Tachometer

Man, if you ever wanted to smuggle diamonds into the country...this would be the way to do it! These little beads...after dried out, become totally transperant. The look like lil round diamonds. Empty 1/2 of 'em out, fill it up with diamonds...drive across the border... Anyone writing a novel? What an idea! LOL

argh! I can't figure this out! Sadly when I took it apart it all popped apart suddenly...so I don't know the order which the things go in

I've taken apart my air dryer for the air suspension to check it out. I noticed that the flow was VERY low through it. I've got the re-assembly pretty much figured out...sorta. Does anyone have a diagram of how it goes back together? There are two little white plastic thingies, a spring, and a round metal gasket of sorts. I've got the plastic thingies and spring sorted out...but not sure where the metal ring goes. Can anyone help?

Well I'm just a Northern Californian girlie man. No snow here...evar. But I did work a lot in the pouring rain...if that makes me more of a man

That is probably true...and I admit, I can be fairly foolish when it comes to DIY tools. At least with the air struts it was fairly easy to deal with. Unscrew the air line going in up top...have someone compress the strut by hand...then screw the air line back in. That keeps the strut compressed. Then pull it out and unscrew the air line once everything is unubstructed. Piece of cake! Air suspension does have some benifits

I was having a real tough time with my air struts up front... It turned out the key was to unbolt the swaybar...I could lower the wheel assembly enough to get it out that way. But you probably have coilovers and may need to compress the spring. When I would do that with my 2.5RS I used tie down straps to compress the spring. Came right out.

It took me forever to do because of damn work. Holiday season kicked my rump roast. I'd race home from work (when I got off early) to get that 30 minute to one hour of daylight to wrench. It was really frustrating. But now...3 days in a row off. And I got it back on the road on the first day I'm a lazy bastard though, as you saw in OT Copy and paste baby...copy and paste. And speaking of your WA-TX trip...I'm toying with an SF to LA run at the end of this month...but I lack in courage.

Well, after buying the car back in Nov...I finally got it on the road. It's a 1986 GL-10 sedan...140K miles and all mine for $500 After replacing a mountain of air suspension bits (both front struts, computer, solenoids, o-rings, wires, etc), new front headlights, brakes, oil change, air filter, some work on interior lighting, massive interior cleaning (seems like someone may have thrown up all over the gearshifter/ebrake plastic stuff), doing a bit 'o un-dent work on a couple panels and front bumper, spark plugs...damn...I could go on and on... It runs! It starts! It stops! It air suspensions! Yes the idle is a bit rough. The ECS light comes on occasionally when coasting. It does have a minor oil leak. The clutch is slipping a touch. Oil is dripping onto the exhaust and making a bit of stink. The air suspension isn't 100% perfect...yet. But that is pretty much it for problems. But A/C works. Cruise control works. All interior lights work. All exterior lights work. Power windows...power locks...power mirrors...digital dash...clock...all those other silly things...they ALL WORK! Even 4WD is fully functional. I'm so freaking happy! There is still some stuff to be done. But it is no longer "the car in the driveway". It is officially "the car I can drive to work". Hopefully soon it will be "the car I can drive a medium distance without fear" and eventually will be "the car that actually kicks a small amount of rump roast". I think I am going to drive it right now Woot!

I'm sure this has been answered countless times before...but my fingers and brain are cold right now so I'll just ask this again... In order to mount the WRX TD04 into an EA81T you need to... -Rotate the turbo housing 90 deg -use a WRX downpipe (or whatever else uses the same bolt pattern) -??? Is there any trickery required with cooling/oil lines? Or is it really THAT simple? And how about mating the WRX downpipe to the stock exhaust...any tricks with that or is it just bolt on? I've got the downpipe, and have been thinking about this...just haven't pulled any triggers yet.

I'm pretty sure it is the oil pan gasket...which I suppose is good news/bad news. I got underneath the car with some de-greaser...sprayed the living dailylights out of it, and washed it all down...even got in with a rag for the trouble spots (damn that was a messy job). I jacked it up and crawled underneath while it was idling...and watched. I could see it coming out right up near the front of the engine, right along a 2 inch line above the exhaust as it crosses over. Knowing this car I've probably got another leak somewhere else too, and should honestly pull the engine and just do the whole durn thing...damnit. But I really really really don't want to do that. I haven't driven the car since I noticed this leak, so I haven't put a lot of pressure on the system. I "should" have it up and running within a couple days and will give it a more careful look over once it has been up to normal driving pressures. Hopefully it is just the oil pan gasket...but you people are probably right. Thanks for the offer to help rallyruss...I may take you up on that in a bit! Oh yeah...I did unscrew the majority of bolts I could get to, cleaned 'em up, cleaned the pan up...cleaned everything up I could...and put it all back together. Some of those bolts were really loose...I could undo 'em with my fingers. We shall see!

