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Bessie II - Enlight's '05 6mt Matte Blacke Wagon


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Woke up this early this morning and removed all the rotors. It took about 45 minutes. I'm too far into this project now to start losing momentum. Waiting on the fine folks at AZP to call me back so I can order Centric's premium rotors. Also stopped by Home Depot and picked up an end wire brush to clean up all the mating surfaces.

 

I noticed torn bushings in my rear lateral arms and I hope that's what causing the car to pull to the right. SubaruSource.com seems to have the cheapest parts online right now so I ordered new bushings and fasteners from them.

 

When I was at my gas door today I smelled gasoline and noticed dampness on the ground. Got in the close and smelled that it was gasoline. Looked around with the filler neck exposed and couldn't find any leaks. Hoping the gas was spewed from an exhaust leak at the Y-bend when the car was running in limp mode. Will have to keep an eye on that.

 

I'm trying to move double-time now that I'm nearing the final stages. Weekdays + weekends now, have to keep the momentum up.

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Another A.M. session today. I found a tear in the passenger side rear upper lateral arm bushing and it came off with surprising ease. It seems like it's good form to change both sides at a time but the driver side arm is much more stubborn, it will have to wait until the weekend when I can put heat on it.

 

Also tried out my new end brush to remove some surface rust on a wheel bearing and hit it with some Fluid Film. And I found gas on the plastic underpanel by the gas tank so I've gotta remove that to find the leak now.

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Edited by Enlight

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Thanks, man. I'm in Bayside. We can set up a cruise or something sometime when she's road ready.

 

Got my Centric premium rotors from AZP Installs in the mail yesterday. Weather should clear up tomorrow so I can resume work. Was happy to see that atwood (previous owner) installed the thicker parking brakes on the rear for the Brembo conversion. Made selecting the rotors much easier.

Edited by Enlight

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Removed the driver side rear upper lateral link today. I don't know whether it was the Aerokroil that's been sitting for a few days or the heat I put on it (via

) but I'm glad it came off with ease. Now I just need to wait for the new bushings to arrive in the mail so I can bring them to the shop to get pressed. Also ordered some 10 AWG sleeves to re-insulate the Bolt Buster coils.

 

Brushed the remaining wheel bearings clean of rust and hit them with Fluid Film

style and put on the Centric rotors I ordered from AZP.

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To be honest my first impression wasn't that great because I bought it to help get off the bottom nut on my downpipe, but in reality the problem was more that I just wasn't able to get a socket to seat on that nut properly. Had I had the Bolt Buster earlier in the process I might have been able to remove the nut before I stripped all the corners. I attached what it looked like when I finally got it off. The stud came off before the nut did, as you can see.

 

I actually like the Bolt Buster now and it's very nice to have in the arsenal. It can get a nut cherry red in under a minute and I don't have to worry about an open flame burning bushings or oil or gasoline - it keeps the heat very local.

 

Do you take any steps to try and keep rust on your chassis to a minimum up there? Also, I owe you an e-mail. Been busy with the Chinese New Year.

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i should get this bolt buster , i still use the propane bottle , but open flame is a mess . it is strange that will all the mechanic on this forum i never see one.for the rust on our cars here in Canada there not so much to do when you buy a use car . if rust proofing is done on the new car , immediately ,done correctly and every year , yes that help .

 

happy new year, and no worry for the email , no rush .

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I think you will enjoy the Bolt Buster even more than I do, Madrig.

 

 

Stopped by RPM Motorsports today to drop off my upper lateral arms but Tony pointed out that the bushings I ordered were too small before he got to work. He called the Subaru dealership and they confirmed that the inner bushings for the Spec B arms are not sold separately/replaceable.

 

 

 

Has anyone replaced the inner bushing on their Spec B upper lateral arm?

 

 

 

As an aside, I'd recommend anyone in the NYC area to visit RPM if you want skilled technicians working on your car. I used the Subaru parts website to narrow down these parts but it was still wrong - selecting the proper model for the parts and all.

 

 

I may end up installing another set of lateral arms I ordered from Japan which I had planned to resell as a complete aluminum set.

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As I'm looking into these lateral bushings more it looks like they are able to be replaced. I realized I had ordered a wrong bushing so it may have appeared too small. In either case, I was able to compare two different aluminum lateral links I had (both ordered from Japan) and they have noticeable differences. Perhaps these were variations JDM arms had between the model years. Unfortunately I don't know which years there are from. As you can see on of them is adjustable and the other isn't.

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Edited by Enlight

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It might just be me but they don't really look all that different. Could it be that one of them has aftermarket bushings installed that are adjustable? Is there any measured difference? Either way you should be able to replace them with whiteline bushings no? I guess I don't know jdm very well but I know the usdm spec b aluminum stuff is the exact same for bushings and mounting points.

 

The dealer doesn't sell a lot of things separately. I was there Saturday and it shows my brake booster as having a molded pipe to attach the vacuum hose. It's absolutely not that way and I'd be surprised if it was an aftermarket part from the po.

