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bought shop manual for $8.50 shipped free from ebay guy. Isolated the excess current to the main relay contacts. One set feeds oxygen sensors. That was ok. the other set feeds the 12 volts to solenoids and sensors via a 12 volt buss under the intake mainofld. Found pinched yellow wire with broken insulation going to ground. Wow. Long process but probably saved the owner lots of dollars. Pretty sure the Sube shop would have replaced the enigne harness at $320 plus labor, instead of just finding the one bad wire. Thanks again USMB for great help. rick

Thanks Cougar. Ordered cd last night. Will check wiring one friends car today. rick

Blowing fuse on 2003 forrester. Fuse labeled as SBF 5. Symptoms-car died on the road Any suggestions as where to start? Also looking for advice on good source for factory service manual. Either hardcopy or cd. thanks Rick

Nipper I was wrong. No clicking of relay with turn signals on. 4 ways work fine. According to my "old" schematic there is a fuse that functions through the ignition switch for only turn signals. Flashers are fed by fuse from battery and hence always active. For this 1998 Forester we found no reference to turn signal fuses on any fuse box covers or the vague owners manual. Also the instrument lights (and maybe the instruments also, can't recall) are kaput. Should this clue us as to a fuse, although all we found were fine. Most auto electric issues are not bad if you have good print and can find all the components. I need to follow through with your kind offer of the cd manual. thanks again. rick

Nipper You drive a hard deal. His story is vague. Something about rewiring a front signal socket and seeing sparks. After that, he can heard relay clicky but no flashy. I will travel to his place during my lunch and review with 1990 subaru shop manual section #6 in hand. Will pm you and take advantage of your kind offer. thanks rick

Good friend has 1999 Forester with turn signal problem. Neither he or I have a schematic. I do have a set of shop manuals for my fleet of 1990 Legacys. Is the wiring in this area fairly close or way different? What is good price to pay for shop manuals for 99 Forester? Ebay? thanks Rick w mi

Sorry for the abbreviations boys. I thought xmsn would be clear. Ob99w pegged things with ham radio. I have been a morse operator for 45 years and shortcuts really expedite things. Aa8jz is the call sign. Now on to the xmsn(oops). tnx (oops) r

There has been some discussion lately about which is best way to get a xmsn out. Pull the engine first. I pulled the tranny out last week and it was way too much work. Without a hoist to use I would rather have a root canal without nitrous or novacaine. Having said that, the new xmsn is in, but the blasted splash plate that covers the clutch and flywheel got bent, is rubbing badly and making a heck of a racket. Can it be snuck out without engine removal? This job is consuming too much of my quickly fading michigan summer. tnx r

Foggy lenses are a big pain and expensive to replace. A quick and easy fix that will bring out the shine is a rub of the lenses with a rag barely wet with brake fluid. Be quick and careful as it will soften the polycarbonate (that the right name of the material?). It won't make them brand new but 2 minutes every so often helps a lot. gl

There is a fellow on this great website that helped me out of the same dilema. He had a clever fix that required so tool room work. He tied the crank timing gear to the drive pulley with 2 rollpins 180 degrees apart. Machined properly this new one piece unit snugs up tighter then the hubs of hell. I Had an old cigar chomping machinist at work do mine up and been driving 30k + miles. Wish I had saved the guys correspondence. Wait, I found the hardcopy in my sube manual. WAWalker is his usb name. posted 3/14/06 Hope this helps. rick

I failed to follow the suggestions offered from those much wiser than I. Being a cheap sort, I put in the awd xmsn over the past few weeks. Stubbed off the rear drive shaft and added the extra bracket for the carrier bearing. The car drives as though the clutch is slipping in the lower gears. Not so noticable in the higher gears. Just the opposite of an actually bad clutch. With the car in 1st gear and parked on a sloping driveway, clutch engaged, it just rolls backwards. I am wondering if welding of the center diff, however one would do that is feasable. Would the same thing be accomplished by seazing up the carrier bearing somehow? I sure don't want to bite the bullet and pull everything out again and redo all the work to put in the fwd xmsn if there is a less painful option. Remind me to listen better next time. rick A lot of work for naught so far. rick

It appears the consensus is spring the extra money and go 2wd. I was not planning on going awd though. No rear diff or any of that. Just use the awd as 2wd because it is cheap and real close to home. This is not a real shiney, hey look a me kind of car. Just want to get the last son through school. And school being real expensive, saving 250 to 300 dollars is a big deal. tnx guys rick w mi

