idosubaru

subaru transmissions are cheap, reliable and easy enough to find that rebuild prices aren't worth it to most people. it can be done and has been done though. i'd buy 4 used ones before i pay for a rebuild.

awesome, nice hit! the internals are all EA82 stuff - pistons, rings, bearings, HLA's, rocker arms, valves, springs, all identical to EA82. outside of the engine just about everything else is different than the EA82. the first step is to reseal the oil pump. unlike the EA82 the ER27 only has 2 parts to this - the oil pump shaft seal and the mickey mouse oil pump to engine block "gasket". they call it a gasket eventhough it's o-ring type material. if that doesn't do it then you likely need a new oil pump. try some gear oil concoctions in the trans for the shifting, that may help. heck, just changing the gear oil may help. check and change the oil as often as you can. infrequent changes do bad things to the HLA's. tons of info on the XT forums, you'll want to join there i think. good luck and see you around here and there hopefully.

what you want to do on the 1995 is keep your 1995 ECU and find out how the ECU knows it's an automatic or manual trans vehicle. you probably know that in 1995 the automatics had EGR and the manuals did not. but Subaru was smart and the ECU's are identical between the two, so the 1995 ECU can distinguish between the two and will "ignore" the EGR for the manual trans equipped EJ22's. right now it still thinks it's an automatic. find out which pin is the manual trans designator for the ECU and appropriately ground or remove it (not sure which way it works). the XT6 is the same way....ECU's are completely interchangeable as the ECU "senses" which transmission it has based on one pin. you just need to backwards engineer it to "think" it's seeing a manual trans equipped vehicle. i hope this thread turns constructive for you because i'm looking to do the same thing. at some point i'll take a look at the FSM's, but i can't now.

if you got the seals replaced, the rest is rather easy. sounds like you're making great progress!

GREAT morning laugh! that was awesome and is the same method that i use. it is possible to get it "too tight"...i mean theoretically any bolt can be torqued past spec. but i never use a torque wrench and have done dozens successfully. if you don't have air tools, a 3/4" socket set is the proper tool for this job. i've seen three 1/2" socket wrenches and a breaker bar shatter on axle nuts. finally upgraded to 3/4", much nicer not breaking tools.

EA82's were good motors (notice past tense), capable of high mileage. but finding one in good condition, original owner, that's had all the maintenance done on time is almost impossible. most have seen compromised cooling systems (meaning they've been overheated at least once prior due to leaks, hoses, t-stat, radiator, etc..), are 20 years old, and not far from a failure. all things equal the EA82 is more reliable...but "all things equal" isn't possible 20 years later, so like Chux said an EJ25 will beat an EA82 hands down in today's world. and you get real power, decent mileage, nice trim levels, options, significant safety improvements...etc. not counting the drive train it's almost pointless for me (or friends/family) to buy an EA82. but the OP isn't really considering anything remotely close to EA82 stuff.

good point, i drive two of mine without power steering, they are power steering racks with the pump removed. i have some nasty switch backs every day to traverse over a couple mountains and some in town driving. but mine are also automatics, i wouldn't want to drive a manual the way i have to drive these. handling a cell or mcdonalds is indeed more difficult! doesn't really bother me but i can see where it is annoying and unsafe to a degree in certain situations, the wheels wants to fight you and go where you don't want it. i won't let my wife drive them that way. others have told me the manual racks are much nicer than a power steering rack with the pump removed...so i was assuming if i tolerate the worst case scenario the manual rack might not be too bad.

really? you're sure about that? i thought i asked in another thread a couple months ago and it was mostly suggested it wasn't possible though maybe a person or two said it might work.

i'm wondering if NAPA has finally updated their computers so that ordering a 6 cylinder XT6 disty cap actually gets you a cap with 6 ignition plugs instead of 4. like others, i haven't really gone back since due to prices being consistently higher. if i want quality or dont mind the additional expense i go with subaru.

at the bottom of this page is a "similar threads" list. read through those, there is some interesting information there and GD mentions having a Lincoln Locker installed in his.

i thought chux would know details on that 4.44 stuff. aren't there some clutch type units out there? i thought i saw some when i was looking but also saw too many issues with them. reliability isn't worth sacrificing particularly for something that labor intensive that i don't necessarily need. but if i could find a clutch type that's reliable i'd get it. never heard of lockers on a soob. i emailed one company and they never wrote back (probably still laughing!).

is that comparing an 82 wagon to a 2000 Legacy? might want to explain what you mean by that, there are no 1980's vehicles that can compete with the reliability or maintenance time of a 2000+ vehicle.

