jonathan909

It's been quiet for a couple of days, so I thought I'd break the silence with a report of what kind of idiot I can be. Now that the holidays are over, everyone's back to work and school, and I can get some quiet time to crank up the stereo and get things done, I'm bolting up the heads on this EJ25D rebuild so maybe I can get the mill back in the car during the Chinook this week. Body count on this timing failure was three slightly bent exhaust valves, otherwise things look good. Having done the left head, I mounted up the right last night just before bed, and first thing this morning torqued it up. For anyone who hasn't done it, it's a procedure, and I still find some Zen focus in it, something I discovered a five or six years ago when I did my first head gasket job on this car, just after I bought it (my first Subaru). I'm normally very task-to-completion driven, but in the middle of torquing one of these heads for the first time, I found I wasn't thinking the way I usually do, rather, I was really enjoying the process. Quite a memorable moment for me. Anyway, in half an hour or so it was all torqued, so I went to the exhaust cam next, since I'm always nervous about falling lifters. But when I put it in place and reached for the cap... its markings were wrong - they were for the intake. So I looked at the cam - intake too. Confusing... I know where I put them just before bolting up the head... there are the exhaust parts.... oh... I'd put the head on upside-down. It's truly amazing, the big things you can miss when you're focusing on little details. We're all used to trying to be the smartest and most helpful we can, but I doubt I'm the only one who has these moments (and I have a few more, some pretty hilarious). Feel free to share.

Thanks - I'll see how it goes and may take you up on that. The problem was that with the engine in the (junkyard) car, there simply wasn't enough room to swing the flare nut wrench - or get a FH (B or otherwise) down there to help. I'm pretty sure the one I have was messed up when I first resorted to the Vise-Grips years ago. Nasty d@mn spot.

One of the nuts on mine is mangled up, so I tried to fetch a replacement from the boneyard. Wasted a lot of time, chewed up my knuckles, and came away empty-handed. A regular flare nut wrench just couldn't cut it. What's the right answer? Does a crowfoot flare nut wrench work any better down there?

Sure - we all have our parameters when it comes to this stuff, and if you're using the tools to make your living it's easier to justify buying primo product. For example, when it comes to electronic pliers, I absolutely won't touch anything but Snap-On because nobody else is even close e.g. I've been using their 710 flush cutters exclusively for nearly 40 years. When there was a (really) good used tool shop in town I bought as many Snap-On, Mac, etc. "mechanic's" hand tools as I could, because they generally charged 1/2 the new price. But if I can't find those deals, I don't have a lot of trouble with solid consumer-grade stuff, esp. Craftsman or others offering free replacement. It's the normal cost vs. quality vs. time calculus, and it constantly varies with application and circumstance.

May not be the "best" way to test an ECM, but the most practical way for mere mortals to do it is to swap in another one and see if anything changes. I take it you're not getting any error codes?

I can't be the only one here who finds that weird. Out here in Calgary we have three self-serve yards - Two Pick-n-Pull and one smaller regional independent. But a few years ago, out in Southern Ontario (where the vast majority of Canada's population is) I couldn't find one to save my life. I'm sure there's a pattern in this, but I sure haven't been able to suss it.

True confession: (Within reasonable financial boundaries,) I'm a total tool queen. I need very little provocation to buy a new tool so that next time that particular problem comes around, I'm strapped. These pass-through sockets (which are as you described) are a good example - I don't mind dropping $50 or so in order to not have to stop what I'm doing and start making tools next time. I'm not a big fan of these "universal" sockets, but given how often I'll use this kit, I think they'll be fine: https://www.channellock.com/product/39100/

I'm still trying to catch up with all y'all wrt what a "quick strut" is. Does that just mean "strut-with-spring assembly"?

In other words, you homebrewed a pass-through socket. You could do it that way. And if your experience was like mine, you'd be doing it twice - once with a 17mm socket and once more with a 21mm.

GD, I heard you and believe you. I'm just keeping my mind open at the moment to the possibility that this faked-up VSS signal is otherwise confusing the ECM and causing some other unpredictable behaviour unrelated to rev-limiting.

Easy enough to confirm with a scope whether in fact the speedo circuit is just doing a simple waveshaping/level shifting without otherwise altering the signal. Unlikely, I think, that it's "random". Random is actually pretty hard to do, and I don't see how it would be useful in this case. More likely that it's variable or adjustable or something that's easy to implement with a 555 timer or similar. You wouldn't happen to have the schematic for it, would you? Might be helpful at some point. And yeah, I'm an electronics geek, mainly embedded systems (like this one). I'll be interested in hearing the outcome of the test with the VSS fed through the speedo.

