Subaru 1986 wagon 4wd ,restauration story

[Hendrik]

A LITTLE SUBARU RESTAURATION STORY.

 

As a just retired man I have plenty of time , which came handy

this year.

 

In the following story I still have a few questions ,

marked with * , I would be gratefull for answers...

May be my experience is helpfull for others.

 

In April 2004 I bought my current car :

 

Subaru 1800 , 4WD Turbo , stationwagon , build in March 1986.

Quite old , but in a good condition , had just about 100.000 Km's.

It hibernated for some years.

 

Automatic 3 speed , 4 WD "on demand" or constant 4 WD (selectable)

There is a electric clutch between the rear drive shaft and

gearbox , no one manual mentions it.....

 

*is it with iron powder ?

 

It instantly couples or breaks the connection between front and rear

axes , you can change it even in turns.

 

The on-demand works automatically if you break ,

(a kind of pre-ABS) , or if you push the accelerator

to the floor for a kick-down,

or if you put the front wipers in action.

This works also in the intermittent position ,

which is not needed or even useful in my opinion....

 

*Anybody knows which wire (color) goes from the wiper switch

 

to the electronics to flag the wiper action ?

And where is this detection logic : inside the ECM ?

 

A full electronic dash , would do for a DC 10....

 

At the time where the car was first sold , it was very luxerious

and complete , especially at European standards.

 

It is sofar the nicest car I had ; very good handling at

high speed , plenty of power , and very complete.

 

Now in December , it has 110.000 Km's.

 

Everything worked fine , exept the height control.

The air suspension system was replaced by normal struts/schocks

already by the former owner.

 

I repaired the compressor and drier ,

so the "underpressure detection" was switched off by the electronical

circuits , no blinking anymore at the dash.

Seems that the rest of these electronical circuits , work fine.

I could still order the original air suspension units :

costs , more than $1500......

It seems that these components have a short lifetime.

 

* Second hand possebilities ?

 

The front struts/shocks where not the right ones ,

the height at the front axe was too low , (I assume that

it was a pair for a lighter model car).

The easiest solution was to put in some material in between

the strut upper mounting plate and the chassis ,

to raise the body from ground.

In this way you do not have to remove the spring assembly

from the steering knuckle...

 

I took at each side 3 hexagonal pieces , long 35 mm ,

with internal threads , same as the upper mounting plate

already has , and some 3 mm enforcement material

at the chassis side.

As a consequence the vehicule front did rise 4 cm , following

now the general vehicule specification.

I guess the alignment is still correct , I could not see any difference

in tire whear or feel a difference.

 

Just after my initial purchase I asked a dealer to change the

timing-belts as I did not know the date of last change.

(I also did not have any knowledge or documentation ,

or time ,to do it myself , at that moment)

He changed those , together with the belt tensioners.

It still had the first factory fitted belts.......

(You normally change these at every 5 years or 100.000 Km's.....)

 

He replaced as well the 2 normal V-belts for waterpump/alternator ,

not quite correctly fitted as their tension was too high.....

This became clear after the first trip , a 1100 Km distance.

The bearing from the waterpump did not like it......

Later I had to replace therefore the waterpump , quite a job .

 

In the meantime I got two manuals : A Haynes and Chilton , both are

not fantastic , but at least it helps (Haynes is less worst)

 

Then nearly everything was taken apart , all the plastic shells inside,

opened the inside of all doors , cleaned and lubricated the

window motors and mecanics. Rust was a bit there , treated with

a 'rust coverter'.

 

More rust became visible after removal of the fenders.

The rear fenders , at the low side from wheel to rear bumper , were

completely rusted and had big wholes.

I cutted all away and put a lot of epoxy and fiberglass instead.

After several days it now looks as new........

There was more rust , but not dramaticaly bad . All places treated.

 

At some time (after a ride and summertime) the starter did just "click"

I measured the resistance of the solenoid , about 0,2 Ohm.

With a old ignition switch you would get more or less the same value....

So no very much power to the solenoid.

I just added an extra relais with an extra 25 A fuse.

Never had any more problems...

 

Recently one of the coolant hoses from the Turbocharger did leak ,

on a trip from 800 Km.....A temporairy clamp around it

helped to continue the trip.

Of course it was the one underneath the turbo charger and gradully

impossible to remove and replace.

It took me one day to find out how to remove it and another day

to fix it really....I did not like to remove the turbocharger

totally from the exhaust system and also not from the engine side.

All nuts are frozen like hell....

 

The cooling in-and out-let pipes on the charger are small pipes with

an angle of about 90 degrees on which the hoses are clamped.

These pipes are bolted on the leftside of the charger.

There is a small strip of metal between the 2 flanges of the pipes,

seems to be glued together with some black material.

 

* What is the purpose of this strip ?

(I cutted it the middle , enabling to mount the lower pipe with

the hose mounted in it. It is a special hose with attached heat protection)

 

 

The upper bolt is easy , place enough to remove it.

The lower one : NO , the bolt can be unscrewed a bit , then

it blocks against the flywheel housing......

The one who designed it , must have been a devil !

I decided to cut some 8 mm's away from this aluminium flywheel housing.

Remains still a lot of material , no real weakening of the housing.

Now the job was easy.

After all , 18 years of service with the original hoses!

I ordered now also all other hoses....No foreseeable problems there.

 

Inside the cockpit there is a red lamp lighting up if one (or both)

of the "stop-bulbs" are gone. It lights also up at starting , before

the engine runs.

The detection was faulty , every time you brake , this light came up.

The detection unit is in the right rear lampholder.

It consists mainly out of 2 current coils (relais) and another relais.

Inside the current coils are 'reed relais' mounted , a glass tube who

easily breaks. Changed it : a 1 $ piece.

 

Recently , (you remark it when it has snow...) the rear window defroster

does not work , in the dash it is indicated , but no...

All fuses okay , like fusible links ; remains the relais...

 

*Where is the defroster relais ?

 

* If already at relais : where is the relais for the fuel pump ?