RallyKeith

I totally get that. You guys have it lucky in that matter. FWIW I had NO clue where nathan.chase was from considering his location is a county. That's why I prefer people to put a city a state so that it's clear what you're dealing with. Keith

THAT green connector is not for "our" use as Nipper described. There are green connectors elsewhere on your car that are not for diagnostics. Each model is slightly different so it's not fair to say ALL green connectors are for diagnostics. Case and point would be 93-?? Imprezas have a green connector like that under the driver's side dash for diagnostics, but under the dash on the passangers side is an identical connector that goes up to the dome light. Keith

For me it's the Impreza with out even a second worth of thought and here is why. You can get parts for the impreza off of Almost ANY impreza made from 1993 to 2007 and they fit! That goes for seats, dashboards, suspension, transmissions, fenders and the lot. (Trust me, they really are that interchangable. I know people that have put '07 interiors and front ends on '93s) The only issue is engines being that 95 on the Impreza was still OBD1, and the '05+ STi which wad some different suspension and wheels. The legacy on the other hand has only a 4 year window on most parts. Also, Imprezas numbers are going up in most junk yards near me where as 1st gen legacy numbers are going down. Just something to think about. Keith

I think you misunderstood what I meant. With a 16' wide door the cars would be close together. About 2'-3' apart. That's fine for someone just parking. I would absolutely go 18' wide if I can to keep the cars further apart to work on them. Keith

So, I'm having a 2 car garage built, and while I'm on a tight budget that won't allow for me to do much more than build a stick framed garage with a concrete floor, I thought it might be fun to start a thread of the ultimate things to do when building a garage. I'll start the list and people can reply with other items. - 10" thick floor for maximum weight capacity and electric lift installation - 9000Lbs Electric Lift - Electrical Outlets every 16" (Or whatever your stud spacing might be) - Expoy Painted floor for easy spill Cleanup - Central Floor drain for indoor car washing - Compressed air hookups at multiple locations of each bay I've got more items but don't have the time to post them right now so feel free to chime in! Keith

I think I have can do this. It's probably worth the $10 in lumber to buy some 1x2s and make something to drive through. I guess I was originally thinking agains the single wide door because I imagine it would add to the cost of the structure, as in heavy beams to support the large opening. I was also concerned with how wide of I door I could get. My initial research said 16' which I felt wouldn't give me enough room between cars, but I've now found that I might be able to go 18' wide. This is not intended to be a place to park daily drivers. This is to be a working garage / workshop. That's why I want to have plenty of room between cars. I think the 18' door would work, and address the turnin situation. Of course, it still depends on the budget. Thanks for the input, feel free to keep it coming. Also feel free to check out my other post about the ultimate garage. Keith

So I'm going to be having a two car garage (24' x 26') built to replace the barely single car garage (12' x 18') that is falling apart on my property. I'm on a very tight budget and I've done a lot of research already, but there is one big question I don't have an answer for. My biggest concern is with being able to turn off of my alley and into my garage safely. The alley is 12' wide, the garage will most likely sit 5' off the alley, and if the budget allows I'm going for 2 10' garage doors. Anybody have a clue if that's enough room to swing something as big as a 2nd Gen Legacy Wagon in? That's about the biggest thing I would expect to be putting in it, especially since I'm only going to be in the house another 4-5 years. Thanks for your thoughts! Keith

Did you guys both miss where I said Also, this stuff really has been done..... All you have to do is look on NASIOC. People do the RWD conversion for drifting, and I know someone who did it for rallying. (There is a special 2wd rally cup called MAX Attack that offers some pretty good prize money.)

The stuff's been asked, and done but I don't know if it's been done on here. It's defenitely been done on NASIOC. Search over there if you really want to do it. RWD is accomplished by basically removing the shaft part of the front half shafts and welding the center diff solid. The outter half shaft acts as the spindle for the front wheels so it has to stay. The rest of the half shaft can go. Then you have to weld up the center diff for a bunch of reasons that I just don't have the time to type. Problem with this if doing it for racing or what not is the rear diff and half shalfts. They just aren't meant to handle all the power all the time. FWD isn't as easy and I don't know the specifics. If you pull the rear drive shaft you have to plug the hole and I don't know if you can swap a different end plate on to the trans. As for the diff and rear hubs I don't know.....

That's interesting because I've done a few 95 and 96, Legacy and Impreza, all 5 speeds, and they have all been the ball and cage design. The few that we got from a junk yard that have the 3 bearing design we think came from early impreza automatics.

