I would like to give back to the USMB community by giving away my extra copy of " How To Keep Your Subaru Alive " 1972-84 to the member that can come up with the best "hack" ( TIP )  on anything that pertains to your subaru.

 

it could be a repair hack, an off roading hack,  a travel hack., a money saving hack. anything that makes owning your subaru easier. i'm open to suggestions to this contest.

 

you can enter as many times as you wish. the top hack can be determined by USMB members themselves by a general consensus .

 

I think we should give this contest a month, till January 31st..  the first week of February  I will mail off the copy to the winner.

 

how does that sound?

Not a Subaru, but this repair can be used on anything with CV axles. I bought a Mercedes sight unseen 1000 miles away and picked it up with some friends. Along with a verity of issues, it had a torn axle boot. I packed the axle with grease then cleaned the outside of the torn boot and cup really well. I used several feet of duct tape wrapped around the axle boot with some zip ties to hold it in place. That repair held for 3000 miles until I finally replaced the axle.

 

 

Friend blew out a strut tower driving down logging roads in northern Maine. I had a chainsaw and some ratchet straps... He drove about 50 miles out of the logging roads and another 200 miles home like that.

 

 

I'll have to think about all the rest of the redneck stuff I've done to get cars home...

At a rallyx once a friend got a rock in his rim and it actually bend the mounting tab on the knuckle where the caliper bracket bolts. The caliper bracket was hitting the rotor so I took about a foot of stainless bailing wire and wrapped it around the bolt making it into a washer. That spaced the bracket out far enough it stopped hitting the rotor. He drove like that for weeks..

Edited December 26, 201510 yr by 987687

that's pretty good. you are the winner so far, ha ha.

Here is one I recently came up with.  The way the front fender and mud flaps come together at the bottom, just ahead of the doors, is a "self destruct by rust system". 

I modified the mud flaps by cutting off the rear part that traps dirt and moisture and holds it in contact with the bottom of the fender.  I also used a piece of the cut off to weld into the hole that was made in the flap to clear the corner of the fender.  So now, water and crud flying off of the tire won't get sprayed in to that [no longer existing] pocket, and the joint where several layers of steel that make the rocker panel and fender meet.  I cut the fender to clear the mud flap, since there is no longer a hole in the flap.  The other layers don't get in the way of the mud flap.  The cut in the fender also should allow crud the gets into the space between the frame and the fender to fall out.  I'm still thinking of opening that up more, but for now it is better than factory.

 

Make sure that the thin plastic liner is layered correctly so the water is lead outside the fender, not inside.  I used POR15 and Waxoyle to protect the various parts during re assembly.  Replace all of the steel fasteners with stainless.

 

 

I was not the one who did this, (and therefore don't deserve or need the prize) but someone got their car home with a broken throttle cable by stringing their shoe laces together and making a hand throttle that they pulled via the drivers side window.

I was not the one who did this, (and therefore don't deserve or need the prize) but someone got their car home with a broken throttle cable by stringing their shoe laces together and making a hand throttle that they pulled via the drivers side window.

that's the kind of tip that may come in handy. thanks.

Hood release cable works as a throttle, kinda awkward to use, but hey. Just make sure to rig up a way to get your hood open again

Next time you have the engine out and wanna tighten the crankshaft bolt, thread a 12'm bolt into the flywheel/flex plate. Use a box end wrench and the bellhousing stud to get those flywheel or flex plate bolts tight,or the aforementioned crankshaft bolt

Next time you have the engine out and wanna tighten the crankshaft bolt, thread a 12'm bolt into the flywheel/flex plate. Use a box end wrench and the bellhousing stud to get those flywheel or flex plate bolts tight,or the aforementioned crankshaft bolt

 

I always use the screwdriver method, use a skinny flat blade screwdriver stuck through the hole in the picture. It works for flexplates, too. Just stick it through the cutout area for the TQ bolt access.

 

By hack do you mean "sh*tty repairs done by a 14 year old that didn't know better"? If so, I think I'd win. Shouldn't have been allowed near my brat back then, lol.

I was BSing with some friends and I remembered this fantastic roadtrip hack I did. It was night and there were a few of us in a friend's car, his tire went flat, turns out the valvestem was dryrotted and cracked off. His spare tire was flat and wouldn't hold air when pumped up with a 12v compressor. While wandering around wondering what to do I came up with a plan.... 

