I'm with you on that...It used to take me 1 1/2 hrs to blow ours... that got old quick so I got a quad with a plow
I did absolutely nothing to my Subaru today. However I did get calls from two different people, one with a newer and one with an older outback complaining of a suddenly noticeable wheel vibration above 60 miles an hour. Public service announcement time, Go get a car wash and get rid of the snow pack in/on your wheels, hubs, and brakes. That resolved the issue for these folks.
Had to pull mine into our shop this afternoon for a quick wheel/wheel well wash. For some crazy reason it was warbling at 60mph. Must have been from yesterday’s hoonage.
My paint stick with a plastic scrapper duct taped to the end is still serving me very well as a post-hoonage wheel scraper!
The daily, '00 Impreza OBS, all of a sudden began to sound like complete death. Initially it sounded like it was coming from the bellhousing area of the motor and I was almost certain it was main bearings or rod bearings or something catastrophic. I started poking around a bit more with the car running and realized it was coming from the timing cover. As I popped the timing cover off, I let a bunch of magic ball bearings out onto the garage floor. Once I got the cover all the way off, this is what I discovered: I drove it like that for a day, thinking it was a ticking time bomb until the motor seized up. LOL. Got super lucky. Timing kit install tomorrow and she should be good as new 210k miles on the car and who knows when the last time the belt was changed. This is what happens when you neglect regular maintenance...
This little guy held on for dear life lol. How it didn’t let loose inside the timing cover is beyond me. New timing kit is in and the shaggin’ wagon is back in business P.S. Yes, that’s a Chinese bearing from a Gates kit. Not real excited about that, but still gunna send it.
Greaseable factory U-joints: 2018-01-30_10-11-44 by Numbchux, on Flickr Rear Ujoint in our Outback failed so badly it wrecked the yoke. Fixable, but at the very least would require balancing. I happened across a driveshaft at UPull with good joints. I didn't want to open pandora's box by replacing them, but I wanted to do something to prolong their life. I began experimenting with the joints in the old shaft. Cross is hollow, so a grease fitting in one cap would get grease to all 4 bearings. But the cap was hardened, and took me a few tries to drill through. I ended up getting a carbide tipped bit, and drilled, tapped, and installed a fitting.
Awesome! Can I ask a you a u joint related question? I've got a 92 GMC truck. Had a clicking in the rear, speed dependent and determined it to be the rear u joint (via movement when pryed on with a pry bar). Replaced with a Moog one. Was dead silent right away and now the new one sounds worse than the old one did... Did I do something wrong? Seemed like the new one had an optional grease zirc (I had to remove a plug to put the zirc in, so I'm assuming you could run it either way). I didn't add any additional grease as it seemed ready to go.
Typically, the grease in them is assembly lube, and the plug is only for packaging assembly. You should put the zerk in and push plenty of fresh grease through them after installation.
Thanks, Chux. So basically what happened is I've killed the new one by running it dry. At least it's a relatively cheap part. The Moog joint I bought came with a zirc that requires the needle style fitting. Any idea what brands use traditional "external" zircs?
You could likely just remove that needle style and swap in your own traditional provided there is clearance for it and its not press in,
I was kinda thinking something like that as well. It is indeed thread in. I'll get a new one and try to score a different style zirc at the same time.
That's weird that they would use that style fitting. Every greaseable joint I've seen came with a traditional zerk. And since Moog is owned by Federal Mogul...I wouldn't think they'd do anything different. But sometimes they do. If it's 1/4-28 thread, it should be extremely easy to grab a zerk at the parts store and thread that in instead.
Replaced the last of the spark plugs on our H6 Outback last night. I did some from underneath while I had the valve covers off on the hoist last week, but due to the repair to the frame rail, I couldn't get at the #4 and #6 plugs that way. So I jacked the motor up. I undid one motor mount, the pitch stopper and the exhaust from the head on that side, and lifted away, and then it was super easy to get at those 2 coils/plugs.
I rolled 170k on the WRX wagon last weekend on the way up to Lutsen! Didn't get a picture, but it rolled in Duluth.
Time will tell. After a few days, it seemed to go away, but came back again after I did the one on this side.
Replaced the stock shift knob with a Raceseng Orbature. This knob weighs about 475g - over twice the stock weight. Looks nice and the plastic cover helps insulate from the cold bare metal. Figure it will also help with the summer heat.
All ready for the move thanks to the crew at JM! IAG AOS installed, replaced my busted trans mount and an inspection to make sure the grocery getter is good to go! And the drive from Osseo to Lakeville was an added bonus.
Lifted the wagon this weekend. Should have new wheels and tires next week to match the lift better then the ones on it now. Going to Jeff to have adjustable lateral links and an alignment done.
Had the WRX in at JMA for TGV and EGR deletes and install a Grimmspeed catted j-pipe. Of course, Devin tuned it. Amazing how much the car wakes up when it can breathe better. The folks at JMA are butt-dyno approved!
Rebuilt the starter for our Outback. I swapped an Impreza one that I had in it, which sort of worked. But the Impreza one was direct drive, and the Outback was gear reduction. The direct drive required much more amperage to turn over the EZ30, which put the final nail in my 6-year old battery's coffin. Pretty hard to spend less than about $70 on a very cheap reman starter. Or, I spent about 10 extra minutes replacing the contacts in the solenoid (brushes in the motor looked fine), and I'm good to go. Used this kit: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0031HMS7C/
Nice, had to do that on my 4runner. Def took way longer to extract/install the starter than it did to rebuild it.
True, and I had to remove/install it twice to see what was wrong with it/identify what kit I needed to fix it....but IMHO still worth it.
Today, I installed a 150w amp and 12 in Rockford sub, replaced CV joint rubber boot metal strap. It broke and greese was all over.
