Scottbaru

Giant slip-joint pliers are awesome!

I see in '00 the Legacy changed to a four-bolt flange, double roller bearing, with a pilot ridge to center it and carry the hub. I doubt you could use the old bearing as apparently you can with the Impreza and Forsester. I wonder about sourcing that bearing with the industry numbers, you can usually specify a few kinds of grease or oil. I suspect the bearings are slightly undersize on purpose. A lot of parts I order are slightly under or over nominal size for press-fit or slip-fit. Perhaps Subaru wanted to use the same hubs with slightly less interference fit? Or the bearing makers recognized a need and made an adjusted fit bearing? Oddly, my Landcruiser uses a metric and an inch tapered bearing opposing each other in the same hub!

Tapered use cylindrical roller bearings instead of balls. Tapered means the rollers are angled, so they look like they'd run on a tapered shaft.

Dealership should be able to cut one from the VIN, I have to do that one of these days. Usually they'll cut a second for a nominal charge, setup is the effort. A quick search under the car might turn up a hidden spare.

I've looked up your and my rear wheel bearings on Timken, here's the comparison: Car: '01 Impreza Bearing type: Ball Bearing Timkin #: 511023 Width: 52mm OD: 65mm Bore: 38mm Car: '99 Legacy Bearing type: Double Row Tapered Assy Timkin #: 513248 Width: 51.938mm OD: 64.994mm Bore: 37.996mm Mine lists part#1 and part#2 as 513248, so maybe mine takes two bearings per wheel, but it appears the dimensions are for the assembly of two. If so, I think the Legacy bearings should fit the Impreza. I only have these dimensions, I'd prefer dimensioned drawings catalogs usually have to be more certain. What do you think?

If it went in easier than out, maybe it was originally assembled with bearing locker? I'd expect it, since they rely on friction to hold it in. I'll definitely use high-temp bearing locker if I ever renew mine. I guess I need to wait 'till they're howling, sounds like they can't be repacked.

Those setups sound much more rugged than just the double ball-bearing. I imagine the Indy cars don't run very many races with the same bearing set, probably one race? I see your car takes Timken bearing 511023, 38mm bore and 65mm OD. I don't see tolerances for press-fits in their online catalog. I suspect that number is an industry standard, I can find it if I search around or when I get back to work, If you want to measure the hub bore. How deep does this bearing have to be pressed in? Comments I've read make it sound fairly deep. The bearing can really get hot if you're pressing into a deep bore, some people use lube, I usually clean it well and use bearing locker, which seems to lubricate a bit. I put most of my bearings into aluminum, pressing them dry seems to build up shavings in front of them, which gets really tight in a deep press. Should be better with steel, but it could still build up some material. I've read here you can put a different bearing in the Impreza, maybe from the Legacy? Are those roller maybe? I guess you could take the bearing dimensions from Timken and try to find something better to fit. Next year I'll probably have an uncontrollable urge to repack or replace my wheel bearings at 100k miles.

Large bearings can take a pretty substantial interference (press) fit. I haven't been in these subaru hubs, but it sounds like the press-fit is all that holds the bearings in place, no fasteners. I'm new to Subarus, and dissapointed that I might have ball bearings in my hubs instead of roller bearings. Do Indy cars have ball bearings in their hubs? Wheel bearings I'm more familiar with are tapered roller bearings, a pair of single rows are usually tightened toward each other, setting a preload. The double-row, angular contact ball bearings I've used can't be preloaded in the normal sense The two rows share solid inner and outer races. I design and build automated industrial machinery as a side job, I specify (from bearing manufacturers specs) fits for my machinists, and press in a lot of bearings myself when I can. Usually it's bushings that have trouble with tight fits compressing them.

Your maintenance costs are about what I paid for my '99 with half the mileage, and far more $ than the '98 I just looked at with 170k. I've driven many cars to over 200k, never spent that much to maintain any of them, perhaps I've been lucky.

Ouch! I haven't spent nearly that much on my turbo-quattro in 240k!

I just looked at a '98 Legacy L for sale. Same colors as my '99 Brighton, same five speed, a few more options, many more miles (170k vs 80k on mine). Under the hood I see different intake boxes and tubing, not sure what else, I didn't have my car for comparison. Why would there be differences under the hood? Would they do a redesign for the last year? Or maybe they scavenged whatever parts they could find for the last year of the 2.2? I suspect this car won't sell quickly at $3600, that's a lot of miles for most buyers in this buyer's market.

For the $, you can't beat Craftsman for quality, availability, and warranty they usually don't argue about. The next step up is Snap-On, MAC, Proto, all much more $, harder to find, harder to deal with on warranties. I have a Craftsman set at home and a set at work. The big sets are really a great deal if you need a lot of tools. They have most general tools, some specialty stuff. The biggest problems I've heard are usually from abuse. I had a 1/2" drive ratchet fail on me for no reason, that's a pain, but it happens. There's a Sears in town, they handed me a new one without hesitation, I like that.