I specified a self-serve yard because they're a completely different animal than a full-service yard. They're utterly indifferent to the removal of the valve body devaluing the remainder of the tranny. As far as they're concerned, any money they make on any portion of a car is gravy in advance of the rest going to the crusher for metal weight value. I didn't pull that $50 (CDN) figure out of my butt; that's what they actually charge around here: http://www.picknpull.com/part_pricing.aspx?LocationID=76&NavItem=12&SearchCriteria=&#partpricing I'm not going to argue the point further - it's your money, spend it as you wish. I just want you to understand that I'm not blowing smoke here. On the reprogramming part, I don't know, but my guess is that it wouldn't be necessary.

Disclaimer: I know nothing about ATs; the extent of my experience is replacing the 4EAT in my '99 Forester. It was suffering from a neck-snapping 4-3 downshift under power - if you stepped on it for passing, to get power on a hill, etc., it felt like you were being rear-ended at speed. No codes. Xmission repair shop estimated $2400 (a nonstarter). Found a matching transmission in a junkyard car; it had body damage (implying it was mechanically sound when taken off the road), so I took a flyer and spent $130 and an afternoon dropping it. When I bolted it up it worked perfectly. Having said that, if I were in your situation I'd get my butt to a (preferably self-serve) wrecking yard and pull a valve body. Around here they charge $50 for them.

Oh, I get it. You're feeding it a pulse train slower than normal to make the ECM think the car's groundspeed is lower than it is. I can't speculate on what other implications that might have. Any idea what normal is, in Hz/mph or something? What do you think your top end speed should be? [Edit] That's interesting - the xmission's speed sensor output doesn't go straight to the ECM. It gets fed into the speedometer circuit (in the gauge cluster) which in turn feeds the ECM VSS input. That could either just be a wiring "convenience", or the speedo circuit is conditioning that signal somehow. Seems to me the easiest approach to debugging this would be to unplug your VSS hack and put a gauge cluster in to see if it behaves differently.

I really don't know $h!t about $h!t, but I'm kind of curious about this. Assuming that by "We built a circuit to simulate the 5 volt signal on pin 83 to the ECM for the VSS." you mean you built an oscillator that feeds a pulse train to the VSS input, why would you go to all that trouble instead of just connecting the transmission's speed sensor output to it as usual? (I was also briefly confused by this, as "VSS" has a totally different meaning in my world - it's a power supply rail, usually ground.) And is p.81 grounded to tell the ECM that it's connected to a 5MT?

Here's the thing: That's what I found while disassembling the strut - that I was able to get a (cheap) offset onto the stock 17mm nut. However, no way no how was there enough room to get one onto the 21mm nut that the aftermarket shocks came with. That's why I'm getting a pass-through set.

Yup.

To be fair, I've only replaced one pump (out of the six cars I've owned - not thousands!), and it was in the '02 Forester that I rescued from a country junkyard after it'd been sitting there for nine years. Fools hadn't drained the tank when they parked it, so after I replaced the motor the fuel pump was the next step. It was seized solid, there was corrosion all over the bracket, and the rubber mount had dissolved into a sticky gob resembling half a dozen packages of well-chewed Black Cat gum.

Why, you're lucky. Around here, we walk uphill both ways. (For anyone wondering - and those who weren't - Monty Python were ripping off Stephen Leacock when they did that bit - Cleese admitted it.)

Well, or another carrier (USPS?), or leave a note saying "sorry for the blocked driveway, please leave package in car", or deliver to a neighbor, or...

Good. With the right tools, though, you won't even have to do that.

For good prices on parts, I haven't found any better than Rock Auto (other than a wrecker), though others here may differ. The hoses you just have to fight with. That it's turning is a good start; beyond that, sometimes slipping a really skinny little screwdriver between the hose and the pipe will help loosen it. And if you can push on the end of the hose rather than pulling on it, it'll tend to expand and slide off rather than squeeze tighter. I suppose squirting a little lube like WD-40 between the hose and pipe may help as well, without causing any problems.

My pleasure entirely. Sounds like you've got it well in hand. I've only messed with these things in 99-02, so I don't know which style of pump the 95 has. So are you now stuck at home, bingeing a TV series, until the UPS man shows up with a package from Rock? Or do you have some local support that might give you a lift to a local parts source?

That's precisely what I'd take it to mean. Sounds like it's time to pull that cover and get the old one out and confirm it's dead. What's your plan for getting a replacement?

Hubba-hubba! Zackly what you need.