What did you do to your 2nd Generation Subaru today? - V3

What does it mean title: Monkey? I'm an Ape.

Replaced the alternator, mine died the Thursday of the major ice storms after I took my wife out for her first donuts on Wednesday.

 

Sent from my SM-N950U1 using Tapatalk

Well I've had my 99 L30th wagon since April and I've finally decided to start putting work into it. Redid the brakes completely up front and new pads/rotors in the rear. Still need to redo the ebrake guts though. New tires coming soon, and then on to starting the rust repairs I think.

 

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

 

Cosmo CAI

ACT Stage 1 clutch & lwfw

new clutch master cyl

cut off tow hitch

exhaust leak sealed up (no longer an accidental muffler delete)

new ignition switch (still needs a starter)

 

just got it back from the shop today. they did the crank seals (which had gone bad) and i asked them to do all the other stuff i listed while they had the engine out. i had also given them the kartboy single pulley lwcp, but i guess the guy didn't install it because it didn't have a harmonic dampener like the oem one... told him it was fine, wish he had called and asked before just not installing it... but next time i visit my friend (maybe post-quarantine?) we're going to install it, and hook up the dual exit exhaust from his 06 gt now that my stock exhaust isn't all f****d up.

 

Cosmo CAI

ACT Stage 1 clutch & lwfw

new clutch master cyl

cut off tow hitch

exhaust leak sealed up (no longer an accidental muffler delete)

new ignition switch (still needs a starter)

 

just got it back from the shop today. they did the crank seals (which had gone bad) and i asked them to do all the other stuff i listed while they had the engine out. i had also given them the kartboy single pulley lwcp, but i guess the guy didn't install it because it didn't have a harmonic dampener like the oem one... told him it was fine, wish he had called and asked before just not installing it... but next time i visit my friend (maybe post-quarantine?) we're going to install it, and hook up the dual exit exhaust from his 06 gt now that my stock exhaust isn't all f****d up.

 

Looks good! Your bat + cable being significantly larger than your bat - cable is driving me nuts.

IIRC currently accepted electron flow theory purports the electrons to flow from negative to positive, so if that theory holds your bat+ is big for no reason.

 

I know that doesn't matter, and you probably just used what you have like every normal person.

Looks good! Your bat + cable being significantly larger than your bat - cable is driving me nuts.

IIRC currently accepted electron flow theory purports the electrons to flow from negative to positive, so if that theory holds your bat+ is big for no reason.

 

I know that doesn't matter, and you probably just used what you have like every normal person.

 

thanks! that pic doesn't really show the full battery/wiring situation tho:

 

hope that clears some things up. the starter has its own ground, so there's a neg mate to that extra pos cable. same for the circuit panel, it has its own ground, so there's a mate for that as well. the primary neg cable is 0 gauge just like the pos cable that goes to the alternator. i even added an additional ground wire directly from the battery to the body.

 

so i think there should be adequate neg flow from the battery. but if you have some thoughts i'd be interested to hear. i got most of my ideas for this set-up from watching aaron murakami (i think that's his name) on yt, the instructions for my grounding kit, and reading around on the forums. i think i'm also running a special kind of spark plug but i can't remember what it is rn.

 

one other thing, i know those terminals are garbage. i had military grade terminals but they didn't fit right on these posts... or i lost one of the bolts... it's on my list of things, had mostly forgotten about it, thanks for reminding me to look at that area.

Edited March 26, 2020 by Leggyobw97

thanks! that pic doesn't really show the full battery/wiring situation tho:

 

hope that clears some things up. the starter has its own ground, so there's a neg mate to that extra pos cable. same for the circuit panel, it has its own ground, so there's a mate for that as well. the primary neg cable is 0 gauge just like the pos cable that goes to the alternator. i even added an additional ground wire directly from the battery to the body.

 

so i think there should be adequate neg flow from the battery. but if you have some thoughts i'd be interested to hear. i got most of my ideas for this set-up from watching aaron murakami (i think that's his name) on yt, the instructions for my grounding kit, and reading around on the forums. i think i'm also running a special kind of spark plug but i can't remember what it is rn.

 

one other thing, i know those terminals are garbage. i had military grade terminals but they didn't fit right on these posts... or i lost one of the bolts... it's on my list of things, had mostly forgotten about it, thanks for reminding me to look at that area.

 

Ah I see it now. I work on auction cars for a living so please pardon my low expectations lol

 

I really like solder cup terminals that you can put in a vice and melt solder in with a torch, then insert the prepared wire. You should cut and strip the cable such that 1/16" of bare wire protrudes from the terminal cup when inserted. A slight twist can make insertion a little nicer. Heat shrink with glue will guarantee you won't have typical green high resistance corrosion.

