idosubaru

with the exception of the SVX (and arguably the old school 3AT) subaru auto transmissions are very reliable and not prone to many problems. except torque bind of course and that's reasonably addressable in most cases. i've had very few problems with my now approaching 20 year old auto transmissions in my XT6's. i've only replaced one with 150,000 miles and it took a beating from me before i knew much about cars. all in all, subaru auto trans seem fairly solid...for an auto trans of course!

i think a transmission cooler is far more valuable than what type of ATF to use. some transmission shops install after market trans coolers on rebuilds as standard practice because they are that effective at preventing trans damage. of course they get to bypass the weak and unknown condition radiator that way too. consider an aftermarket trans cooler. any type of off road or towing, heavy load usage should definitely get a trans cooler.

zillions of threads and details covering this. very easy job to do, sounds like you'll have no problems doing it. tons of tips here on getting the crank pulley out. remove the fans and you'll have plenty of room for a socket wrench. and yes, you are wise to go ahead and replace it. pay attention to the pulleys while you're in there. make sure they are solid, not noisey and don't free wheel too easily. you're not going back in for another 100,000 miles, it's asking a good bit to count on all those pulleys lasting 200,000. replace the water pump for the same reason.

looks great. excellent job. did you rebuild the block or use a used one? did you paint the block for any reason other than cosmetics? the EA81 cams are internally driven by a crank gear, is that how it works?

do not let it overheat. the radiator, hoses, clamps, thermostat, radiator caps....if they haven't been replaced they can easily cause overheating at some point. overheating is not a good thing. if you keep coolant and fresh oil flowing to the block they wont' see significant wear.

same here on 20 year old 80's subaru's. still rolling with original shims and clips. pad slap them and away you go. i've seen very few brake issues with subaru's. none of the 12 or so that i've put significant miles on have made any noise.

i've run them in FWD for a long time. it was a long time ago but i'd say 6 months to a year and 10,000 or more miles off the top of my head. done it on automatics and manuals with no problems. for long term i remove the driveshaft, don't know if that matters but i figure that's no load on that output shaft. yours probably has the screen type filter if it's a pre-1998 model. you might want to skip replacing that, i wouldn't do it. those things don't require replacing and they are just catch screens like in your oil sump pick up tube and fuel pump sock, they are never replaced. ive replaced them but they're never even remotely dirty and are a pain..particularly when the gasket leaks afterwards which is usually the case! you can have my impreza parts car with manual trans for $200!

why do all that work if you're planning a swap anyway? change the fluid or run it in FWD until you have the swap ready to go.

the old one isn't reusable at all? put a post in the parts wanted forum. find out which heads are interchangeable, you don't have to have a 2002 as the 2.5's are indentical across a wide range. pick up a used head and have it rebuilt. i know an excellent aluminum head speciliast in eldersburg, MD that i take all my heads too.

cab, i like that idea as i want to be driving this one now. i can reinstall later. i'm going to try one other compressor (since nothing airs up even when i power the compressor and solenoid). after that the coil overs are going in.

i'd read the packaging of the adapter you plan on using, it should state the capacity. i personally would not tie it down, but that's just me. or tie it "up" i should say. i guess it would take off a few pounds, but i don't think it would matter. i don't think at 180 it's fine and at 205 it fails. there's surely a huge safety margin implied if they say 200 pounds.

it will work, but i'd suggest better quality. i'd wear safety goggles when using it. pay particular attention to the center bolt and nut that the cable holder rotates on. these comes loose very easily and very quickly. i'd tighten it before every use. they are cheap for a reason but they do work. like i said, wear safety goggles please it's not worth it. when that cheap thing is under a couple thousand pounds of tension you don't want to take chances being only a couple feet from it (or let your friends do it and tell them you have to "steer"...just kidding). i'd be particularly worried if it's burried, flat tires and will require alot of force to roll...but again it will work. ask some friends....farmers always have good come along they'll let you borrow. i've used come-a-longs plenty of times, they work great. they also work nicely for pulling some bumpers, body panels, etc if you need to straighten things out.