As of today, engine is hanging on hoist. I found a 2wd xmsn 300 miles away. $300 not delivered. Found awd 20 miles away still in car. $100 I pull motor and xmsn. Car delivered to my garage on trailer. How would you guys go with this? I sure like to save 200 + bucks but don't want to do all the work and still have to do the long drive for a 2wd. Any wiring issues? It seems there is something about a fuse under the hood that when pulled drops awd into fwd only. Like it would do any good with fuse in place. Someone mentioned welding up the differential. I guess I will try the site he referenced. tnx rick

My only experience listening to the xmsn has been with the front wheels up on a jack. Neutral and 5th gear (position on the shift lever) are the only two that will cause wheels to spin. Others cause very solid motor stall on clutch release. No unusual noise heard in any case. The gear lube was down half a qt when we first snooped around. Added to full. Lube appears clean with no tell tale flakes of metal. Hopefully today will be able to further investigate input linkage. Is it possible with external linkage manipulation to acutally cause a input shaft lockup?

nipper You talk about checking bushings in linkage and radius rod. I assume this is external to the xmsn case? As too burn outs. I can say the kid is way past doing that sort of stuff as he knows how much of his time is involved in fixing things. If I do put in an awd xmsn, my first concern is that it will indeed work ok. Another thought though and this will not stop me from preceeding, but will fuel economy take any sort of dip with the more rotating mass etc. even though there will be no rear drive mechanisms? Will I be fool hardy to even take a peak into the guts of the old xmsn?? tnx r

AE tnx for the post. my initial thoughts exactly. I am not sure that solves my problem as the inside of xmsns scare the heck out of me. If all else fails, and it looks like it is failing-can't find a used xmsn, as a last resort I will rip into it and see what I can find. One question to others though. I have a line on an awd manual xmsn. Will it be possible to make this work. Just not use the drive shaft to the rear wheels?? rick

Towed son's 91 Legacy 2wd 5 speed manual home yesterday. Engaging clutch in any gear, including neutral would stall motor. Jacked front wheels up and found neutral acted like 4th or 5th gear- 1000 rpm=25 mph on speedo, wheels spinning free. 5 th gear position seemed the same. All others appeared dead lock, stalled motor. Any chance the fix is other then major? Thinking it is time to find good used tranny. What is a fair price? tnx rick w mi

Impreza 1997 automatic xmsn rear drive shaft seal is leaking Too difficult for rookies? Take it to the shop? Typical costs?? tnx rick w mi

As I said earlier, the coupling we installed is better then the removed unit. Friend is going to make a run down south to get a rust free sube and while down there will look for a better coupling. Sure wish I would have checked the coupling before doing the rack. Once the snow leaves the roads a bit (tmrw I think) will give a good test run. If you do things right the first time, you don't learn much. rick

Completed installation last night. After much squealing from pump, it finally quieted down. Took for a short test drive and still not convinced all is well. Some stiff spots off center of wheel. I did notice some slight foaming in the reservoir. How much driving before the system has purged all the air? r w mi

I did not check the rack with the wheels off the ground. I have just found a much better used coupling and will install this afternoon. It too shows some very light binding in the same joint. Better then the other. Must be something about Michigan's winter road conditions. When done with the installation will hopefully report back with good news. tnx for reply. rick

Been a long while since I've been here. No major troubles - til now. Changed son's steering rack on his 1991 Legacy wagon. Had some stiff spots in the rotation of the wheel. Tried the easy thing first, power steering pump. Today we put in a used rack and noticed the double u-joint coupling was somewhat bound up. I believe it was the lower joint. Tried one from an old xt laying in the backyard but it was just a little too short. We are going shopping for another coupling tomorrow. Anyone seen such problems? Did I need to change the rack or just the coupling. Kind of late now but I'd sure appreciate any insight. tnx rick w. mi.

Title says most all of it. Son has '90 fwd 5 speed manual wagon. Can a control unit be pulled off junker? Big job? How about new retro fit equipment. tnx rick w mi

Have a 1992 Loyale. Manual 2wd wagon. Motor is about ready to go back in. Clutch is about .260 " thick. Should I dig around for one with more meat?? tnx rick w mi

yup.