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Owned an '86 Subaru BRAT GL (EA81, not EA82). You could take the whole damned car apart with a 10mm, 12mm, 14mm, and 17mm socket. The 4 speed 4wd (not awd, that

Owned an '86 Subaru BRAT GL (EA81, not EA82). You could take the whole damned car apart with a 10mm, 12mm, 14mm, and 17mm socket. The 4 speed 4wd (not awd, that came later) transmission, however, is a pain in the ass to get apart. I had to do that to replace the input shaft seal. It was a great car. Nowadays, the running joke in the Subaru community is that you change the spark plugs any time you have the engine out of the car whether they're due or not. My wife has a 2018 Impreza. It's somewhat more cramped in the engine compartment. I dread the day I have to work on it.

mistrial9 4y ago
re transmission -- someone told me a long time ago, you really do not want to open a transmission
- Syonyk 4y ago
  A manual isn't that bad, and I know people who work on them, but the main problem is that they're just an entirely different set of tools and techniques from just about everything else. You need a bunch of different tools for "rotating part" assembly and disassembly, and a bunch of different skills. Mostly, manual transmissions don't fail randomly, though. Automatics be black magic boxes that will fail expensively, though. :/
  - mauvehaus 4y ago
    Precisely this. If you don't need to actually rebuild a manual and just need to get to a seal that can only be replaced by cracking the case apart, it's not that bad. There just isn't that much to a manual. Keep it clean, and work with care and diligence, and you're probably not going to get in truly deep shit. I'll second that a manual in normal service is unlikely to fail catastrophically. The synchros can wear or the transmission can start popping out of gear, but they tend to experience graceful degradation, and the control software is sufficiently adaptable to work around the quirks.
- SoftTalker 4y ago
  Not true at all. They do have a scary reputation and unlike a lot of other vehicle maintenance, you need to be very aware of cleanliness. But they are just mechanical devices. They can be taken apart, worn components replaced, and reassembled. Watch Gary Ferraro on YouTube if you're interested.
mcguire 4y ago
I have a 1995 BMW R1100GS. You could do almost anything to that motorcycle using the toolkit that lives under the seat. The one exception is checking the valve clearances; that requires feeler gauges that weirdly aren't included (although the kit includes feelers for the ABS sensors and valve checks are necessary every oil change). I haven't replaced the final drive lube because, without removing the rear end, it requires suspending the motorcycle vertically, although I have siphoned much of the lube out and replaced that.

mistrial9 4y ago

re transmission -- someone told me a long time ago, you really do not want to open a transmission

Syonyk 4y ago
A manual isn't that bad, and I know people who work on them, but the main problem is that they're just an entirely different set of tools and techniques from just about everything else. You need a bunch of different tools for "rotating part" assembly and disassembly, and a bunch of different skills. Mostly, manual transmissions don't fail randomly, though. Automatics be black magic boxes that will fail expensively, though. :/
- mauvehaus 4y ago
  Precisely this. If you don't need to actually rebuild a manual and just need to get to a seal that can only be replaced by cracking the case apart, it's not that bad. There just isn't that much to a manual. Keep it clean, and work with care and diligence, and you're probably not going to get in truly deep shit. I'll second that a manual in normal service is unlikely to fail catastrophically. The synchros can wear or the transmission can start popping out of gear, but they tend to experience graceful degradation, and the control software is sufficiently adaptable to work around the quirks.
SoftTalker 4y ago
Not true at all. They do have a scary reputation and unlike a lot of other vehicle maintenance, you need to be very aware of cleanliness. But they are just mechanical devices. They can be taken apart, worn components replaced, and reassembled. Watch Gary Ferraro on YouTube if you're interested.

mcguire 4y ago

I have a 1995 BMW R1100GS. You could do almost anything to that motorcycle using the toolkit that lives under the seat. The one exception is checking the valve clearances; that requires feeler gauges that weirdly aren't included (although the kit includes feelers for the ABS sensors and valve checks are necessary every oil change). I haven't replaced the final drive lube because, without removing the rear end, it requires suspending the motorcycle vertically, although I have siphoned much of the lube out and replaced that.