das GL!

It leaked in every possible place for a transmission to leak. It was pretty good, kept that section of my car nice and rust free.

Unfortunately, it had bad bearings in it. So it's time for a rebuild.

 
Ok so poor car has been sitting since the Legacy started working again. I was cleaning up the garage a bit so I could do the rear struts. The big garage door was open, and I entered through the side door. Just as I was going in the wind slammed the door closed REALLY hard on my hand. It smashed up the bone things that move on the back of my hand (tendon? ligament?) and ruptured two blood vessels.

Now I have a gigantic purple bubble on the back of my right hand that hurts like hell. So since I can barely use my hand at the moment, I sort of lost my motivation to work on cars.

Tomorrow will be warmer and less windy anyway, then I can take it for a car wash and all that good stuff.

 
Ya, crap luck indeed. I hate stupid stuff like that.

I'll get to it tomorrow though. The GL needs some love.

Hopefully the purple blob will be gone. It really did hurt like hell, I sat for probably an hour with ice on it swearing.

Hurt worse than splitting my fingerenail in half bolting the starter back into my Legacy.

 
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You find it annoying now wait till you go to bed that's when I find injuries like that hurt or annoy me the most

 
So I got the rear struts out today. Pain in the butt.

I think the reason the one failed and blew the piston seal was because the drop things on the struts actually shifted a bit on that side. This put the top of the strut about 1/2" forward and put a lot of strain on the piston seal.

So I'm going to borrow a welder and make new ones with a cross bar in the middle and captive nuts welded on the back side to make it easier to instal the strut.

I should also replace the rear control arm bushings, as I think that's why I've had a little bit of a rear end clunk lately. But I'm going to do the struts first, and see how it goes.

Then I should do some body work... I'll spend the time to get my car in perfect mechanical condition. But when it comes to body work. I'd rather kick myself in the head.

 
Yeah, those lift blocks in the rear were not meant for the rally abuse that you have given them Haha!

 
So it was a very sad discouraging day working on the GL :'(

First thing I found was some very structural rust on the back driver's side. Basically it was going to come down to dropping the rear tube frame and re-welding all the mounts for it. There's a big hole to the inside of the car and all the structural support for that is rusted out from the inside. A good jab with a screwdriver went through
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So I finished the suspension on the driver's side, set the camber and toe. Ate lunch and moved on to the pass side.

While I was bolting the new strut in place I kneeled down on the hub to get the bolts lined up. Usually pushing down to far would bring the innards of the axle up against it's stap ring. But POP. The axle shat itself inside
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Of course, the axle is stuck to the diff and won't budge. I can probably take it apart and put it back together again with a new snap ring, or whatever it needs. Dunno.

While I was under there hammering away I found some more bad, but not structural rust. Then... WTF is that smell? It's not PB blaster... it's not brake kleen.... Why is the bottom of the gas tank wet where the fuel hoses come out?.... :'(

I think I found out what's been happening to my gas mileage. O2 sensor brought it back up a bit, but I was still getting mid to low 20's. This would explain it.

Upon closer inspection it appears not to be a loose hose clamp or old hose, but the barbs that go into and out of the tank (remote pump on the GL).

Regardless, at this point it isn't safe to drive the car anymore. If it breaks loose it'll dump gallons of fuel all over everything. I'll drain the fuel, unfortunately the tank is kinda full). When I can pull the hoses, maybe it'll just be an old dry rotted hose. I'll keep hoping. But we'll see. Fuel has to be drained to find out
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So ya, structural rust, screwed up axle stuck to the diff, and a bad fuel leak :'(

So for now the GL is kinda dead. At this point it would be easiest to swap into a new shell, but that's a lot of money I don't have. I'll have to see what I can find. Maybe it'll have to go on the backburner for a while, which makes me sad.

 
So I've been sad not having Das GL in my life for the last few weeks.

Inspection sticker/rust outstanding, it has just a minor few issues to be roadworthy.

The rear end is screwed up. For those of you who aren't familiar with GL rear end, GL axles are female. Stub on the diff. Also, there's a stub shaft through the wheel bearings. So the axles actually spline in on both ends. Both of which are seriously seized. I'd like to just replace it all because I hate having seized stuff, but have been living with it since I bought the car. Now one of the rear axles is shitted up, if I could get it off, I cold probably rebuild it. But I can't get it off...

I think I need to replace the rear diff too. Ever since last summer it's been making a whining noise when in 4wd, but silent in FWD. And it's definitely not wheel bearing, it's a high pitched whine. I decided it was the transmission transfer gears, and when I replaced the transmission, it didn't go away. So the diff is probably hosed. Two years ago when I replaced the oil, it was pretty nasty coming out, but never made any noise. So I dunno.

I suppose it could also be the center carrier bearing, but less likely.

 
So I had to get this car out of the garage to fix the other car... I hate cars. I have two cars and they always blow up at the same time.

Anyway, I put a couple bolts on each side to hold the suspension together-ish. Threw some lug nuts on there and rolled it out...

When I have someone to steer I'm going to see if the Legacy has enough life left to drag it up the steep hill in my driveway to the ICU where the Legacy sat for five months.

It makes me really sad, so when it's warm enough to work outside I'm going to try to weld it up enough to pass inspection. It's never gonna be perfect, as long as it makes it till I can put collector tags on it...
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I don't think I could lift that and abuse it through the woods though. I wouldn't feel right destroying a really nice car, especially after spending so much money on it!

I'm almost thinking of getting an old impreza hatch and doing the dual range conversion, etc. Basically a more modern version of the red monster with easier to find parts.

 
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that would be cool. There was a forester on USMB back in the day with the dual range and a good lift. It had more clearance than most factory SUV's of the day.

 
I don't want anything crazy for a lift, I like my 2" with bigger tires. I get decent ground clearance for driving through the woods a bit, over some rocks. ANd I don't have to worry on dirt drives about ripping off my exhaust/oilpan/etc. Because someone with lower clearance would have already moved said obstacle with their bumper
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