GeneralDisorder

The fuel pressure regulator is mechanical. The ECU has no way to sense the pressure. The ECU will only run the fuel pump if it senses a tach signal, durring cranking, and for a short interval when the key is turned to run. You may have a problem with the tach signal to the ECU. Wire colors tend to change as they pass through different portions of the harness. Test for 12v at the wire to the starter solenoid when the switch is in the crank posistion. It should be a thin gauge wire on the body side of the ignition switch connector. I can't recall the pin on the ECU right now, but either someone else will know, or I can look it up. There's also PDF's around on various sites that can help you with that, and other information. Yeah - green for test mode, and black for read memory mode. GD

If it's carbed then there's no vacuum signal to the distributor at idle with the throttle closed. So it really doesn't matter, and shouldn't actually affect your timing settings either way. Disconnecting them really isn't even required because of this. GD

Clean the grounds, and keep running D-Check's and fixing what it reports. CLEAN the IAC. Just soak it in carb cleaner overnight without the solenoid attached. And make sure the lines going to the IAC are clean and not blocked. Your issue sounds IAC realated to me. The IAC doesn't really do much when warm, but is very important when cold. GD

CA models in 84 would be computer controlled feedback carbs. Check for an O2 sensor in the exhaust. If you have one then you have a problem - you aren't going to be able to use the diagrams intended for the car because you would need feedback carb and associated components to hook it up ($$$). If you don't, then the car wasn't sold in CA so the diagrams won't work. That first Hitachi looks pretty early. Definately 80 or 81.... might even be an EA71 carb so it could be 70's. It looks to have an external vaccuum operated secondary which is odd, and actually characteristic of EA82 carbs (which this definately isn't). At any rate it's not a model I've specifically worked on so it's got to be older than 82. I can tell for one by the secondary diaphram, and by the style of accelerator pump arm. Both are indicating something far older than your car. I wouldn't worry so much about the older one. I would start hooking up a newer Hitachi - preferably an 84 "49 states" version using the appropriate vacuum diagram. GD

If you use the 5 speed gear linkage, with the 4 speed 4WD shifter, it's just a single cut, and add 1" of length to the 4 speed rod and it will work just like stock. You can't even tell there's a 5 speed in the vehicle, and it's a LOT less work than fitting the 5 speed console's, which neither fit quite right, nor match the rest of the interior color. At any rate that's my preference. The 85 I got from you (still have it!) got the 5 speed last year and still looks bone stock inside. Love the EA82 gear shifter! GD

Sounds like a possible fuel issue to me. Like the pump isn't running immediately after start.... They will all run the engine the same. The differences are not significant to your problem. Flip the parking light switch on top of the column. It's a Subaru thing.... Manuals don't have crank inhibitors. There are no fuses, switches or relays in the crank circuit of a manual transmission EA82. Your ignition switch is likely bad. There is a start signal wire (green with yellow stripe IIRC) that signals a start sequence in the ECU. That may be related to your fueling issue but it's hard to say. Just hooking up a crank button will not signal a start to the ECU. It's hard to say how much that actually matters in practice though. The line should be hot in CRANK only. It's powered by the ignition switch itself. Are all your sensors hooked up? The engine will have a very hard time starting without a MAF, or the CTS..... any codes from the ECU? GD

They forgot to install it, or forgot to replace it. It happens. My co-worker just put bearings in a $45,000 vaccuum pump wrong. Of course it showed up in testing and he fixed it. But he's been doing this for 8 years and this isn't exactly something he's never seen before. There's a LOT of parts in those transaxles, and mixing them up or forgetting one is not only possible, but actually pretty likely if you are in a hurry. If they fix it right, and make it good, then I wouldn't worry about it. GD

Hhhmmmm - that sounds bad...ish. If they had nothing to hide then they should have no problem going over a bill. That's the service manager's job after all.... That sounds much better. I find it's always best to confront situations like this in person. I should have mentioned that. Never call with a complaint about business that was originally conducted in person if you can help it. The phone is very "interrupting" as it MUST be answered - this can easily set people off if they are busy with another customer, project, etc. Be there in person - smile - ask politely for a "moment of their time". This is not demanding of their attention, and will be received much better. If they like you, you are much more likely to walk away with some skin left. "Special" tools are almost never used unless you ARE the dealer or the manufacturer. They are cost prohibitive, and often uneccesary. At work I will often make my own tools. Any good shop will have access to a welder and basic fabrication tools. His comment was probably along those lines. I don't know of any special tools that are required to work on a Subaru transaxle, but I know of a few that are useful. All of them could be made easily though with basic mild steel stock and some skills with a welder. GD

