kayakertom

Just posting this to possibly save someone else time. After 172K, a rear shock wore out... This is a fairly easy job to do - you need a 17mm socket, long extension and a breaker bar. You do not need a spring compressor - the spring can be hand compresed to get the first nut started. I found that both of my donut stops that also support the plastic dust shields were very worn - couldn't find a replacement (dealer wanted $54 each with a few days wait - only 4 left in the country), so I cleaned up the old ones and used black silicone adhesive to put them back together. I got replacement Monroe cartridges #71223 for $45 each.

After washing, waxing and polishing my '87 dl wagon today, the sad state of my once black rubber bumpers stood out. They were stained, greasy and uv damaged; the various bumper and tire products that I had on hand wouldn't give an even appearance. Decided to do something drastic on the front bumper and used wet sandpaper #400 to attack the surface. It does clog the sandpaper pretty quickly, but a hose cleans it out easily. Tried a tire shine product on the bumper afterwards and aside from the places where there are deep scratches, the bumper looks much better.

Have both camshaft sprockets with aligning hole up, center mark of 3 lines aligned with pointer. Put on drivers side timing belt; rotate crankshaft 1 rotation, align center line with pointer, put on pasenger side belt. For timing, you may need to take out the distributer and align the dimple with the case mark so you know which way the rotor points for #1 firing. Take out #1 spark plug and rotate the engine cw (while facing it) and with a finger blocking the #1 spark plug hole determing the compression stroke and stop at TDC. Install distributer so that rotor is pointing at #1 plug wire contact.

I have to wait for some push help to test what happens when the clutch is let out because of where it is parked. Clutch action is smooth.

Finally got the 3at trans swapped out with a d/r trans in my project 3-door and after resealing the motor, new clutch & resurfaced flywheel, new radiator, and lots of little things... Got the motor running and was in the process of adjusting the timing when the car lurched forward and stalled out - ebrake was on. Now there is no neutral position and no reverse - whatever position I put the gear selector in, it wants to go forward when I let the clutch out. This d/r trans was supposedly a low mileage jdm transmission that sat dry (no gear oil) for a number of years before I bought it - the outside was very clean and looks unworn. I did notice that when I would rotate the input shaft by hand before installing it, that it had one spot that required more torque to rotate the shaft. I filled it with a mixture of synthetic and regular gear oil - 4 quarts total. Any suggestions?

The 5 things I would check are: brake drag - jack up each wheel and put in neutral with the e-brake off and check for ease of rotation; possible vacuum leak - pull off a vacuum hose while it's running; if it doesn't run worse, then you have a vacuum leak; rich carb? - are your plugs black?; wrong sparkplugs - just use ngk; bad oxygen sensor.

It may be just one of your vacuum hoses coming loose or leaking - lots of them to check. If the rubber tips have age/heat-hardened, they are prone to leak.

Replacing the rear crankshaft oil seal and the new damn seal doesn't want to go in uniformly; try tapping in the opposite side to see-saw it out, but it ends up seating too far in. Try to use the bent tip of a feeler guage to slip under the seal and pull it out, but that doesn't work. Try a bent paper clip and I end up cutting the seal slightly. After looking at another engine block, it looks like the seal may be so far back that it would block the oil drain hole. So, the new seal comes out destroyed with screwdriver and needle-nose pliers. Went to the dealer and picked up a new seal for $15.38 = 1 case of beer*.

Oil pressure: Did you use the special reinforced o-rings between the heads and camshaft towers? With the rough running, check for a vacuum leak by pulling off a vacuum hose and see if it runs rougher.

As my subaru projects get done, my scrap pile has grown and now I need to take a trip to one of the local scrap metal recyclers/buyers. Any advice for dealing with these places, ie: Is it best to break down engine blocks and separate the metal parts? The spot price for aluminum is now over $1/lb and over $3/lb for copper (Anyone get price shocked recently when they went to buy some rolls of house wiring?) What parts should we be making sure don't go into scap piles in order to keep our older subarus on the road?

There may be a vinyl tube attached to the drain cock that you need to rotate down. Open up the radiator cap. If no coolant still, then just place a bucket below the drivers side radiator hose and drain as much as you can. Remove the other radiator hose. You can remove a partially filled radiator.

I can recommend the NAPA - Beaverton Auto Parts store for getting your flywheel resurfaced. The turn-around time was 1 hour for me this week. Bring your AAA card for a price discount. Total cost was $49.25 for the resurfacing, new pilot bearing and the bearing pressed into place. Resurfacing and bearing replacement was $32.50 by istself with the AAA card. Would also replace the two wire clips that hold the release/through-out bearing to the fork - about $5 from a dealer. If you take out the clutch fork to grease the pivot ball, the metal clip orientation is counter-intuitive (at least for me).

Check your spark plug wires, sounds like you are running on 3 cylinders.

One more thing to add to your parts list is the hill holder return spring assembly. It may not be worth it to add the hh (interfaces with the brake circuit), but you need a return spring mod for the clutch fork.

Is there any ecu signal modification needed when swapping out an auto trans to manual in order to tell the ecu that it is now a manual? The car is an '87 gl 3-door with spfi. Have removed the auto trans, installed a 3 pedal assembly and replaced the speedo cable with a longer one. Have the needed color matched trim pieces and longer driveshaft. Keeping the original instrument cluster and just putting black tape over the auto trans indicator part. The d/r replacement trans is almost ready to go in - just need a replacement 4wd switch (long one at the rear of the trans is broken). Getting the donor flywheel resurfaced next week. For wiring mods, I am jumping the thick black wires in the auto trans connector to enable the neutral position signal to allow starting. Still need to figure out how to wire in the reverse switch for back-up lights. The d/r trans I am installing just has two switch holes, while the high mileage one from the parts wagon has 3 switches - what's the 3rd one for?

Generally, it was the manual gl models that came with dual range transmissions. I would not rely on either the year or model of the ea82 cars to tell what you may be getting - if its still running around after 15+ years, it's likely had driveline parts changed.

I just buy the short ones (105mm) and just add washers under the pulley if it turns out I need a long one.

I recently took apart a parts wagon motor and one head has similar symptoms - turned out to be a dislodged valve seat seal that got caught between the valve and head, which keept the valve spring compressed.

Did you use OEM intake manifold gaskets? If you didn't, this could explain the white smoke. How about the reinforced o-ring between the head and camshaft tower? That oil passageway has high pressure and without the right o-ring, it will leak.

What is your source for the replacement gear?

Two things that I would check right away are: possibility of a vacuum leak and rolling friction - how easy do the wheels spin?

I've been happy with the quality, price and speed of delivery from AutoPartsWorld. <http://www.autopartsworld.com/subaru_parts.html>

This sears tool has a rachet-like locking mechanism that allows you to compress the dual ea82 springs on each valve and then your hands are free to coax the split cylinder retainers out - I use a small screwdriver and needlenose pliers.

Have started rebuilding some spare ea82 heads and after quickly breaking a new valve spring compressor tool from one of the local sport/auto stores, returning it and then seeing a too high price on the NAPA tool, went to Sears and picked up tool # 947627 for $20. This works great and looks like it will last for years. (No connection to Sears.) For this tool to work, the head must be removed from the vehicle.

Your 1 & 2 problems indicate a head gasket problem. #2 is probably coolant leaking into one of the cylinders. If you do a compression test, let it sit overnight and look for coolant when you pull the plugs.