What did you do to your 4th gen. Legacy today? Vol - 10

[Infosecdad]

Did a little bit today.

Put 235/40R18 Michelin CrossClimate2 on Rota Gravel 18x8.5 that I got from UTC_Pryo.

Beefy setup, wouldn't want any bigger.

 

Then put the 18x7.5 STi wheels on the '99 Outback.

Waiting for the last strut mount and I'll be able to swap out the lifted OEM struts with a set of KYB w/ King Outback lowering springs (last set Primitive had in stock). Should lower about 3" from now.

[Febreze Mee]

On 10/21/2022 at 6:27 AM, Scottydunno said:

I stared at my instrument cluster... 

Now that the car has been relegated to weekend warrior duty, I've been noticing small things. One of those things was the needles for the speedo and tach. Someone in one of the FB subaru groups I'm in said that they aren't centered. I laughed and thought that was nuts. They weren't wrong and it now catches my attention everytime I look down.

Why the hell would you share this info here, now I'm damned too haha

In other news, I changed the spark plugs today with NGK Iridum IXs. Starts strong, idles strong. I'll take a closer look at the old plugs tonight just to get an idea of how they wore (e.g normally, carbon-fouled, oil-fouled, or over-heating). Rebuilding my spare PS pump tonight with a Gates kit. Hoping to rebuild the STi rack next weekend since I was still waiting on parts from the dealer into this weekend. Maintenance is coming along nice and well.

[tehspud]

I *really* want to do the STI steering rack, I'm just not confident in my ability to actually do it correctly, keep the wheel straight, etc by myself, in my crappy garage. 

[pksystems]

Finished installing cylinder 4 cooling mod.

Started test fitting parts to figure out my braided fuel line routing.  It makes contact with front oil line using a 90, and makes contact with upper coolant reservoir using a 90.  I hope a 120 end will fit through the intake manifold.  

90 degree steel orb-8 to 3/8 JIC fitting will clear front oil line.  I don't want to use these, but I think that's the only solution.  Rear fitting will either be 120 degree, or I go around the back of intake.

Edited October 25, 2022 by pksystems

[ohno06gt]

Had a clunking in the front end that's been getting progressively worse.  Jacked it up and realized it's my ball joint.  Started lubing up the pinch bolt and ball joint on passenger side.  Ordered the astro pneumatic ball joint tool.

Don't even want to drive the car right now.   I've seen what happens when one lets loose on the road.

Anyone have tips for ball joint replacement?  Praying I don't have to drill the pinch bolt out.

[cheeseenlo]

On 10/22/2022 at 12:04 PM, rhino6303 said:

That's an easy swap. You won't need to drop the transmission.

I sent killer b my pan and my oil pump. They still believe it was an issue from my setup that caused the drop in oil pressure rather than the broken baffle restricting flow so I sent my pump in to prove the bypass valve moves freely and the gears were fine.

It sucks that I'll have to start again and my motivation to do it is low. We're building a house and all extraneous funds are low. I may just flush oil several times and send it knowing a bearing is on its way out. I have a new oil cooler already to swap.

Advice?

@rhino6303 I didn't get very far this weekend. But here's my plan of attack - 

-Support the transmission

-Remove the crossmember bolts. Remove the radiator support brackets / shroud. Remove the dog bone (trans side)

-Remove the front mount intercooler 

-Loosen the engine mount nuts

-Slowly lower the transmission

Hope I'm not missing anything but the goal is to have the tail end lower enough for me to snake my hand in between the tunnel and the transmission. I'm not sure if the driveshaft will bind up if I don't remove it from the trans. 

[JohnDeere714]

3 hours ago, ohno06gt said:

Had a clunking in the front end that's been getting progressively worse.  Jacked it up and realized it's my ball joint.  Started lubing up the pinch bolt and ball joint on passenger side.  Ordered the astro pneumatic ball joint tool.

Don't even want to drive the car right now.   I've seen what happens when one lets loose on the road.

Anyone have tips for ball joint replacement?  Praying I don't have to drill the pinch bolt out.

Just found out a loose pinch bolt was the source of my clunking. 

What you want to do is absolutely soak that pinchbolt in penetrating oil and add some moderate heat with a torch. I would recommend using a 3/8 impact on a low setting to help knock the rust loose, dont go balls to the wall.  You can try just getting away with a ratchet.

Now for the balljoint. If its factory, the threads are 9 times out of 10 going to be fucked no matter what. Threads on both of mine rounded out taking the castle nut.  Do not take the castle nut off!!!! Jam a chisle into the knuckle to loosen up the pinch on the ball joint and get a nice big hammer and a metal pipe or some sort of long metal thing and go to town on that control arm.  Stick a block of wood under the brake rotor to keepthe hub from moving. With enough pounsing on the control arm the ball joinh should pop out. When installing the new ball joint remember that anti seize is your best friend. 

[KZJonny]

36 minutes ago, JohnDeere714 said:

When installing the new ball joint remember that anti seize is your best friend. 

I now have three different types of anti-sieze and use them all regularly. This may be more of a rust belt thing, but it also feels a little like a Subaru owner thing as well... 

[JohnDeere714]

10 minutes ago, KZJonny said:

I now have three different types of anti-sieze and use them all regularly. This may be more of a rust belt thing, but it also feels a little like a Subaru owner thing as well... 

Life would be a lot easier if subaru had a hole on top of the pinch or at least a better design

[Max Capacity]

1 hour ago, JohnDeere714 said:

Life would be a lot easier if subaru had a hole on top of the pinch or at least a better design

I think it's more of the manufactures not using good quality hardware. But doing that would raise the cost of building the car.

[BoozeRS05]

Went to get in my wagon yesterday and felt the driver handle snap inside the door. Can’t open the damn driver door from the outside now. So I’m one of the people who have to crawl in another door to get in my car.