 

 

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I was wondering that as well but when I looked on Whiteline's website they didn't offer any adjustable bushings for the lateral link, I'm not aware of any other bushings as well. I think the OEM bushings should fit anyway.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Much effort expended in the last week with little results to show. Bolting the rear brakes back should be a relatively straightforward task; however, there were some washers included on my Brembo conversion that no combination of placement would allow my wheels to spin freely. Without them, the bolts would touch the rotors but with, they wouldn't clear the hub. I don't know how they were on originally.

 

This morning I cut the bolts and two of them wouldn't fasten without excessive force. I ordered a set of M10 x 1.5 x 30mm bolts form McMaster-Carr and hoped I got the pitch right. Also a tap tie clean out the hole just in case. If I had a basic bench with a vise I could've done a better job of cutting them smoothly - instead I had to freehand it.

 

Sometimes I wonder if anyone else who works as slowly as me. On the plus side the new bolts should be arriving tomorrow and in time for a short trip to Philly on Friday.

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If it makes you feel any better about working speed, it took me from mid June to early November to pull and replace my short block. Working on weekends and I only had maybe a week or two delay because of parts.

 

Stock build even. Nothing fancy.

 

 

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Thanks for all the kind words - this forum is great. Hard to believe it's been 15 years.

 

Made a small trip to Philly this weekend totaling about 250 miles round trip. On the way down the coil packs were beginning to miss badly enough that I was worried I might not make it back. Oddly, they were fine heading back north but there was this bad intermittent shimmy in the suspension that kept me with my hazards back on. I've got new outer tie rod ends from Moog on there already so it may be the inners that need to be checked. All in all I was glad I made the trip, she's nearing full road-going form. I forgot how much she likes to pull.

 

I'm also glad that I ordered the tap for the brake caliper threads - I don't know how they got so gunked up, but I had to double check that I wasn't cross-threading based on the amount of force it took to turn that tap.

 

This is a photo from the Thomas Edison rest stop on I-95.

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Edited by Enlight

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Cleared out the bolt holes for the front crossmember in anticipation of reinstalling the skid plate. I was afraid they were cross-threaded but after cleaning them with a makeshift tap they are fine.

 

Removed the plastic cover beneath the gas tank but couldn't identify the source of the leak. It's looking like I'll just have to fill it up again and try to get a visual of where it's coming from. The pump housing looked fine from inside the car.

 

Removed the rear Ohlins and attempted to break the lock nut to adjust the height to no avail - I'll bring them in to a shop and have them do it. I noticed the nuts on the driver side coilovers were finger loose. On the one hand I continue to be amazed by own stupidity; on the other I'm glad that I found the likely source of the floatiness I experienced to and from Philly on the highway.

 

Here's a pic of the crud my tap collected. For posterity, the crossmember bolts are JIS M10 x 1.25 pitch x 30mm long. The bolt for the front of the skid plate are M8 x 1.25 x 40mm (up by the bumper). I ordered from BoltDepot.com, McMaster Carr has minimum orders of 10. I had to figure this out because I didn't want to pay $30 for Rallitek's replacement bolt kit.

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Edited by Enlight

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Starting to think that the gas leak is coming from the tank nipple. Hoping this isn't the case but I was surprised how rusty that area was compared to the rest of the chassis. Everything was hidden by the plastic covers, keeping me from cleaning/Fluid-Filming that area.

 

I was shopping around and OEM tanks go for $400. Rockauto has an offering from Spectra which is $200, but that has a Ni-terne coating instead of stainless steel. While researching I found a service called Gas Tank Renu which offers a lifetime warranty. Reviews seem mixed and it looks like it depends on the shop performing the service. The closest shop to me is one hour away and has 4.8 stars from 16 reviews. This solution seems like it's more appropriate for cars with vintage, hard to find gas tanks.

 

Still have to track down the exact culprit.

Edited by Enlight

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I was shopping around and OEM tanks go for $400. Rockauto has an offering from Spectra which is $200, but that has a Ni-terne coating instead of stainless steel.

 

I can't imagine what the fuel tank would cost if it was stainless steel. I went with the Spectra unit, cost me $280 with shipping. Once received I scuffed the exterior surface and painted it black with a basic black enamel, and undercoated the bottom side for further protection. It's worth noting that you'll also need the butyl isolator patches to provide a small barrier between the tank and the underbody when strapped down. I used interior sound deadening patches cut to suit. There are pictures in my thread if you choose to go this route.

 

I will say, it's better the tank than the hard lines coming off of the center fuel bundle. Those are literally impossible to find.

Edited by Chocoholic005
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There are pictures in my thread if you choose to go this route.

 

Love following your build. By the time you're done you will probably have the nicest Legacy in North America. I would love to do a complete teardown someday to make mine rust proof as I can get it. For now I'm doing Fluid Film and rust converter as needed. Probably if/when I decide to paint the car.

 

This gas tank will be a summer project for me. I looked at some local junkyards and they are selling the tank for around $50. I think I will try to find one out of a 2009 and POR-15 it.

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