Interesting about the crank pulley separation thing... when Huck came down in the spring and helped me out with the car he noticed my crank pulley was separating so we went and pulled one from a Legacy in a junkyard. Not the problem now as far as I can tell, but just thought I'd mention it to show that you're absolutely right about the pulley separating at this age.
I've hit another snag with my SVX as of yesterday morning (and just getting around to dealing with it today)... now the damned thing won't fire up. It turns over just fine, but it won't fire. Timing belt is fine, so I'm thinking it's not getting fuel. Spoke to Huck and got some advice for things to check for and I'm going to do that in a second (had to stop to eat, etc., just now).
Once I get it running again, I'll be able to check out the rear end noise again. I like the idea of putting it in FWD only mode - hadn't thought of that. Not sure what it would tell me, but I like the idea.
