idosubaru

after this little escapade that's what i've come to realize, you could leave the harness unplugged and hook up whatever comibination of switches equals 1st or whatever combination of switches equals 2nd..etc. if i am going to drive it for awhile it would be a good idea to power duty solenoid C if i can figure out what kind of voltage it's supposed to be at. anyone think the FWD switch is entirely negated with the trans harness unplugged, that would be the easy way to "disable" the 4WD. i don't have my FSM with me.

that's what i figured but i thought maybe i was missing something. that would make all the difference in the world then, as swapping an axle without a lift is a rather annoying process to be doing every other week. how much lift does it take and would the XT6 be any different than an EA82? sounds like a goal i should keep in mind!

it's 3rd on an XT6.

that sucks, and good point that's not really that cold even. guess you could ask them to torque them properly.

mine does too, i totally dig it and it suites my purposes perfectly. "offroad" means different things to everyone. for myself (and i suppose phil) it's light enough duty offroading that our LSD's are all we need. i don't do trail rides or rock crawling. when i need to drive through snow or up a mountain for hunting i have no problems, but i'm just doing it for purely functional reasons, not as a hobby...so im not pushing the limits like i would imagine the off road guys are. i've always wondered how they pop the rear pins of the axles out of those welded diffs as i have not removed an XT6 rear axle without dropping the rear diff. not sure if that is rust related or geometry related? anyone know?

don't forget to join us at the XT specific forums, you'll love the place...i think: http://subaruxt.com/forum/index.php 2.5" is too big for a non-turbo EA82 for daily driving, as a matter of fact 2.5" is a little big for an XT6 (6 cylinder - but essentially the same engine). i thikn 2.25" is a better bet on the XT6. depends what kind of driving you're doing but using too big of diameter on a non-turbo EA82 (your XT) makes it a slow poke off the line. it's a very slow car to begin with so i wouldn't worry about speed too much, you'll always be unsatisfied with a non-turbo EA82 if you're worried about "high performance", they are so slow. on my XT6 i've run straight pipe, removed the cat, used high performance cats..etc. my favorite set up for all around driving was leaving the stock converter in place and replace the cat-back with new slightly larger pipe and a dynomax mufflers. the dynomax have a perfect sound for me and a few over at the subaruXT forums have used them and liked them as well, they are not loud but are deep. with that setup i had a couple MPG increase in highway gas mileage too with an automatic. those are great sounding and performing mufflers but not for hte cheapskate in you unless you find a used/cheap one.

you shouldn't have any problem swapping the trans and keeping the existing ECU. there are a couple things to address but it's not a big deal. cruise should work fine, that operates off the speed sensor in the instrument cluster. i forget what cruise does when you push in the clutch...but yours might do something funny if you go from auto to manual, like rev up? but that's not a big deal. check engine light issues won't be anything to worry about and the car will drive fine with that ECU with very minor work.

you can interchange ECU's though. you can install an ECU from an automatic into a manual. that's what i was getting at, but i wasn't sure why/what exactly he's asking. so i guess it depends what he's doing?

yep, sure can. leave two (opposite sides) still tightened...loosen and tighten 3 properly, then do the other two. or something like that. i wouldn't loosen them all at the same time, then do it.....although technically it *should* work (i know from experience), i wouldn't recommend it. if it's any consolation i don't think overly tight lug nuts really affects subaru's much at all , at least not most EJ stuff i'm familiar with, i think SVX is a bad one to overtighten though.

i'd fix this as soon as you can and not put it off like i did last year....read on... the plastic speedometer gear might even be more vulnerable. i have a feeling that vibration can lead to destroying the *plastic!!!* speedometer gear in the front diff. that essentially requires transmission replacement..unless you're into rebuilding transmissions. if you've ever read my posts you know i'm known to drive with clicking axles for 50,000 miles. that works fine for the outer joints, but i tried it with a bad inner joint last year and it was vibrating horribly. my speedometer started to fail and then not work at all. ended up being that inner speedo gear in the front diff which luckily enough requires replacing the entire transmission to fix. i am fairly certain that all of that vibration caused that plastic gear to fail.

i was, and could not get them to come up on the online search engines. i searched under "drive axle front" or whatever and they didn't come up? if you end up ordering or looking them up again, post the part number here.