The 2WD gen 1's are completely different. Fitting 4WD to one would not be easy like it is with Gen 2's and 3's. There's part of the frame that crosses in front of where the driveline would need to go so you would essencially have to "remake" the whole floorpan and the driveline tunnel. Gas tank has no provision for a diff, and the frame isn't the same as a 4WD so the diff hanger and associated stuff has no place to bolt to. Really quite a mess actually. GD

Weak cable would be unable to dis-engage the clutch. High release is a sign of a cable that is too tight or (more likely) a worn out clutch disc. I've had "high realease" mostly worn clutch discs last 15 or 20 thousand miles though. It's all in how you drive it. Remove the radiator, pull the engine forward with the tranny jacked up off the cross-member just a little. You can rest the engine in the front of the bay while you change the clutch then push it back together again. Subaru's are one of the easiest clutch replacements out there. GD

Nice body. Sounds like a good solid ride - keep up on the cooling system and watch the oil pressure. GD

Well - here's my analysis (I'm a mechanic): 1. They removed the transmission from the vehicle. That's probably 2 hours of labor right there. 2. Transmission was stuck in gear, so they dissasembled it and found the front diff was chewed out of spec, and (I'm assuming) the "gear and hub assembly" was causing the stuck shifter. The worn R&P might have nothing at all to do with the stuck shifter - it may just be that it was out of spec and needed replacement anyway. Dissasembly, inspection, and quote for parts/labor = another 3 or 4 hours. 3. Parts come in Sat morning. Probably started at 6 or 7 AM on the job. Cleaning, installation of R&P and reassembly of transmission is a good 2 or 3 hours of work. Installation in the car is another couple hours. 4. 11 AM they test drive, and call you to pick it up. That's easily 12 hours of labor. Frankly I'm surprised that's all they charged you for. That's no small job. Splitting the transaxle is a MESS and a half. Now that's assuming they actually are being honest. Ask for the old parts - ALWAYS. And make sure they know you want them back UP FRONT before they ever start work. Get it in writing that they will save all the parts. At my shop (we do commercial and industrial machinery) we save all our "job boxes" with all the old parts for a minimum of 30 days. It's really difficult to tell what went on - you need to speak with the tech that actually performed the work. Don't argue with the supervisor or the service counter people - ask to speak directly with the tech - ask for the old parts, and ask for an exact explanation of the procedures performed, and the analysis of what happened and his thoughts on the causes of the problems. Don't be rude, don't act like you think they are ripping you off - be curious, take notes, and come back here with the results of your query. Get the old parts if you can - take detailed pictures of them and post here for us to see. GD

Yeah - and they seem to be the same part as far as I can tell. That's a good price. If he's going to do those, and he's still listening, he should definately take you up on that. I just never have enough stuff to make the shipping worth ordering from thepartsbin.com.... but I also have a dealership that gives me wholesale on anything I want. GD

I agree with that statement to a point. The point at which you have enough money to buy a newer car..... It's a very, very fine line. At what point do you say - "gee - I could just buy something with a warantee that's faster, newer, and gets better mileage". That's assuming you only have one car of course. Me - well I'm a glutton for punishment, and I have 6 Subaru's. There's absolutely no way I'm not making it to work and my commute is only 10 miles. The expense required to properly care for these 15+ year old turbo's is pretty outragous really. The mileage the thing gets is horrible, and the parts are rare and expensive. I wouldn't have taken it on if not for the amount of money and effort already put into it by SoobGoob - it would have been a pity to see it all for nought. He put in a new low mileage engine (resealed with new HG's, etc), fuel pump, turbo-back stainless exhaust, O2 sensor, and lots of other little bits. Probably spent nearly what the car is worth. Given the amount of time and money already put toward it, it seemed like he should at least get something out of it. So I'm trading him my Legacy wagon and I'm going to DD the turbo. My commute is short so mileage isn't such a concern for me, and he really needs a wagon for skiing as he pointed out above. I'm toying with the idea of an EJ20H conversion and maybe going with my EA81 Hatch as a daily.... Choices, choices! GD

You should start your own thread. Or better yet - use the search. GD

GL's and up are standard with tilt. That includes RX's. Only DL's and STD hatch's didn't have it. GD

