elliusoopius

As stated in the title, I have a '95 legacy that has gone through 3 fuel pumps in 3 weeks. I bought the car about a year ago and it's been really reliable until about 3 weeks ago, when my partner parked it after work and the next morning it would just crank over, or start for a few seconds and then sputter and stall. There were no symptoms before he parked it. I diagnosed it as a bad fuel pump and replaced it with one from a '97 legacy that has a bad transmission and has been sitting for a year. The car started up fine and ran until a couple days ago when I was on a hundred or so mile trip. It ran fine until I stopped to get some food, then just wouldn't start, or would start then sputter and stall exactly like before, so I figured it must be the fuel pump since it had been sitting for so long, and replaced it again, this time with a new one from Autozone. Once again, the car started up and ran fine, aside from one little hiccup where I figured there was some air in the fuel line. I got where I was going and moved the car a few times over the weekend, but put almost no miles on it until I was on my way home today. After about 50 or 60 miles I was heading uphill over a mountain pass and pulled over to check something in the back of the car, then when I got back on the road it started to sputter like it wasn't getting gas and I pulled over to the side of the road as the car stalled out. I started it up again and made it about 100' before it started sputtering more and I pulled over again, but this time it recovered without killing the engine and I decided to try to limp it home. Over the next 40 miles it sputtered and lost power a few more times but would recover after a few seconds and I was able to make it home. I'm thinking there's a good possibility that my 3rd pump is gonna eat it soon and I really don't want it to be during my drive to work for the first day of my brand new job on Tuesday, so I'm trying to figure out whats causing these pump problems and hopefully get it sorted tomorrow. I did some googling and couldn't find anyone going through multiple fuel pumps in a legacy like this and I remember reading that they aren't a common item to fail in this car. Here are some things I have done when I was troubleshooting the pump the first time: checked fuel pressure with a gauge before and after the filter, readings were the same, about 10 psi. blew through the fuel filter backwards, some dirty looking stuff came out, but it wasn't difficult at all. checked the wiring to the fuel pump wiring harness and the harness itself with a test light, making sure there was juice for 1-2 seconds when turning the key on. here are my thoughts on what could be causing it: I just have bad luck and the pump from my other car and the aftermarket one are both shitty. Something contaminating my fuel. electrical problems? Does anyone have anything to add to these possible causes or suggestions for ways that I can test them or rule them out? Thanks!

I am replacing the center diff in my 2001 MT legacy right now and I have some damage to the transfer driven gear. 1 whole tooth has broken off of it. I went to Pick N Pull today to see if I couldn't find one there, but the ones I found were all more damaged than the one I took out. I was looking online and saw that transfer driven gears for my car listed on dealer websites are about $210, but there are ones that fit on the 2000 MT legacy for only $85. Before I went to the junkyard I was under the impression that I could swap anything in from 1999 to 2004, so what is up with the price difference? Are they really not interchangeable? I couldn't find any details on either of them to find out what might be different about them. I was also looking to possibly replace the tail housing, due to some scratches on the inside of the part where the driveshaft slides in and out of, but all the ones I found were scratched the same way. I initially had trouble removing my driveshaft and the yoke had some pretty good gouge marks on it, so I grabbed another driveshaft for $63.00. Will I be able to reuse the tail housing? Also, is it possible to just replace the part the driveshaft yoke fits into without replacing the whole tail housing? Here are some pictures:

Do I have to replace the fluid to get the air out when changing the o ring? I ask because when the car was in the shop they did the power steering fluid about 3 weeks ago, So it sucks to have to re do a job that I just payed a lot more for someone else to do.

One more thing, When I put the first new alternator on, I noticed an obnoxious whining sound which I thought at first was the alternator, but then it seemed to be coming from the power steering. It got worse when the alt got worse, and when I turned the wheel it would get loud. Also sometimes I could feel a vibration when turning. When I put the next alt on, it improved, but I can still hear it a little, but it doesn't get loud when turning, or vibrate now. I was thinking maybe it was just from the battery being low on charge, but what do you guys think?

So I took it to oreilly's which is where I got the alternator, and had them test the battery and the alternator. I put the battery on my house charger the night before to let it charge to make sure I got there. When he tested it he said the battery was weak but not bad, and the alternator was not working at all. So I put on a new one in their parking lot and also replaced the ground connector. It seems to be working fine now, and when before the headlights would come on with the accelerator, now they just are on. I thought they were supposed to turn off when the switch is off, it is the actual headlights not just the yellow parking lights. Is this normal?

A couple days ago I noticed my brake and battery lights were coming on at about 2000 rpms, and the brightness corresponded with the increase in rpms. I read that I was probably the alternator, and tested with a voltmeter and saw all the values coming out low, I drove it one more time and the lights all starting dimming, the abs light came on and the speedometer and tachometer started bouncing then went off. I made it home and parked it, and it wouldn't start after that. I put the battery on the charger because it was reading a little low, about 10v. then I went to town and bought a new alternator, installed it and it started right up and drove great for about 30 miles before the battery light and brake light came back on. this time instead of corresponding with the rpms, they are just kind of randomly flickering on and off. I noticed my ground strap on the battery was partially broken, but it still seems to be connecting alright, so I decided to see if wiggling it a little affected the lights, and Iit didn't seem to, but while I was doing this, I noticed that if I step on the gas with the hand brake off, the headlights will come on when the switch is in the off position. the brightness of the headlights corresponds to the rpms. If the hand brake is on, they don't come on. Also, when i give it enough gas for the lights to light up, the brake and battery lights go off, then when I let up on the gas the headlights go off and the brake and battery lights come back on. Sometimes if I keep my foot on the gas for awhile, the headlights will go out by themselves and the battery and brake lights will come back on. but if I keep my foot off the gas the headlights don't come on, and if I turn the headlight switch on the brightness of the lights does not change according to the rpms. I recently had a lot of work done at the dealer, including having a headlight replaced, but I can't afford to take it back to them unless it is something they messed up on and will be willing to fix for free. My plan was to replace the connector on the ground strap and see if it fixed the brake/battery light thing, then think about the battery or the possibility that I bought a faulty alternator, but now that I noticed the headlight coming on I an wondering if my trouble could be due to the dealership messing up wiring the new headlight. Can a bad ground somehow cause the headlights to come on when they are switched off under the conditions I described? I have a tendency to always drive around with the headlights on, so it might have been doing that before I bought the new alternator, and I wouldn't have noticed. Edit: Forgot to mention, my car is a 2001 legacy outback L manual transmission.