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Help! - No power in Subaru' 87 GL 4WD

Hi, we own a Subaru wagon GL 1987 - manual 5 speed Over the last 2 months the car's been gradually and intermittently losing pickup power, mostly going uphill. Finally, yesterday while on the freeway, it would only go as high as 45 MPH and this was at a high RPM. Once I was off the freeway, I was forced to drive in first gear with high RPMs. Once I stopped the car, I smelled burning rubber. The car barely moves now. It also makes a whining sound (?), not too easy to hear, but there. The car starts Ok so I assumed it's not a timing belt problem.

Is the engine shot ? The car has 186.000 miles on it and it is a second engine (rebuilt) We sorta inherited the car 3 years ago and don't really want to invest more than few hundred $ in such an old vehicle. Could it be an electrical problem since it already has few minor ones ? Thanks Alex

Reply to
mTran
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Sounds like you need to replace the clutch.

Reply to
John Williams

Yup! It is the clutch. High rpm, low speed, burning smell=New Clutch

Reply to
subedude

Thanks people, indeed all things point to the clutch. According to the book I have at hand, replacing a clutch in the Sub requires removing an engine. If so, it must be a pricey repair at an autoshop. Anyone tried to do it on their own ? - how much time, cash and skill required ?

thanks again Alex

Reply to
mTran

Hi,

Did it on my '90 Loyale 4wd a little over a year ago. With no help, I took the better part of two days. I didn't work that fast (it was summer, and over 100 deg F, so I wasn't inspired to set any "pit crew records"), then a lot of time was lost getting a handful of "stuck" things unstuck (it was original clutch, and car had over 300k miles at the time) and cleaning up a fine mess when the gearbox leaked all over the floor--it depends on the drive shaft to complete the rear seal, and I'd neglected to drain it (not thinking! Duh!) With a little help aligning things, etc., on reassembly, I'd guess I'd have saved a few hours.

Cash? IIRC, a new disc, pressure plate, throwout bearing, pilot bearing and some exhaust gaskets from my dealer were right at $300 US. Rebuilt from parts house would have saved some, but with that much work, I'd rather go OEM and new when possible...

Skill? I'm a reasonably skilled shade tree mechanic. I didn't have an engine hoist available, so I just used my floor jack and dropped the gearbox. I'm told on the 4wd models that's not the way to go--pulling the engine's easier--but ya gotta go with what ya got!

HTH,

Rick

Reply to
Rick Courtright

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