heartless

looks like a decent deal, but if at all possible I would go check it out in person - especially the rust prone areas - wheel wells, rockers, etc. Hear it run, check any paperwork/maintence history if possible. Oh, and if they wont let you come look at it carefully in person, walk away. The thing that worries me is they keep calling it a truck - probably just a copy & paste job on the listing and they missed it, but still... My '90 wagon doesnt look too bad on the surface, but, well, lets just say i cant use the factory jack that it came with to jack it up... and it was originally from NY...

yes, it was kind of sad to retire her (the unplanned trip "offroad" last year didnt help things either), but she gave over 6 years of solid, reliable service, thru all kinds of weather - and being a FWD she amazed me more than once in deep snow! Now I am getting to know - and really like - the "new" car - 1990 Legacy LS wagon called "Red" for now. I will always have a soft spot for the EA82's - we still have one that is ready to go at a moments notice - but both myself and the other half have "upgraded" to the early Legacy's. Now, get your butt out to the garage and get cracking!!

Another vote for the 2.2 Legacy - would be looking at 90-95 myself - like the idea of non-interference, just in case. I drove an EA82, 1989 GL FWD Wagon for over 6 years, and they are great little cars, get great gas milage (average was around 32 MPG), but not the most comfortable for longer hauls. The 1990 Legacy LS AWD Wagon I drive now is WAY more comfortable - it is a bit larger, has lots of "goodies", gets decent gas mileage (not as good as the GL but not bad either at about 29-30 avg) and is pretty easy to work on for the DIY kind of person. Being a non-interfernece engine, I dont have to worry about my motor being junk if a belt goes (which it did shortly after I got it - but that is a whole 'nother story) there are two ways to go - find one that has a good solid maintenance history that is ready to go in the $2000-2500 range - or find one cheap ($500 range) and do all the neglected maintenace yourself so you know what you have when you are done. there's my two and a half cents worth. Good luck on whatever you get.

according to the owners manual in my 1990 Legacy LS AWD the "Manual" switch only works in 2nd and 3rd - by shifting to 1st, you basically did nothing by engaging the "manual" setting. the 91 model may be different (somehow i doubt it, but...), so check your owner's manual carefully in regards to the "manual" switch. It should be in there somewhere.

none of the Subaru's have them, but I do have a set on my old PU truck - 67 F250 - the plates for that truck cost me more than the gas I put in it on a yearly basis!! (no, I dont drive it much @ 8 mpg)

I'll second that motion!! Perhaps if you show the initiative and get cracking on cleaning up the garage, your dad will decide to help... When changing the timing belts it is a VERY good idea to do the oil seals while in there if there is even a tiny bit of seepage. They arent hard to do, and saves a bunch of headaches down the road (around 15K or so ) Lessons learned the hard way by others are your freind! Brumhilda has been retired due to salt cancer, but she ran fine from the time the second set of belts and the oil seals were replaced - think i put around 30-35k on the second set before her retirement. She will still run fine, but is no longer "safe" to be driving down the road. Poor ol girl...

had a similar problem with my 89 GL - the second temps got below freezing it would stop working. big diffence for me was my right fender was pretty rusted out, so all i had to do was carefully pry it out enough to get to the plug... got my hands on another bottle and pump, zip tied it to the right hand support for the spare tire, ran new tubing from it to a convienent place to unhook the existing tubing (there are several connections along the line), plug it in and never worried again. the engine put out enough heat to keep things thawed, but not enough to melt the bottle. was actually pretty convienent, easy to check fluid level, easy to refill.

for a cheap and easy muffler get a Cherry bomb - they age nicely to a sweet low rumble and on a Sube it has a very distinctive sound. a little louder than most going down the highway, but not ridiculous. had one on Brumhilda and she sounded good! 2" inlet/outlet will slip right over your existing pipes - think mine was 16" long... The speakers in the door...sheesh cant remember the exact measurements, but they are an odd size - i went to Best Buy to get a pair for the doors...cost a little more than most cheapies, but were a direct replacement. But this was several years ago too...

The Loyale - what exactly do you need your Dad's help with?? Will he not let you use the tools by yourself, or what? There is nothing on a Subaru that can't be done by yourself, with the right tools and a little ingenuity. I know from whence i speak - been there, done that - and I am a female - not as physically strong as a male. I maintain, repair, and "upgrade" my vehicles (and usually the other half's, too! ) Sure, I ask him to help if he is available - lots of things go easier/faster with two sets of hands, but the fact remains that I can do it by myself if I need to. As for the timing belts failing with only 9 mo/15k on them - most definitely yes if they were getting saturated with oil - learned that lesson the hard way myself - changed belts, but not oil seals, they werent leaking that bad, I thought - had to redo the job when the belts gave out due to oil saturation - dont remember the exact time frame, but it was less than a year... and no, you don't have to pull the radiator to do timing belts - have done them several times, on several different EA82's (we have 3) and never once pulled a radiator (or the motor). You do need to be careful not to damage the radiator when pulling the clutch fan, removing the crank bolt, etc, but it is not a necessity to pull the radiator - would just give you a bit more room to work is all.