It appears that on some models and years Suabru used two different designs for the inner CV Joint on the front half shafts. I almost think it's an automatic versus stick thing, but anyway. One Design uses a cage and a series of several ( I believe 6) Balls that ride in the cup. The other design uses what look like almost 3 ball bearing assemblies that ride in the cup. Below are links to pics of each. Design 1 (6 Ball) http://www.made-in-china.com/image/2f0j00IMLEugaKJHoFM/Inner-Cv-Joint-for-Lada-LD-I-502-.jpg Design 2 (3 Bearing assemblies) http://www.made-in-china.com/image/2f0j00hBetRMKGOpkTM/Inner-CV-Joint-for-Honda-HO-3705-.jpg So the question is, which of the two designs is stronger and what are the advantages or disadvantages of each? Keith

What makes you think a racing clutch should last even half of that? Clutches are no different from brakes. The crappy ones don't grab well but last forever. Good ones grab really well and wear fast. Combine that with the type of aggresive driving that would require an upgraded clutch and it wears even faster. I would personally say that you got WAY more life out of that clutch than you should have expected. Keith

One other question, where is the air bag computer in this car? Under the stereo like in a subaru?

Thanks for the help! I've installed several cruise control systems in subarus and removed the drivers air bag so I know what you mean about the connectors. I've found the bags and computer at a local junkyard for $40 each. I think my friend is getting an estimate from a garage to do all the work, but I think he'll be calling me pretty quickly once he sees how much they want!

I have a friend with a 97 Mazda 626 that hit a curb and blew both front airbags. I have never seen the car and have not as of now seen it. From what I've seen in pictures the passangers side airbag is a seperate opening in the dash, meaning it doens't ruin the entire dash when it goes off. Is that true? Also, what are the odds this is one of those cars that once the airbags go off the computer has to be replaced? Thanks, Keith

I just talked to yet another person this weekend. 98 Chevy S-10. 240k on the original 4.3 V6 and automatic trans. Sorry, I would love to own my very own toy-boat-a, but the evidence seems to weight heavily towards an S-10.

I won't touch anything beyond the 240 series. The 240s and 140s were great cars. The 850s and newer are junk after a few years of use. My dad bought an 850 after years of 240s and 140s. Thing is nothing but problems. So basicaly sorry to hear of your woes. Also, I agree that the mechanic is full of it. The spark plugs were a result of the issue and not the issue. Something is causing excess fuel getting into the engine. I like the fuel pressure regulator idea. Keith

If the car is stick and I care enough I unplug the switch on the clutch that needs to be released to start the car. Never looked at a schematic to see how effective it is.

So I'm going to be selling my 96 Legacy GT wagon in a month or two. It currently has a 2.2 swapped into it, but that was done mainly for time reasons. I've got a perfectly good 2.5 with lower miles (80k) and fresh head gaskets that I can put into it. If you were buying, which would you rather have and which would you pay more for? Keith

Answered my own question basically. My father called the Subaru dealer and they said it's the same solenoid for 1.8 or 2.2, MT or AT. They of course wanted $170 for it! So as usual the generic Parts computers don't know what they are talking about. Ordering the $37 part from advance tonight and we'll see if it works. Keith

The starter solenoid on my father's 96 Impreza L with a 5 speed died the other night. The Starter it self is fine, it's only the solenoid. Acording to Advance Auto the solenoid itself is different from AT to MT and the price goes from $37 for the AT solenoid to $118 for the MT. What gives? Can there really be a difference in the solenoid? I swear I took apart an AT starter to grease a sticking solenoid two weeks ago and it looked identical to the MT solenoid we pulled out of my father's car last night. Anybody know the answer to this one? Keith

KBB on a 99 Legacy L with 107k on it in my zip code (1 hour north west of Philly) is $4100 in for private party Fair condition. Good is $4700 and Excellent is $5100. KBB tends to be infalted somewhat so you have to use your own judgment, but don't forget that you're at a dealer and they add at least $500 over private party values. Now, if you're a shade tree mechanic you can get a known good trans from a junkyard for anywhere from $500 and up to $1500. If you can't do work like this you would expect to pay at least $480 in Labor to install a replacement transmission. (That's 8 hours of labor @ $60/hr which is a rough average of rates from places I've been lately) So, with all that said it seems like $3000 is the most I would pay for that considering the expense of replacing the transmission (which I would do since you have no idea how long it was driven this way and what has been slowly damaged but hasn't failed yet) and the listed value of the car. For those playing along at home I got the $3000 by subtracting the $1500 transmission and $480 Labor from the KBB excelent value since that's the absolute most the insurance company would pay you for it if it got totaled and then rounding down to the nearest nice round figure. Those are my thought. Keith

Does this have Drums or Discs in the Rear?

Couldn't agree more!

It's just the physics of an standard open differential. It only truely puts power the wheel with the least resistance. For what ever reason there is less resistance in the passangers wheel transmission path than the drivers. If you were to go and try to stop the passangers wheel you would easily get it to stop and the drivers wheel would start spinning. It's a matter of how "tight" all the components are, including the wheel axles shafts, bearings, and brakes. Bad bearings are usually loose and would would imagine that with no load on them should appear to spin more freely. Hope this helps somewhat. Keith