The clear coat is just starting to fail, so I’ll probably replace/repaint them all over the winter. Quick search online at the junkyard first though.

I’d recently taken the door apart for my mirrors so maybe the clip came undone somehow.

[xt2005bonbon]

On 10/22/2022 at 12:04 PM, rhino6303 said:

I sent killer b my pan and my oil pump. They still believe it was an issue from my setup that caused the drop in oil pressure rather than the broken baffle restricting flow so I sent my pump in to prove the bypass valve moves freely and the gears were fine.

It sucks that I'll have to start again and my motivation to do it is low. We're building a house and all extraneous funds are low. I may just flush oil several times and send it knowing a bearing is on its way out. I have a new oil cooler already to swap.

Advice?

Have you sent a UOA to blackstone? I would also do several of those for the next few months.

[Febreze Mee]

21 hours ago, tehspud said:

I *really* want to do the STI steering rack, I'm just not confident in my ability to actually do it correctly, keep the wheel straight, etc by myself, in my crappy garage. 

It's very doable. Watch a few videos. Schedule an alignment in advance. It's very straight forward.
 

All you need is for rack removal and installation is:

- 2-6hrs of time (depending on how diligently you work)

- basic hand tools (sockets/socket wrenches/hammer)

- fluids (ATF, brake parts cleaners, PB Blaster/Aerokroil)

- a pickle fork (for ball joint removal)

Things that I would have recommend having extra of just in case:

- cotter pins for the castle nuts on the ball joints

- ball joints (in case you rip a boot on removal)

As for the steering wheel problem, don't let a quick knock on the neighbor's door keep you from doing this swap. I'd do this swap in a parking lot if I needed to, your garage will do fine!

[Febreze Mee]

9 hours ago, cheeseenlo said:

@rhino6303 I didn't get very far this weekend. But here's my plan of attack - 

-Support the transmission

-Remove the crossmember bolts. Remove the radiator support brackets / shroud. Remove the dog bone (trans side)

-Remove the front mount intercooler 

-Loosen the engine mount nuts

-Slowly lower the transmission

Hope I'm not missing anything but the goal is to have the tail end lower enough for me to snake my hand in between the tunnel and the transmission. I'm not sure if the driveshaft will bind up if I don't remove it from the trans. 

This is not to insult your intelligence, but don't forget to disconnect the ground cable if you still have it

[cheeseenlo]

13 hours ago, Febreze Mee said:

This is not to insult your intelligence, but don't forget to disconnect the ground cable if you still have it

Ha! Good call. Is don’t think the trans move that far down but it doesn’t hurt to undo it. 
 

Did everything I could last night but the transmission moved probably an inch. Not enough space to even get my hand to touch the sensor. I was hesitant to pull the driveshaft so I wouldn’t lose any fluid. Hoping I can drop the driveshaft from the rear diff and have it angled down enough to get more tilt. Other than that I might have to get creative here. 

[rhino6303]

More fun news. Killer bee believes the baffle was broken upon pan install and that it's been this way for a long time. My oil pump looked good though. It will cost me $45 for a new baffle. I imagine I will have to pay return shipping as well.

I just can't fathom an error when installing the pan on my stand 4 years ago with all new clean engine, etc and having no evidence of an issue until now. I can see how it can happen installing with an engine in the car but not on a stand.

Edited October 26, 2022 by rhino6303

[xt2005bonbon]

What the heck? How can you mess this up? It's impossible. I am starting not to like them even more...

Did you see my question about UOA? Have you sent one?

[rhino6303]

3 minutes ago, xt2005bonbon said:

What the heck? How can you mess this up? It's impossible. I am starting not to like them even more...

Did you see my question about UOA? Have you sent one?

I did see it but never sent a uoa. I didn't have a kit or place to store a small sample. I'll send one once I get it put together and flushed a few times.

[xt2005bonbon]

You may be able to find some left over oil somewhere in the engine using a syringe or something no? You probably know this already, but you can ask Blackstone to send you a few kits for free.

[Febreze Mee]

Finished rebuilding the PS pump with fresh o-rings and a fresh SKF bearing pressed in. Cleaned as much of the gunk off the pump and bracket as possible. It looks worlds cleaner now!

[Haze]

Finished the electrical repairs and put the interior back together.

Ended up removing around half a dozen wires that weren't connected to anything at one end. Had to make repairs behind the left fender, in the hatch and behind the taillights.

Wasn't happy with the wiring to the wideband and boost gauges so that all got re-done along with adding wiring for oil pressure and EGT gauges. The 0-5V and serial data outputs from the wideband had never been hooked up to anything so now I don't trust the tune that's on the car.

[Scottydunno]

As weird as this sounds..

I miss driving my GT. A 100hp, 6th gear, and AWD difference is ALOT! I have a wedding to go to this weekend and decided to drive the car to knock the rust off the brakes and give it some good attention.

Come to find out, my rear backing plates are returning to earth via natural selection.. joy! Are these available at all??? 

[xt2005bonbon]

^ Scotty, what have you been driving?

[John Denny]

Fitted 2 new rear boot struts, and a set of front and rear disks, cars just been back from local garage where it had cambelt service, ac belt tensioner kit, thermostat, front lower arm bushes, rear disk sim and new pads, and rocker cover gasket replacements, and I gave the complete underneath a Lanogaurd rust protection covering and some waxoil under the arches, so a busy few weeks.

Edited October 28, 2022 by John Denny
Added pictures

[xt2005bonbon]

I am having a weird issue: I swapped my front axles with some raxles last March (158K). Then, the driver side axle seal failed a couple of weeks later. No big deal, I changed it making sure I put the correct seal. Now, almost 6 months later (165k), it failed again. Very strange.