Get together with McBrat and have him look the car over carefully, I am sure he can help you determine what absolutely needs to be done to keep Guido on the road. Get your drivetrain and suspension issues sorted out now and you should have many years of faithful, reliable service from your car. Personally, if I am changing something steering related on one side, I generally change the other side just for piece of mind and not having to worry about things going south later (usually when i dont have the funds to fix!) I feel that if you only change one side you are putting unnecessary stress on both the new and old parts - the old side will fail fairly fast, and the new side will fail sooner than it would have had you replaced both sides at once - kind of a vicious circle. By replacing both sides at the same time you get optimum wear from all components. This is just my opinion - other's opinions may vary. As for a CD player - I can second Connie's suggestion of the Sony X-plod systems - I also had one until it got fried by a soda spill on the dash - liquid leaked down thru the crack between the dash panels and onto the back of the stereo - arrrggg Good luck with Guido!

Thanks for the replies gang, kind of figured it was just me being paranoid...but helps to have it confirmed that this is a normal thing.

Hi all, have a question about my "new" to me 1990 Legacy LS Wagon... with the colder weather lately I have found that the 4EAT in this car wont shift into OverDrive when it is cold - once it warms up good (ie: driving 5+ miles) it will finally kick in to OD and will operate fine the rest of the day. No other problems, only that first few miles of the day in cold temps (everything was perfect all summer, no shifting issues). Shifting is very smooth otherwise - barely noticeable shifts. Fluid level checks fine. Is this something I should be concerned about?? or am I being a little paranoid?? (havent had an auto tranny car in YEARS!!) oh yeah, car has 163K on the clock - no real history on it - bought it cheap with blown air struts...also has the external tranny filter that is probably original...should probably get that changed... Thanks in advance!

might I suggest this link: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=49918 Found this in the USRM - link at the upper right...

had thought about doing it on the GL - but decided not to - added weight, wiring considerations, etc...picked up a cheap pair of 6x9 speaker boxes, ran the new wire under the carpet and set the boxes behind the rear wheel wells. worked nice unless you went ripping around a corner too hard! LOL then they wanted to slide or roll over...

3-4 inches wouldnt stop my old FWD 89 GL on all seasons!!! you need much more than that to really test it out!! Had to go out early Sunday after we got snowed on Saturday night - had a 3+ ft drift right in front of the garage door, and much drifting all the way down the driveway -average depth of 10-12 inches (live in farm country - nothing to stop it) The 90 Legacy LS wagon plowed thru the big drift @ the door and all the way out to the road (about 100ft with a curve) with no problems on Cooper all seasons... I love my Subaru!!

you should be able to get fusable link wire and ends at your local auto parts store. take in the dead one (make note of the size - # amps - from the box) get enough wire to replace + a little extra, put on new ends of the appropriate size to fit the connections and viola! fixed! Had to do this with my 89 GL when I had no parts cars available to steal a replacement from.

consider it done - have already talked to McBrat.

as a side note - most "modern" stereos have two wires per speaker - power and ground - the original Subaru system used a common ground for the speakers - not real compatible with a newer stereo... Might want to run new speaker wires...

Now there is a BIG hint I hope you can get it sorted out very soon - kinda worried about you driving that thing in it's current condition, especially with the nasty weather coming in - if we were closer i would be helping you out NOW! I have a garage, the tools, some of the parts and the know how - just too darn far away!

+10 on this one! from the intermittent problems you described from the night before i would defintely be checking this carefully!! Had a similar situation with my 89 GL wagon once - took a few days to find the problem but it was the bracket ground...

any unused wires should be sealed off somehow (wire nut or taped over with electrical tape). if you can see the metal in the end of the wire it is exposed and a potential short. if the wires were just cut off it was not "professionally" installed - a true professional would not of done that. messy wiring is one of my pet peeves - Brumhilda (my old GL wagon) had a mess made of the stereo wiring before i got her - took me the better part of an afternoon to get it sorted out, cleaned up, and a new stereo installed - oh yeah, and about $25 and a couple more hours to feed in the wire for a new antenna! somebody had cut the darn antenna wire then tried to piece it back together!!

there are only 3 bolts holding it in there - pull it out and see what you can. may just need a good cleaning out - dust, dirt, rodent presents, etc new ones are listed for $57.48 & up on the Parts America website (Advance Auto, Schucks, Checker, Kragen stores) and that is without the cage on it - the motor only.... I am sure that if you post in the parts wanted area you could get a decent used one pretty cheap - may even be able to come up with one here - we still have a couple of parts cars left... btw - did you ever get that front end sorted out?? I hope so.

also check the exhaust for blockages - seems to be a favorite place for building nests for the rotten little you know whats... have had that problem in the past - car seemed to run great for a short while, but eventually the nest materials get very compressed in the exhaust and wont let the gases escape effectively killing the engine. the further forward the nest, the faster the car will die.

if I may make a suggestion - try melting some parifin wax into the gap on the knuckle... heat the area of the pinch bolt and then drip some melted wax into that area keeping the heat applied so the wax can seep into the threads. May help. the other half uses this method on his work truck frequently when PB just wont cut it. you should be able to get the parifin wax at your local grocery store - it is used to create a wax seal when making jellies and jams. a brand name is Gulf Wax...

DOH! forgot about that... Porcupine73 - thanks for the link!