idosubaru

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.

are you sure the rear air struts are bad? i'd bet they aren't. if both are deflated it could be something else. it could be a 50 cent o-ring. or it could be the computer or something else. if you're sure the air bag is leaking you can blow tire sealant in the air strut to seal the leaky bag. the front is easy, just blow it in the top...not sure how to get to the rears to do that though. replacement with regular (non-air) struts is the best option by far. the air suspension is expensive and difficult to troubleshoot if you're not doing it yourself and have a horde of extra parts. if you want to trouble shoot - at the drivers side front strut top in the engine bay should be a long connector (female) that doesn't plug into anything. it's just hanging there by the strut solenoid. facing the end of the connector, each pinout grounds a solenoid. facing it from left to right on the top row is: Front Passengers Side, Front Drivers Side, Rear Passengers Side and Rear Drivers Side. if you ground each of these pins (just run a wire from negative battery to the pin, that's it) you should hear a click at each strut. that's the solenoid clicking. anyone that doesn't click means it's not working and needs to be replaced. the rear passengers side is hard to hear yourself while grounding it on the opposite side of the car so listen carefully. i'd be comfortable with using a used air strut assuming it's in decent shape and cheap. inspect the bag and make sure there isn't significant rust where the air bag meets the bottom strut support. the metal rusts and rubs on the air bag. the internal height sensor can fail, but that is rare so if the bags good i'd go for it.

i do 3 drain and refills as well. one drain will only get half or less of the ATF out. install a transmission cooler while you're thinking about the trans. a well spent $30.

you're positive it's HLA noise and not something else...fuel injector? how long have you been running synthetic? if it's not horrible i'd probably run with clean synthetic and frequent oil changes for awhile and see how it gets. some ATF or seafoam may help if nothing else does. oil pump ever been resealed? that may or may not help.

that's your problem, you let minor things get in the way of progress!!!!!! you'll get large fines and tickets, but they let you off when you get to court and knock the fines down to nothing. sometimes they even let you go.

socket wrench with a hammer. pound that handle hard and it works like an air impact wrench. if the starter is still in place you could give it 12 volts if you can get a battery to the car. put the socket on the crank pulley and rest it against something solid. bump the starter and that'll knock it loose as well. you won't have one but a long crow bar or digging bar placed between the lug studs will keep the wheels from spinning. a similar item, but thin, can be wedged through the rear ujoints to keep the rear output shaft from spinning.

buy the generic $3 bag of o-rings like he said. it'll have the ones you need. be sure to oil them before installing, don't install them dry. not sure what you should oil it with...preferrably lubricant from the a/c system, but maybe motor oil, brake fluid may also work. while the system is open, replace at least both compressor fittings and any other fittings you can easily get to (condensor/receiver/drier)

buy the generic $3 bag of o-rings like he said. it'll have the ones you need. be sure to oil them before installing, don't install them dry. not sure what you should oil it with...preferrably lubricant from the a/c system, but maybe motor oil, brake fluid may also work. while the system is open, replace at least both compressor fittings and any other fittings you can easily get to (condensor/receiver/drier)

thanks guys. i'll check to see if the latch works. i'll bet mine is spring related, i don't recall it having much spring to it...but didn't really pay attention either as mine have always worked.

that is a great tire size tool, i've used it many times. i agree with the larger tire sizes as well. i've used larger tires that should have had a %6 increase but noticed only a %3 difference in odometer inaccuracy. so it must have been around %3 low.

how did you know it was a broken cable and where did it break? the latch at the cap seems to work...it holds the door shut but won't release it. it pries open like you said.

post this in the off road forum, they may know better. use an on-line tire size calculator to figure out total diameter and compare to what some other guys are running (they probably have 15" or 16" wheels). but there aren't many outback XT offroaders so info may be limited. some vendors (Allied Armament) have made lift kits for some EJ models so they may know as well how big you can go on a stock setup. the search function might be your best bet on this...