mysterious in what way? with Subaru only axles or MWE you won't have any problems. guess it's lower quality parts or assembly process, they probably try to reuse as many parts as they can rather than replace.

does it matter if he's starting with a 3AT or a 4EAT? probably not since the 3AT is a non-computer operated POS!! i have been speaking of the 4EAT - the ECU's across those are interchangeable from auto to manual. helps to know specifics - what you're doing and year, make, model.

i wasn't able to get it to come up on the online subaru sites. it's not under the front drive axle parts and didn't come up with a search. how did you find it? if it sucks that tells us something, but if it's fine that doesn't tell us much, even the worst axles have some that work fine!

why the sticker? i think often times it's hard to see the "LSD" part due to the rear crossmember being in the way. how about those of us that have them laying in our garage, do you want pictures of those as well, they are much more comfortable to get a picture of! what's the purpose for the pic's?

nice hit! where did you find those? glad it all worked out.

EA82 automatic and manual ECU's are interchangeable...of course other things need to be the same, but transmission doesn't matter. if you're doing a transmission swap there is no need to swap ECU's. there's a pin in the harness that "tells" the ECU if it's an auto or manual...if it has the pin it's one, if it doesn't it's the other. any manual switches should only prevent the car from starting if it's in gear or the clutch isn't pushed in. and automatics can't be started unless they are in the proper gear. it's nothing overly complicated about it. if you tell us what you're trying to do (a trans swap i think?) we can be more specific. i think i've seen some EA82's that have differing features...some need the clutch pushed in, some do not, etc. but maybe they were just broke or my memory is bad!

you need to look for the oil leak, not just replace a few things. it should be really obvious if it's front/back/left/right. obvious leak-prone items you did not mention are front cam seals, front cam oring (drivers side). are you sure you properly sealed the oil pump when you reinstalled it?

yeah that plate helps seal behind the hub. if you can swap those plates you should be fine. i have heard of people knocking off parts of an axle, i am pretty sure that is the tone ring. but you could do some searching here and find those posts to be sure. i just looked it up and someone mentioned they knock the tone ring off, so it does come off which is what you would guess. hopefully getting that plate off and back on won't trouble you too much.

i don't know what yours comes with, but NASIOC has all sorts of brake information. when i was looking to buy a few sets of larger brakes i looked at the NASIOC threads, they have a dedicated brake caliper thread that's a really good read with all sorts of brake specific information for various models, which are larger, etc. i would read that thread.

regurgitating what i've heard/read when i was looking to upgrade: getting higher quality pads and larger calipers/rotors offers better improvements under normal driving than drilled/slotted rotors. most suggest that if you're not racing, towing or experiencing some other kind of high heat braking situations that drilled/slotted rotors offer negligible performance increases. based on those recommendations i've gone with larger calipers/rotors and have not tried drilled/slotted rotors yet.

have you tried replacing or cleaning the AFM? that might get it running properly. i think many will run without the MAF or AFM plugged in.

and auto trannys in some of their neatest vehicles - SVX & SUS

sorry if you're annoyed when i say it's hard and electrical (has come up a few times recently), and i don't mean to over-emphasize that. but it's usually because i'm trying to figure out if this is really someone who can and will do this. if someone is asking good and serious questions i won't do that. i totally agree with getting a wrecked vehicle, piecing together a swap can be a chore....particularly with the kinds of questions the OP is asking.

compression tests are easy enough to do, so it's not a bad idea, though might not be worth paying someone to do it. long answer to follow.... your original issues 25k prior was not head gaskets. if they're blown they can not last that long without any other issues...overheating, loss of coolant, etc. whether or not that original issue is related to the eventual failure i do not know but head gasket issues are so common on these, as is the piston slap, that trying to associate the normally benign piston slap with the much more serious head gasket issue probably won't gain us anything. because you'd never want to suggest to people that piston slap (common but almost always insignificant) may lead to head gasket problems (always significant)....even if the chances are really small, it's just not worth it. compression tests often turn out fine, they are not very good for diagnosing *this type* of head gasket problem. if it was significant enough to show on the compression gauge it would be hard to believe the owner isn't experiencing overheating or coolant loss...again, with this motor in mind.