If it's an accessory drive belt you can diagnose it by squirting a little water on the belt while it's sqeaking at idle, see if it changes. An old trick is dribbling soapy water on the belts if they've got a little oil on them.

If it's anodized aluminum it shouldn't be oxidizing yet. My roofrack has steel bolts (bad), and has lived in salt country for 80k miles, with very minimal oxidizing. More likely it's dried caustic working it's way out of the tubing, I fight with that in the aluminum I have anodized for my shop. Anodizers in a hurry don't sufficiently rinse the hollow areas, and caustic residue gradually oozes out, it looks like baking soda. Maybe it is? I think it's just to help neutralize the acid used in the process. My customers are very particular about everything being flat black in these optical testing machines, so I get after the anodizers to rinse better.

This is the kind of thread that's kept me addicted to car forums for a decade, very useful info. I have an impact wrench, but prefer my 3/4"-drive wrench for things like this, sometimes the 1"-drive breaker bar is needed. My 3/4"-drive ratchet is probably my most borrowed tool, I highly recommend having one. The circlip on the splined shaft was always replaced on my VW, Audi, and Landcruiser axles. Very cheap part, might as well.

The plastic tips on my headlight adjusters didn't hold up, crumbled the inner splines when I touched a wrench to them. That left me with rusted, threaded rods that wouldn't turn. I had sprayed them with silicone several times the week before hoping to loosen them up. I put a pair of M6-1.0 nuts on each rod, tightened them together, and I can turn the adjusters with a wrench again.

I suppose if he drills through the water jacket and into the crankcase that would be bad! If he stops drilling often and checks to see if he's penetrated anything, there's not too much danger. If he blows through the crankcase wall he could just drop the oil pan, reach up and put a rubber washer and nut on the end of the stud! Well, maybe not.

When blind holes are tapped, they don't get threads all the way to the end. Taps are tapered at the tip to guide the tap and progressively cut threads, and that tapered end doesn't cut useable threads. Also, in production they don't run the tap down 'till it bottoms out, that wears and breaks taps. Tapping by hand, you can feel when the tap hits the bottom of the hole and not break the tap. A bottoming tap cuts full depth thread almost to the tip, and would give you a bit more useable thread than a standard tap. Taps aren't very expensive, you should be able to find one that matches your bolt. I suggest tapping it to the bottom with a standard tap, then grinding off most of the tapered tip and tapping it again. That'll get you a few more turns of thread, maybe many more.

Does the boss go into the pulley at all, or is it flush with the back? I see the pulley below doesn't look worn on the rear part of the wear surface, so it could stand to be spaced out 1/8" or so. You could make a 1/8" thick plate with holes very closely matching the bolts, tying together the two pulley bolts. That'd reinforce it pretty well. With or without JB, that'd give me peace of mind. If you take some accurate measurements I'll make you such a plate and send it. Too bad I'm not ready to do my belt, that'd simplify things. Or just haul it up here, we'll git-er-done!

I'd chop it off, and build a bracket to hold that bolt, using some of the bolt holes around the front of the engine to mount it. Of course I spend my days in a machine shop designing and occasionally building machines, but it's an option for you. You'd need to do some careful measuring and have it bent, welded, and threaded. I'll be in Dallas this winter for a month on business, probably longer than you'd like to wait.

http://www.mcmaster.com/search for "threaded rubber bumper" or page 3470. I just grabbed one from a pile I have, don't know exactly which one it was.

I plan to take my headlights out and buff them. The adjusters have all lost their cheap, plastic, hex ends, so they've got to come out for repair. I have 80/100 Hella bulbs, which helped a little. I plan to put clear, plastic film on after I buff them.

I prefer a pair of huge Channellock (slip-joint) pliers. If you don't have one, buy one, they're one of the most versatile tools you can own.

Good point. Disk brakes that are actuated by handbrake cable adjust by threading the piston out as the pad wears. You have to turn the piston back in or you'll do damage. I've seen slots, squares, and hexes on these pistons for turning them. Autoparts stores have universal (but cumbersome) wrenches for them. I don't know what car you're working on, but most modern cars are set up this way. Except my Legacy, which is not modern, and my Landcruiser, which is more like an implement.

I made my own powerbleeder from a MTB innertube: -cut the tube across -roll and clamp one end closed -hose clamp the other end over the (full) brake reservoir -pump up the innertube, gently pressurizing the reservoir -open bleed screws and flow some brake fluid -check reservoir level and innertube pressure -repeat I've had good luck on my VWs and Audis with this, but there wasn't enough pressure for my Landcruisers. All I had was a latex tube, I really needed a heavy-duty rubber innertube for more pressure. It's not as good as manual pumping, there's something better about the surge of pressure getting things moving. It is easier on the master cylinder I suspect.