If the belt covers aren't on I don't pull the radiator. If they are I do as I don't want to either destroy my knuckles, or damage the radiator in removing the crank pulley - neither of which is very much fun. GD

I've always just centered it up with my eyeball and torqued the bolts down. Once they are torqued it's not going anywhere. If you torqued it off to one side of the bolt holes then I could see the potential for some knocking action..... Using some bushings would be easy too - just fit them to the bolts and drill the flywheel to the OD of the bushings. Or you could pull out the rear main seal and tap the crank out to the larger EA82 bolts. There's definately options. GD

Affirmative - listings I have show the same part up till 2002 for basically every Subaru. GD

The interesting thing is that the PCV valve I think is the same as your Gen 1's.... One of those weird parts that hasn't really changed.... ever. GD

Very useful! Even for folks that have photoshop. I wrote a similar tool for my Mother a number of years ago that allowed her to select a bunch of pictures and make a "compound strip image" for use on ebay. It both resized them, and merged them into a vertical strip so she could avoid paying for multiple images in her auctions. I probably have the code for it around here somewhere..... I like this one though for it's explorer plug-in style interface. An excelent find and I thank you Skip! GD

Centering isn't neccesary. The carrier bearing is a CV bearing. It will operate at any angle (within reason), and so it is not required to have it perfectly centered. I held mine in place with a jack stand and some shims while I fabbed some brackets from scrap steel. Not even a hint of vibration on my Brat. Peel back the carpet and pad where you are going to weld to avoid starting a fire like I did EA82 flywheels don't have the bevel on the front (engine side) that the EA81's do on the outside edge. For this reason it is neccesary to do some slight grinding on the bottom of the EA81 bell-housing to clear the extra metal on the EA82 flywheel. They also have slightly larger bolt-holes for mounting to the crank. Not enough to matter because the centering hub on the crank is the same size for both, but when all the bolts are in place the EA82 flywheel will turn ever so slightly till the bolts are tightened down. Many folks have used them without issue including myself. You can also make or buy bushings to fill up the holes with if you so choose. It's not needed though. GD

That's typical. It's probably in need of a new sending unit. They are about $40 from the dealer. The stock sending unit is 22 years old at this point and wants replaceing. Test the oil pressure with a known good mechanical guage. I like to see 20+ at hot idle. If I see less than 15 at hot idle it's time for a new oil pump. Sometimes replacing the seals will do it, but it sounds like that has already been done. Haynes manual is correct, Chiltons is wrong.... IIRC. I've used the Haynes many times back when I was still unfamilair with the procedure. Never led me astray too far. As a general rule I prefer Haynes over Chiltons anyday. Pull the radiator. Engine stays in place. Do the cam seals, water pump, timing belts, and tensioners/idlers at the same time. If it were me I would replace the oil pump with a new one. His assertion of the timing having "jumped" is BS. The ticking is the hydraulic valve lash adjusters and it's almost certainly related to his oil pump seal replacement. The lifters are getting air in the oil supply. Many things can cause this, and if I had the timing belts off already I would be pulling the cam towers and replaceing the metal-reinforced o-ring for the cam tower oil supply galley. These tend to fail, and being an 85 it certainly has the non-reinforced o-rings used prior to the change unless they have been replaced. Get them from the dealer, or thepartsbin.com. There's a procedure in the Ultimate Subaru Repair Manual (USRM). Check the links on the main page. No special tools are required. If you are doing the cam tower o-rings then get a 10mm ratching wrench. Makes removing the valve covers a lot easier. Right on Doug. Looks like you are relatively close to me. PM me if you need more help. The EA82 is quirky, so don't get too frustrated right away. It's not like other engines. You can leave the timing belt covers off as long as the splash guards and skid plate are in place. They are more trouble than they are worth. Do a search for threads on this debate if you want to know more. GD

I think you missed a member we once had that was banned for...... being a mental case. That was a "joke" intended to poke fun at the ignorance of said member. GD

Yep - imagine the frustration of buying 20 year old cars where the vac lines have been worked on by every shop in the county..... Oh wait.... you own one don't ya? :-p The FSM's show where the orifices go and I'm sure your local dealer could order them. If they are really nice they might even photo-copy the vacuum diagram for you. I know my friendly dealer will. Although YMMV on dealership "niceness" :-\. Parts of the country other than the left coast are prone to less-than-stellar assistance with anything older than 2000. GD