wagonist

Put in FWD, chock the rear wheels, jack up one front wheel only, and with park brake off try to spin the wheel in the air by hand. It should have a little bit of play, but otherwise should lock up. If it doesn't, get someone to spin the wheel while you look along the front driveline. At some point, something will be moving while the next piece isn't. eg wheel spins but driveshaft doesn't, or driveshaft moves but CV joint doesn't.

So the EA82T in my jdm wagon had a blown head gasket, or rather, it was intact but letting coolant be pressurised by the cylinder number 4. So after pulling it all apart ( except for splitting the block) and getting a gasket kit, I'm going to rebuild it. But, I've never rebuilt an engine before. I've read service manuals, etc about doing it, but they all assume some kind of level of knowledge. Any tricks about cleaning the faces, lubing bolts, etc that anyone can pass along?

Yeah well, you come round and fix my computer and then babysit my 2 month old and we'll see what I can do about that

All of the aus series 2 sedans (88-90 til they stopped selling them here) were called the Leone Royale.They were all GL FWDs. 89 & 90 got an upgrade with MPFI and electric windows

Get the car jacked up on stands, remove the sump plug from the transmission. As it's almost directly below the front diff, you can count the number of teeth on the crown wheel. 39 = 3.9:1 37 = 3.7:1 Even here, where all of the 5spd 4wd models are dual range, finding a 3.9 ratio gearbox is really difficult. Would be even more so over there where the dual range is rarer. If the previous people were only ever driving in 4wd on more slippery surfaces, you may not notice the differing ratios front to rear, except that it'd drive a bit strange, which could be thought to be other stuff like old age or worn out...

NA? If so, there's some gains to be made by redoing the front pipes off the engine. The merge isn't that great shape. Getting rid of the factory airbox would make the biggest gain. I haven't completed it yet, but the airbox from a late 90s Legacy (has the pipe come out 45 degrees backward) I've got fitted to my 88 wagon. I've needed to cut out the bracket behind the headlight which supports the airbox & charcoal canister (luckily RHD car don't have the aircon receiver/dryer bolted to this).

I've gotten that type of connector from many a different auto electrician, and even the generic auto parts store over the years. BTW, pretty much every connector in the JDM version looks like that. lights, blinkers, aircon, ... Not sure why other markets got specialised one-off type (except to make money as spare parts )

Sounds like "Roadkill" have been at your car in the past What year model was your donor harness from? I was under the impression that the dual range over there became very scarce after 87 (which is when Subaru did a facelift & major wiring change). But this is also the same time that the carb engine disappeared, so it'd be difficult to wire up your later model engine

What do you mean, play with the cable? The speedo is entirely mechanical, no soldering required. Easiest thing to check is if the lube in the cable has gone. and you need monkey arms to reattach the cable to the cluster properly... I've got some spare GL clusters, but you'd need to rewire your dashboard to suit.

"1 Hold" button definitely indicates 4EAT transmission which should be full time 4wd. The centre diff torque split front to rear is controlled by the transmission computer. In wagons, it's hidden behind the trim in the rear left corner of the car (in the cargo area). No idea about where it is in sedans or XT (I guess bolted up under the rear parcel shelf). But first step is to make sure that there is not a fuse in that holder in the engine bay.

If this gearbox is a 4spd (really need to see a pic of the shifter), then it is the same gearbox as in your outback, and the fuses are the same. BTW, on the part time 4wd model (3spd gearbox) the lights on the dash do not light up front wheels only for FWD, & then all 4 for 4wd. they are either all off when in FWD mode, or all on for 4wd (plus the words "4WD" will light up)

If you've got all the parts, doing a 5 lug swap in a few hours shouldn't be a problem. Barring nothing breaking/sticking in your car rusting climate Each front corner is: 3 bolts at top of strut, 1 bolt for lower control arm (join to crossmember), 1 nut for radius rod, 1 nut for steering tie rod end, 1 bolt for anti-roll bar, 1 pin for driveshaft, then brake line & e brake rear end is simpler: axle nut, brake line, 3 bolts for backing plate bleed the brake fluid & you're done.

Unless you really cannot find another rear end to suit your vehicle, then I'd avoid the swap to the later model rear subframe. Despite that they look similar, they are nothing alike & you're just creating work for yourself. There are also some geometry problems that the earlier models didn't have due to the angled inner arms. I've never liked that the suspension, under normal working conditions, twists & deforms the suspension bushes.

And I know of someone who's had EJ studs fitted onto an XT6 without any mods. Really big press?

The boxes are different (the 5 speed is longer), but the engagement for the 4wd/low range on the transmission is the same, it's just the levers in the 2 cars have different pivot points.

See the thread link in the post above. You can get the drum & machine it down into a hub for the EJ rotor to fit over, but this is pretty dodgy.

Still working on template for the backing plate adaptor. Impending baby arrival has meant this dropped down the priority list a bit...

Hi mate, take me off the list please. I ended up being "donated" the genuine XT6 hubs which were destined for another car.

drop the transmission sump plug. It's close to being underneath the front diff. Need to jack the car up so you can spin the driveshafts, then you can count the teeth on the crown wheel. There's a few different EJ transmissions 3.9 4.1 4.4 at least But if you've used an EA transmission, there's only 2. 3.9 & 3.7 EJ type rear diff will bolt directly into the back end of a Loyale style. Not sure about the earlier models, but I'm pretty sure you can fit an EA type rear diff into an earlier car, so not really any reason you couldn't. someone else with more knowledge about the earlier car can comment. the only catch with the EJ rear diff is you need one from the Gen 1 Legacy as it has external splines. You can use diffs from a later model, but you'll need those external stub axles (they just snap in) from a Gen 1 Legacy.

Apparently some later model MPFI cars had 25 spline front shafts also like the turbo cars. There's also difference thickness shafts depending on transmission type. As Cyfun said, count the number of splines first. But if your CVs aren't clicking or anything, I wouldn't bother changing them. Just disassemble the inner one, remove the boots & repack both inner & outer with grease & put new boots on & reuse your existing inner. Outer ones tend to go before inners because of the steering.

if you can, go back & snag the vertical bar in the middle of the rad support. It's got an extra bracket for the front spoiler

seems to be some confusion about the size of the bolts/nuts that hold the diff itself up. I kind of remember the rear 2 are 14mm (EJ diffs are definitely 17) & the front bolt being at least 22 & 17mm (the bolt is a weird combination) I agree with disassembling the CV joint rather than trying to get it off the spline. crud & rust over the years might make it difficult to separate under the car. If the tailshaft won't drop once it's undone, remove the bolts from the tailshaft centre bearing carrier. So for safety take: 12mm wrench (take 2 of them in case the tailshaft bolts won't undo) 14mm socket & wrench (non offset type will fit up the gap in the rear moustache bar) 17mm socket & wrench (as for 14) 19mm 22mm knife for cutting CV boots smallish flat screwdriver for popping out CV circlip piece of cardboard/carpet (trunk carpet from another wreck is useful) to drop the diff onto. makes it much easier to slide the diff out from under the car after you've dropping it Grab the edges & pull

so true

glad that I wasn't the only one that seemed the M24 was too little. So the axle thread is M24x1.5, but the axle nut (which I think is the question in the title) is 36mm. Important to make sure to read the question correctly

M24? That seems really small, cos axle nuts here are M36 (which are huge )... I'm in a different market though.