A harbor freight hydraulic crimp tool works well for the quick and dirty to get you back on the road or for an interior battery compartment not subjected to environmental extremes like inside an engine bay.

Lately my hood has been refusing to latch. I tracked the problem to the end of the cable sheath breaking at the pull handle under the dash.

 

Today I made a small sheet metal bracket to support the sheath where it enters the pull mechanism. It is riveted to the pull and keeps the cable held in position pointing straight out of the back of the mechanism. The break was allowing it to lean to the side instead of going straight in.

 

It works great now and I don't have to fish a new cable through.

I just put a deposit down on a Forester xt donor car for my baby! Nervous, excited, irritated the donor is in better shape than my baby...

Sounds like a fun project from the other thread.

 

I also, finally, mounted my rear dash cam.

Made an exhaust video

So i just recently bought a 95 legacy wagon, its in pretty rough shape, but i am wanting to do a JDM build with it, its currently an automatic, how difficult is it to do a manual swap, and what transmissions would be ideal?

 

for the record, just getting into the whole project builds, don't know much

Took mine out of quarantine for a while today to keep it from rotting through sitting unused.

changed the oil & filter. Cleaned K&N... 217647 miles...

Swapped out my rear wheel studs for ARPs long enough to safely work with my after market wheels. The fronts I did some time ago, but the rears aren't quite as easy so they got put off until now.

 

Also, put my front sway bar back in. I don't even remember why I had it out any more, but that is only a few miles ago as I haven't been using this one as my daily for almost a year.

Just ordered strut tower braces for my first one and cleaned up the second car a little to make it ready for its next owner. I like the car, I definitely didn't want to sell it in the first place however we'd been looking for a property for sale in Budapest Hungary to buy and use as a summerhouse in Europe for a while and finally we found a good one that covers our expectations. Just I'm a little short in cash and the car gotta go.

Converted my spare mid pipe to add about 24 inches of additional resonator to try to cut down the drone from my race muffler.

 

Next I need to install the exhaust pressure gauge for a little before and after of the install.

Did the gauge in my spare front O2 bung. Checked that I still have 0.5 psi at redline. Installed the mid pipe. Checked pressure again, still good.

 

Results: The wide open runs are less Braaatt! and more brumm. The drone is reduced some, enough. The KAK KAK KAK! on throttle close is now more of a brop brop brop.

 

Conclusion, the drone reduction is nice. The neighbors probably appreciate it. I'll keep the OE mid pipe in case I miss the Collin sounds too much.

replaced 10.5yr old+ Optima battery with new Optima Edited January 11, 2021 by jes.

Found two anti-personnel grenades in mine. Some a$$hat company named Takata left them in there. Managed to get them out without dying and without removing more than the negative battery lead and the glove box. I guess that company was really dumb because I can't even go after them since they went out of business.

 

YMMV.

replaced the starter motor. after about a year of intermittent trouble, finally got bad enough to warrant replacing. haynes manual said because it would just give a click when i turned the ignition, it was likely the connections on the starter solenoid. rather than mess around inside the starter, i got the cheapest remanufactured one from the parts store, came with a lifetime warranty. was pretty easy to replace, especially with the added room from having the cai instead of the factory airbox.

 

you can see the starter in the pic below, it has a green label on it:

 

 

 

also done recently: the optima blue top died and i replaced it with a red top, broke one of those cheapo terminals while i was doing the starter, so i put on one from the new set that i haven't gotten around to installing, got that zero/sports upper radiator shroud (only held on with one bracket for now until i can get out a seized bolt right there), had to replace the lower radiator hose, flushed the coolant and changed the oil while i was at it.

 

got a few other minor things to do, and i've got some (now vintage) jdm goodies on the way. planning to visit a friend of mine soon who's going to help me rig up the stock dual exit exhaust from his 05 legacy gt, and maybe some body work if we have time.

 

i'm trying to get the car ready for its 25-year inspection next year so i can get the antique auto plates for it. the car needs to be or appear stock to get that plate, otherwise you can get the custom vehicle plate, but for both the car needs to be 25 years old. most of what i've done to the car isn't noticeable from the street, and all of my exterior mods are factory options (albeit for the japanese market), so i think if i get the body work done and get it all painted nicely then i can get the antique auto plates.

Not today strictly speaking but got a semi decent picture before New England decided to New England and dump over a foot of snow on us...

This weekend it was too cold and windy for real outside projects. So I brought in the radar detector for a firmware update. Better than nothing.

I made my shitaru RWD with the 4EAT. Very nice feeling when everyone doubts you and tells you that its impossible 10/10

Finally decided to pull my spare new headlight assemblies from inventory and install them. Much nicer than the 10+ year old units. I kept all my LED internals since they are like new.

 

And the huge shocker is that I actually aimed them so I'm not blinding everyone else on the road. I wish the other 99.7% of people could be bothered to aim their lights.