 

I used the spare tire jack to debead the spare tire and hold the bead down far enough I could get the valve stem out. Took a lot of poking with a screwdriver to get it out without breaking it. Did the same on the flat tire, installed the valve stem and we were good to go. Fortunately he had that 12v compressor, I always carry one with me.

By hack do you mean "sh*tty repairs done by a 14 year old that didn't know better"? If so, I think I'd win. Shouldn't have been allowed near my brat back then, lol.

a hack is a tip. perhaps an unusual one, a creative one, or a little known one that can help the subaru owner make a repair on the side of the road with very limited mechanical knowledge or tools to get back on the road.

 

or maybe a tip to get better gas mileage or performance that practically no one else has ever thought of.

 

it could be a tip on making a cross-country or road trip better, easier, or more fun. it could be a money saving tip.

 

basically, what i was looking for was "ah-ha" tips that would surprise, educate, or maybe astound us subie owners in making owning the subaru easier, cheaper, or more fun.

 

"How To Keep Your Subaru Alive" has been a godsend to this non mechanically inclined subie owner. i thought it would be nice to give away my extra copy to a lucky , smart, and inventive USMB member. it would be my way of giving back. USMB members have saved me THOUSANDS of dollars in repair bills by helping me with tips, advice , and confidence in tackling repairs.

 

keep the hacks coming. they are all good. everyone will benefit.

Here is another one I came up with:

 

http://www.dynahoedave.co.nf/solenoid.html

 

How to fix the 35 & 34 error codes for good, and still have the systems working.

Edited January 6, 201610 yr by DaveT

Fuel pump repair:

http://www.dynahoedave.co.nf/fuelpump.html

Huh, cool one on the fuel pump. I just put a $20 f150 pump on mine, but that works, too. The how to keep your subaru alive is a great book, funny read, too. Author is sarcastic. I have the 85+ edition and it's come in handy on my GL more than once.

Any one with a hack good enough to win this contest doesn't need the book.....

im hoping on getting some help on determining the winner.

 

if you like a specific tip or hack then quote it with a plus 1.

 

 

 

read post 1 and 12 to give you an idea what we are looking for here.

 

read next post. hit the like box. thats a better idea.

Edited January 7, 201610 yr by roadsubiedog

im hoping on getting some help on determining the winner.

 

if you like a specific tip or hack then quote it with a plus 1.

 

 

 

read post 1 and 12 to give you an idea what we are looking for here.

Or just go by how many likes a post has.

Or just go by how many likes a post has.

ok. that's good. thanks.

Here is another one I came up with:

 

http://www.dynahoedave.co.nf/solenoid.html

 

How to fix the 35 & 34 error codes for good, and still have the systems working.

boy. that's a real good one. i once replaced a bad line to the clutch reservoir  on my 99 outback with a brake line from a mazda that cost me about 3 bucks from pick n pull. but i got that tip from a USMB member.

I first did that solenoid mod around 1990.  I am still using the SAME solenoids in the EA82s I have now.

Huh, cool one on the fuel pump. I just put a $20 f150 pump on mine, but that works, too. The how to keep your subaru alive is a great book, funny read, too. Author is sarcastic. I have the 85+ edition and it's come in handy on my GL more than once.

I love his "disbelief" in electricity. Cracks me up every time

I love his "disbelief" in electricity. Cracks me up every time

 

Hey I tend to agree... I'm training to be an EE and daily drive a mechanically injected diesel, the more you know.... My auto climate control, vintage 1984, did catch on fire today while driving. So there's that...

1 am on an 800 mile night road trip, all the lug nuts but one sheared off an XT6 wheel.  i used one brake caliper mounting bracket bolt from each front and one rear stud to finish the trip.

 

used a panty hose as a serpentine belt on a 1988 XT to charge a dead battery at idle, then drove the car home 20 miles.

 

XT6 4EAT transmission issues.  trans wasn't shifting properly/undrivable.

disconnect TCU

it defaults to "locked" 4WD and 3rd gear.  perfectly drivable, with binding and only in 3rd gear.

It was too rusty to do a trans swap on but I drove the car for a couple years like this after i installed a switch to manually control the Duty C (just one wire) and switch back and forth between locked 4WD and FWD. 

Edited January 7, 201610 yr by grossgary

This only works for Carb equipped vehicles, but I once used my windshield washer squirter motor as a fuel pump when I was off roading and mine failed.

 

I pulled it off of the reservoir tank and put it inline with the fuel hoses then hardwired it. It worked like a champ to get me off of the trail and home.