Ugh...after working on the suspension for WEEKS I noticed something else wrong...a leak from the oil pan gasket. It's right up front, right above the crossover pipe from the exhaust. I took a look under there, did some research here and discovered that this isn't a 5 minute job. I've either got to lift the engine or lower that crossmember. Since I don't have a hoist, what is the best way to go about doing this? I suppose I could put the car on jacks to give me room under it, and lift the engine with my jack. But I'm not sure where to jack it from. And if I did lower the crossmember...where should I support the car? With this car I haven't quite figured out the "best" places to put jacks. Damn....I'm sooooo close to getting this thing on the road! Front air suspension = working. Rear still not totally cooperating. Brakes need to be bled. Oil gasket needs replacing. Everything else (fingers crossed) OK! I'm heading off to work, I'll check up here later on when I get back. Thanks in advance!

Don't get me started on intakes and filters!

SUCESS!! Well...to a degree, but still...this is a good sign. From the junkyard I picked up... -pressure sensor (on air tank) -"charge" solenoid (on air tank) -suspension ECU -drivers side strut (in excellent condition) It's annoyingly rainy here so I am not going to swap out the strut right now. But I did pull my pressure sensor and solenoid off the air tank. The solenoid was very clean and nice looking...in better shape than the junkyard piece. The pressure sensor was coated with junk and looked awful. Granted the junkyard one didn't look that much better...but I took the junkyard piece, cleaned it up with some steel wool...and screwed it in. I jumped the car (yeah, battery dead...another thing for the list)...compressor kicks on, car RISES! You heard me...it freaking ROSE! All 4 struts filled up nice and tight, compressor even turned off WITHOUT giving me the dash light malfunction flash. I did notice that I am getting a little air leakage from the connectors (rain all over, everything wet, can see the bubbles)...and eventually the compressor kicked on again to re-fill the tank...but... WOO HOO! A postitive step! Now I just have to source the o-rings, swap out that drivers side strut, and that should be that. Of course there probably is some other issue that'll crop up...but for the time being, I'm a very happy Subaru owner

Well...the junkyard run was pretty successful...so far. I've aquired... -air tank pressure sensor -air tank charge solenoid -suspension ECU -new drivers side strut (in EXCELLENT condition) I'm going to yank the pressure sensor and charge solenoid from my car and compare 'em to the ones I picked up...try swaping ECU's...and pray. I wish I had another damn day off!

Here are two really good PDF docs about the air suspension...this may be what you were refering to... http://endwrench.com/images/pdfs/AirSuspenFall01.pdf http://endwrench.com/images/pdfs/AirSuspSumm01.pdf Unfortunately the '86 is too old to display codes from the ECU without jumping through some hoops. However those hoops may come into play if I can't diagnose this @#$% thing. RedLance...these are all the "extra" things I have. Note: Extra currently, but I may need them eventually...but I doubt it. -(2) air compressors, one without dryer (I took it apart to see how it works...and all the little beads spread over the place. I have the black plastic dryer tank but not the matrix...the other one is complete) -(4) struts. Front Passenger = ripped bag, dead strut. When I go to the junkyard Saturday I'll know which ones are keepers and which ones are extra. The thing is...this car came with the A.S.S (I like that). I would much prefer to keep it that way. Sure coilovers would be easier on the mind and body, but man...it's SO COOL having air struts! I just hope it isn't pouring rain Saturday.

The system "wants" to fill the struts off the tank. The compressor runs when the tank is too low to fill the struts. So yes...you are totally correct. On top of that, the system "shuts down" (ie lights flash on the dash) when there is a fault. If you turn on the car and it flashes instantly...that means a height sensor is returning a reading that is "impossible". To troubleshoot that you disconnect the height sensors one by one until you disconnect the faulty one...at that point the dash won't flash. If, when you start the system, and it runs but nothing happens...it will eventually shut down (after 8-10 minutes) to prevent the motor in the compressor from burning out. Again the dash lights will flash...indiciating that the car did not achieve what the ECU wanted it to do. I had forgotten about that pressure switch. The symptoms here seem to indicate that the pressure switch is the issue. That makes some sense because it would be pretty nuts to have so many different aspects of the system fail instead of having just one part die. It could also be a problem with the solenoid connecting the compressor to the air tank as well. Hmmm...this may be a tough one to find though...We'll find out Saturday. That's why I post these things here...it's refreshing to get another opinion! Thanks for your input.

