Forum noob,

From central Wisconsin, bought myself an '89 GL wagon (Dual Range, oohlala). Currently my daily and what I'm using to gain experience repairing my own vehicle.

There will be questions. 

Welcome and sweet score. Been a long time since I’ve moved on from those but still a place in my heart for the dual range five speed. 
 

Is that really a Wisconsin car ? Looks too good to be from the rust belt. Enjoy it ! 
 

Start searching parts cars. 

She's a Cali girl. It's made getting parts interesting since all GL's around had disintegrated 20 years ago. I rust treated her 80% of the way this year, and next year I'll be more thorough, addressing all the rust I can but most is up front underneath near the steering rack, and near the base of the windshield. 

I've been to Michigan for a replacement dual range transmission, Minnesota for a huge parts lot, and Illinois for an EA81 (only 60k miles!) which is my engine-swap if push comes to shove and I cannot source an EA82. All parts that aren't listed online are basically unobtanium, but that makes it fun.

:] Noah

Here’s one suggestion. And this is what I did and at least one other guy back in the day.

Find the old Owner’s manual with the Dealer locator and the other crap. Toss the other crap and look at that dealer locator and now see which of those are still around. 
 

Call the parts guy, and do not talk to anyone else or let anyone else there know why you’re calling. 
 

If there’s a closet, loft, storage container, etc etc where they kept tucking parts away it’ll be THAT GUY who knows it and would help you. 
 

Ok so it’s about to be 2025 now so this might not be as beneficial as it was when I was hunting 20-25 year old parts. Yours are now over 30 and we live in a different age.

 

Keep in mind the basic story of Subaru in the USA. When they started to catch on they screwed their mom n pop corner lot dealers who were unable to make the jump to the size they wanted their dealers to take on. 
 

Enter the new wave of dealers and they’re rump roast kissers to SOA. 
SOA tells them they have to damage and destroy parts as they age past their sales limit. So lots of 80’s parts didn’t quite make it like the 70’s parts did.

70’s stuff still shows up. It’s its own weird story. 
 

Good luck. 
Same here , haven’t seen a boxy rump roast GL DL Loyale around here in ages. But my 79 is a freak show. 
Enjoy it ! 

Holy tinfoil hats, Batman! 

I love how planned obsolescence destroys good things. I'd almost rather the conspiracy of the parts being destroyed by a tsunami or nuclear disaster be true than dealers destroying parts.

The search is the tedious, fun part for me. Requires networking, you meet cool people, and there's always a story.

Keep 'em alive. If they've should have been thrown away then don't make them a blast to drive (modern vehicle corporations have picked up on this.)