Legacy777

More than likely, your leak is coming from the grommets and not the gasket. I'd suggest just replacing the grommets first and see if that fixes your leak. Unless the gasket was bad or incorrectly installed, it should still be good at only 32,000 miles of use. Regarding the spark plugs, I don't see why you would have to remove them to do the work on the grommets or gasket.

Here's my write-up on my AWD & 5spd conversion. You can ignore the AWD convserion stuff, but the 5spd conversion items should be similar. http://www.surrealmirage.com/subaru/swap I'd also suggest searching in the conversion forums on NASIOC as this topic comes up a lot. http://forums.nasioc.com/forums

That's good info. Thanks for sharing. Do you think there's any correlation to whether the ABS computer came out of a car that was AT or MT?

The Legacy wagons typically will have a little stiffer springs, especially in the rear due to the extra weight.

The US did not get the turbo Legacy until 1991. So if the seller is insisting it is a 1990, I would ask for the VIN and run a verification to see if the seller has his info mixed up. I wouldn't expect to pay more than $3,000 or so for one in good condition and working. You'll see some as low as $1,500 that aren't in great shape. With the blown head gaskets.....it'll have to be a judgement call on your part. I'd get the VIN, verify what exactly it is, run a blue book value based upon condition and see what it comes up with and then offer the seller what you feel is fair. The turbo Legacies are not that rare to command an exorbitant amount for, especially for one that has blown headgaskets. If the trans was rebuilt that is a plus, as that is usually something that needs attention especially with higher mileage, but shouldn't drive the price too much. Hope that helps

I really haven't heard of many/any. You may want to also check out http://forums.nasioc.com/forums There may be some more people there that have Outback XT.

Good tip to know about undercoating. Keep us posted on your progress.

I would recommend trying to see if you can get KYB struts. They are kind of an in between Monroe & Bilstein. The wagon struts tend to have a little more stiffer damping compared to the sedans due there being more weight. With that said, springs are what hold up the car. So if the rear is sagging a bit, struts may help, but springs ultimately hold up the car. Adjustable coil over setups would allow you to adjust the ride height and probably the damping. That's probably a more expensive setup, but it's an option.

Welcome to the USMB. I would suspect a ball joint, or possibly CV joint. If the boot is torn, you probably should go ahead and replace the joint while you're doing the ball joints.

I'd drain off the excess fluid. However I don't know if that is causing the noise. It may be something loose undeneath, possibly a heat shield. If you can get underneath with the car on ramps, you could try tapping things with a hammer. Other than....if it's in the transmission, not sure what to say other than take it back to the repair shop.

How are you checking the trans fluid? The engine needs to be running when you check it. The trans needs to be up to normal operating temp and car parked on level surface. With the engine still running, slowly cycle the gears from park to L and then back to park. Leave the engine running, and then check the transmission fluid level.

I would imagine it's straight metric. Don't know the size though.

You're welcome.

The problems you're having don't sound like something that would have been caused by your work. It may just be a coincidence. Like you suggested, I'd check the electrical for a short and check the speed sensor's resistance.

You talking about the axle nut? I think it's around 140 ft-lbs.

As a start, I'd suggest changing the transmission fluid and see if that changes anything.

I'm not sure if my experience would relate, but I had an issue where I had a pretty nasty vibration. It only happened a handful of times and not for too long. Turned out to be the CV axles. What kind of regular maintenance have you done on the car? When was the last time you changed the transmission fluid? Does the shudder occur under acceleration, deceleration, cruising? Does it occur when the transmission is about to up shift or down shift? Any additional details you can provide would be helpful.

There is a difference between the gray & red top injectors. It's not enough to keep the car from running, but it doesn't run optimally. The red tops are slightly larger, and if you run them with the 90-91 ECU, your fuel mileage will decrease. I've done this in my Legacy. Then swapped in a 92 ECU, mileage was better, and car was "peppier" since the engine wasn't so rich.

ECU yes.

Found the injectors. They're a little rough off from what I remember. One of them the plastic tip is cracked, and the others, the top part is cracked/chipped. Three of them would probably be fine to use. Tested all the injectors resistances, and they all were at 11.9 ohms. Here's some pictures http://www.main.experiencetherave.com/subaru/images/legacyinjectors/ You can have them for the cost of shipping. If you're interested, let me know.

Yeah, they were working when I pulled them. I put in a set of balanced & flow tested red tops. That's when I found out the red tops flow a little more, and I decided to swap from the 90 ECU to the 92 ECU. I'll make myself a reminder and look for them this evening and let you know.

The brakes are pretty standard. The only shims that I can think they're talking about are the little clips that go onto the caliper and the clips on the back of the brake pad. They're there to help reduce brake pad squeel. You definitely want to reuse the clips that clip onto the caliper. Personally, I don't care for the shims on the back of the brake pad as they tend to make more noise than they're supposed to solve. But that's my opinion

So are you looking to use the gray and black top injectors together? The fuel rails are different in how the injector seats, so you have to match the rails to the injector. I'd strongly recommend just trying to find some of the gray injectors. I've probably got my old ones out of my 90 Legacy you could have for a song and dance if you wanted. I'll try and remember to look tonight to see if I still have them. If I do, and you want them, let me know.

The 5-pin was just used for the first gen Legacy, nothing more. You can use the older 5-pin MAF on the newer cars without any problems. You can't use the newer 3-pin MAF on the first gen legacy, which requires the 5-pin MAF.

The 5 wire MAF sensors are only needed on the first gen legacy, 90-94. This is because they used two different types of MAF sensors. The extra two pins were a reference voltage from the ECU and a ground. This extra pin being grounded was like a switch. If the incorrect MAF sensor was used the ECU would know and illuminate a CEL. This diagram may help show this http://www.main.experiencetherave.com/subaru_manual_scans/FSM_Scans/MAF_testing1.jpg All you really need is three wires, power, signal, and ground