used is a good option for subaru steering racks. they fail so rarely in Subaru's that i would feel completely comfortable swapping in a used one...even on 1980's subaru's. actually i did my XT6 last year, just installed a used one. but you've already ordered one so no big deal. as for the PCV - they remained largely unchanged from the late 80's all the way through the 90's. EA, ER, and EJ PCV valves are the same. so that leads me to believe that maybe there's a difference between the EZ30 and EJ25 engines. sounds like you may have gotten an EZ30 PCV valve instead of an EJ25? or the EJ25 PCV valve is indeed different than earlier years and they sent the wrong one. but you didn't mention which motor you have so i'm really speculating in multiple fronts here.

yep, sure is. the later motors though do incur changes and differences, so it might not be quite that simple dropping a 2000 into a 1998.

like GD said, there's just no reason to bypass it other than leaking really. i woudln't spend much time trying to diagnose it, but if you come up with something simple i guess access is already granted since the hoses aren't connected. still sounds annoying trying to keep it air tight on both sides to test.

i never called the EJ25 unreliable. misleading to some, not to others. let him decide, if he wants to know the EJ25 weakness he can ask or search.

yep, that works fine if you have the equipment (buckets!) and set up to do it. i believe the trans holds roughly 10 quarts, so have a bit more than that just to be safe.

so you drained the front diff gear oil but filled through the ATF hole? so the front diff is completely empty and the ATF is overfilled? check the front diff level and fill with gear oil, i use synthetic. it's about one quart to fill it up. drain the ATF and refill, like you already tried to do. i'd do it a couple of times actually, one drain only gets 1/3 of the fluid out, so you need to do a few in order to get mostly new fluid in there.

sorry. the EJ25's aren't garbage. i'm a fan of subaru's because of their reliability so the EJ25 is not a good fit for me. i'd rather tell someone and have them blow me off than not tell them and they're stuck with a $1,500 repair that wouldn't be needed with a different vehicle. good call that later is lesser. the late 80's stuff has the locking center diff too and rear clutch type LSD verses the VLSD's - much nicer for off road...or at least mud and snow. i don't know jack about trail riding or rock climbing.

i would check and see how hard it would be to install the DOHC engine harness onto the SOHC intake manifold. that might be simple. the issue would be with the cam, the sensors are likely different. if the cam sprockets are identical in shape and fitment then you can just swap cams...i know you can do this with other engines, but being the DOHC to SOHC swap that gets tricky. on some engines you can retain the cam sprocket that was originally in the car.....but with different number of cams that sounds complex. but i'd look at them at least. it might be that that cam sprocket where the sensor is, is the only one that needs replaced, since it should have the proper pick up marks on the back of it that tell the sensor it's position. that's what the ECU needs, the proper signal. so the DOHC cam sprockets installed on the SOHC engine...dropped back into the DOHC vehicle.

magnecor are the only suitable alternative wires but probably not wanted for a 200,000+ mile vehicle. magnecor is all i use - on EJ motors. excellent wires and they never need replaced. as for Subaru wires just look for threads on all the online subaru dealers, there's multiple threads about those. subarugenuineparts and liberty subaru are two others. stick with the stock NGK plug. look it up online, owners manual or the parts store will tell you which is stock. there's a lot of possible maintenance items on a 200,000 mile car. definitely inspect axle boots, ball joints and tie rods. at least look for cracks in the boots on all of those. likely one is bad. thermostat, radiator cap and battery cable end links are excellent items to replace. brakes also come to mind. the caliper pins should be cleaned and greased and fluid could probably use replacing. coolant could likely use replacing and possibly flushing the radiator too if you'd like to keep it for some time.

the car ran and drove fine before the change? if you drain the ATF and then pour in the right amount that shouldn't affect anything. are you sure you didn't confuse the front diff and ATF fluids? the automatic transmissions have two drain plugs and two dipsticks - one for the front diff gear oil and one for the automatic transmission fluid. maybe you confused them...drained one but filled the other or the other way around?

i just loosen them before removing the old timing belt. taking care to make sure the cam doesn't slip in the timing belt teeth. the problem here is you want to reuse that timing belt, so putting stress on it might not be ideal. if you pull the valve covers there's a flat spot on the cams that a wrench can fit on to hold them in place as well. but who wants to do all that?

could you keep the toyota for wheeling and have a subaru for daily driving duties? that would make more sense. seems strange to want the worst gas mileage and most capable off road vehicle for daily driving and use the other for off road, but i'm sure you have your reasons. most likely any late model subaru you want will have the EJ25 which has head gasket issues. the 2000+ are nice since they only leak externally and not nearly as likely to leave you stranded as the 1999 and earlier ones. they also have more piston slap and bearing failure. EJ22's are better but you likely won't want any of the vehicles that came in.

any EA82 or EA82T manual rack will swap. i've run a few soobs without power steering pumps and the difference is negligible. so if you decide to keep the power steering you won't be loosing anything except forearm strength!