tomorrow for the first time. sounds like a good time to use it. we'll consider this an experiment then - i'm throwing the used hub on there tomorrow and we'll see what happens.

torque bind. MT torque bind happens. there's a number of posts on here of folks having it fixed, sourcing parts, costs, swapping trans, etc. i believe the last EJ trans i sold was because of torque bind. there are fewer manual trans vehicles around in general so that we see less doesn't necessarily mean it's less common in MT's on a percentage basis. though given the amount of AT's we've seen you would guess that. you could try posting in the parts wanted section to see if anyone has one available. someone might have one with a bad front diff or gears but good viscous unit.

I'm on my 4th set of bearings on the rear drivers side of a 96 Legacy that's my daily driver. It's converted to FWD, so no rear axles, just the rear CV cups only. Bad luck or is something causing this? Shop that does the local dealers machine work installed the first bearing. Lasting about 15,000 miles so I...... Installed an entire used knuckle complete assembly....which lasted about 10,000 miles so I.... have another complete knuckle assembly to install tomorrow. Is that just bad luck? Could something *cause* bearing failures besides the obvious like compromised seals and Subaru's terrible newer gen bearings? Like a bad strut or the control arms bent? I see nothing obvious back there and the alignment shop said nothing when I had it aligned a year or two ago.