EDIT - sorry, i didn't see that you're actually using a bike rack for a dirt bike. i thought you were talking about a trailer. it'll carry fine. the more you plan on doing this, the more i'd want to have quality parts and have the bike be as light as possible. if you're using a trailer, the tongue weight should still be fairly light, it won't be the entire weight of your dirtbike. the wheels of the trailer will carry the majority of the weight. tongue weight is the weight that is transferred to the tongue of the trailer, not the entire weight of the trailer+bike. most of the weight actually is held by the wheels/axle of the trailer depending on it's design and how you load it. load the bike as close to the center of the axle as you can get it and strap it down there, that will positively put almost the entire weight of the bike on the axle and not the tongue. i know guys towing motorcycles on their old school subaru's with no issues, so i wouldn't even think about it if i were you. i have a hitch to install on mine and i'd definitely tow what you're talking about.

airing up the tires will help just about anyway you load it. have a good battery and jumper cables if the battery in the car is questionable. run those to the starter (or battery cables if they are present and good). if it's a manual transmission vehicle you can put it in gear, take the emergency brake off and use the starter to move the vehicle. this works great. if that doesn't work use a good quality come-a-long to ratchet it along. done it plenty of times loading a car onto my dolly. very easy and doesn't take long at all. this will work every time.

i swapped in a new passengers side air strut and also jacked the car up to get it going and nothing happened. the original front p/s strut would not separate at all...it was like it was "stuck" in the deflated position, probably sat that way too long. so i swapped it out and still nothing. can't decide whether to work on it any more or just convert to coil overs. i don't really want to convert at all but right now time is critical. i energized the struts and solenoids and they really wouldn't pump up at all, so i'm thinking maybe the compressor isn't putting out enough. it worked fine on the XT6 that i pulled it from (it was my daily driver) 6 months ago so i was confident it was good. but maybe not. unless i figure something out i'm converting to coil overs...and hopefully i'll convert back one day because i like the air suspension.

are you absolutely sure those seals were leaking? that is very odd for them to leak. i was told that removing the plate that holds the seals in is a very bad idea. i believe that plate holds some pinion shaft or some other critical part in place inside the front differential and is very tricky to get properly aligned. at least this is what i was told by a very reputable moderator of another subaru group when i was contemplating replacing mine as "prevenatative maintenance". obviously i didn't go through with it. you said "seals", "stubs" and "discs" like he messed with both sides. i find that VERY strange and highly unlikely that both sides were leaking. the most common cause of the smell at your mileage would be busted CV joints. grease splattering on hot parts.

a battery side protector is my guess.

ha ha. they don't blow into a zillion pieces with the axle flopping around like the BRAND NEW one did that i installed? only one i ever had break was brand new.

the front did expel a tiny bit of air when i pulled the line, but not much at all, very little. leak checking coming....

the drivers side struts will both air up and hold air if i ground the compressor (turn it on) and the solenoids. compressor came off my previous daily driver which had a perfectly working air suspension in it (parting it out due to rust). and it airs up the drivers side, so compressor should be fine. the passengers side solenoids will click open and closed, but when i turn the compressor on they won't air up like the drivers side will. i'm wondering if anyone knows what could be "common" between the two passengers side struts? seems too ironic that both struts would be bad? but i have those to swap if i have too. thanks nip!

never felt that, but they will also start clicking while driving straight as that's what mine do when i drive them forever broken.

do the newer ones have a screen and filter, or just the filter now? thought that was odd they added them too since the old 4EAT's are decent auto transmissions to begin with the. the first ones that came out are quite reliable.

very common problem. they will last a long time like that, so no worries about failure. i've put 50,000 miles on front clicking cv joints. i say that so you know you got time to price around. replace the entire axle that's clicking, not just the boot that's busted. mechanic will charge roughly $150 per axle.

no coil over conversion comments, i have the parts, but i'm not doing it unless time makes me! this is a new to me XT6 i got last week. finally got the AWD automatic i've been looking for.... the compressor runs for 10 minutes then shuts off (by design to prevent overheating). air susp light blinks and no struts air up. installed another computer and the same thing happened, no change. if i ground the compressor (to turn it on) and solenoids for each strut, the drivers side struts air up fine and hold air, but neither passengers side will air up? maybe i just need to jack the passengers side up to get it started? i think i may just swap all 4 air struts from my previous (rusted out) daily driver as i know they are all good. does anyone know how the air tank works?

4EAT's have been around since the late 80's but are not all identical. i'm not positive on the dates....but it doesnt matter just look at your transmission, you can already tell yours has a spin on type. pre-1998 do not have a spin on filter. these are the ones that don't require any filter replacement because there's no filter to replace. change the ATF. there is a screen as nipper said but it's pointless to replace...also as nipper said. 1998 and newer 4EAT's have a spin on that you can change.