Well the big problem is I don't know what the Big Problem is. When the car starts the compressor kicks in. When I disconnect the air lines going to the solenoids there is tons of air pressure coming out. But the solenoids are not opening. The compressor runs for about 10 minutes then shuts down, and I get the dash lights flashing indicating an error with the system. So I know the compressor is running. I know air is getting into the system. I'm pretty sure the replacement strut I used on the passenger side is OK (I know the height sensor isn't totally borked 'cause the system activates)...same goes for the height sensors on all 4 corners. But there are a couple other things that could be wrong here... A- Suspension ECU isn't happy B- There is a break in the wiring somewhere C- The height sensors in the struts are out of wack, but functioning to some degree D- Something else that I haven't nailed down yet. The thing I DO know for SURE is that the front two solenoids are not opening. That's either an ECU issue or a wiring issue. I can "force" the solenoids to open by grounding 'em however. What I don't know is the status of the rear struts. Rancho Cordova is an 80 mile drive. I'm just not sure what parts I would need to make it work at this point. Here is a quick list of possible parts... -both rear struts -both front solenoids -suspension ECU (under drivers seat) -air tank solenoid (just to be on the safe side) In theory all those parts combine with the parts I do have SHOULD make it all work. But if there is one thing I've learned about working on cars...is that "should" is horribly inacurate a judgement. Obviously I'm struggling with the decision to swap to "normal" suspension. I can't quite make up my mind here.

Sigh! I knew the answer before I posted. It is a pretty no-brainer decision to make. I've driven this car twice since I bought it, and that was nearly 2 months ago. Oh well. Maybe someday I'll attempt to try it all again. But until then...it appears I'm getting new suspension.

Dagnabit! You are supposed to say "oh no Tachometer, it is a simple system that can easily be made to work." :-p Bleah. Crap. Damnit. I sooooo wanted this thing to work. I'm sure the Subaru Gods understand that and will not punish me for giving up...right? They understand. I hope.

OK...this has been going on a long time now, and is keeping the car off the road. First problem...flashing dash signal, both front struts totally without air. First solution...disconnect height sensor from front passenger, flashing dash signal stops, compressor kicks in. Second problem....front passenger strut height sensor bad, airbag ripped, strut dead. Second solution...replace front passenger strut with used piece, no flashing dash lights, all seems well. Third problem...start car, compressor kicks on. Air getting to both front solenoids (pass and driver), but solenoids NOT opening. Other misc info...pressing "height" button on dash causes a solenoid to activate (I can hear it) but the cars height does not change. ...the status of the rear struts is totally unknown. Ride height seems pretty low back there, and there just isn't enough access to everything easily to tell if all is happy or sad. Summary...Should I just ditch the air stuff? Man...I'd HATE to do it simply because A) I've vested a lot of time and effort (and a decent amount of $$$) and It sure would be cool if I could get it to work. But...I could just yank "normal" struts off another car (my pick and pull nearly always has a donor or two...and it's 1/2 price tomorrow...) That would quickly and easily solve this whole problem, and get the car on the road. Will struts from similar year Subarus just pop right in? This is a 1986 GL-10 5-speed.

The Oakland one seems to change a lot. I went there, found a coupla old school Subaru's...went back 2 weeks later and they were ALL gone. From what I remember of the Japanese area...nearly all the cars had been replaced. I was blown away. Regardless I will be in Oakland Saturday seeing what I can find.

Woot! That's awesome....I've got the 1st off of work too Thanks man.

Nice! I thought it was you! Yeah that intake testing was a blast. Man we really got into that. Good times. I saw someone who rigged up their outside temp sensor into their intake track here. That would have made things a bit easier for sure. My RS is gone now...sold to some 16 year old kid in San Francisco. It's probably...ugh, don't even want to think about what's happened to it. I've got an '86 GL-10 now and loving it. Every time I fix one thing I find something else wrong though. Hopefully I'll catch up sometime soon here. Oddly enough I like this one more than the RS. Sure the RS was pretty, but this one is more "fun" to mess with. Woot! HOLY CARP! That was over 2 years ago? DAMN!

Mmmm...you should get the '00ish 2.5RS style hood too (does your hood have the scoop and the vents, or just the scoop?) to go with that front bumper...give it that STi look. Version 4ish if I recall...perhaps 5. Back in the day I used to know all the STi Version X body styles. When the WRX came to the US...I became bitter and forgot It would be sweet to see an "STi" wagon lifted and running the trails!