daeron

I have a question about all this... What are the chances that my charcoal canister is somehow just causing a hugeass vacuum leak internally?? what would I want to do to CHECK this theory, just pinch all those vacuum lines shut or should some be connected to each other? I've never done any vacuum line or smog equipment removal, because I have never had any problems with it. I am just looking for a way to rule out the possibility of massive vacuum hemorrhaging within the canister, and as far as I can tell simply pinching all the lines should be sufficient to check that possibility. The reason this comes up is, I leave my factory cruise on all the time. Today while driving around, I tried turning it off to see if it altered my problem any, and it seemed like it *might* have gotten *slightly* better.. and operating the AC controls (vacuum switch) seems to be a burden on the engine as well.. (causes hiccups, etc.) Tomorrow I am going to try to get some video of the engine doing its chug-chug missing thing, and see if THAT helps anyone point me in the right direction.. sometimes I start wondering if somehow I am having a MAJOR detonation problem.. heck sometimes it seems like it might be just about anything under the sun. I hate these problems.

Yah, you do have a good point. All the crumple zones pretty much crumple as they are supposed to.. even in a low speed collision. Like you said, its pretty much a tradeoff.

My understanding is that with these 80s subaru engines, you are much more likely to either shatter your piston/put a hole in it, or (most likely) crack a piston ring land. All bad in the end, it amounts to a blown motor.. This is called hydrolocking, because the water won't compress like the air/fuel mix will. Its only gonna be BAD if somehow, your piston fills up with water and it tries to compress it, with all the inertia of a running motor (80 ft-lbs of torque, say, all at once) I doubt it would be very easy to destroy a motor simply by fillinf the cylinder with water somehow, and cranking it over by hand or even with the starter. It just couldn't gain enough inertial energy to cause that kind of damage; the engine would simply stop as if you had filled a cylinder with rope to break loose a crankshaft bolt.

heh, my dad had a ten point buck jump out of the woods, off his hood (240Z, 60-70MPH) and into the woods on the other side of the highway once. It looked ALOT worse than that, seeing as the old man went into the ditch... Deer 1, Datsun 0

try the link that I sent you to, its got a great diagram, and I believe links to other threads. I will try to take a pic of the relay plugs tonight, but my camera kinda sucks close up. there are also four prong relays, that dont have the one in the middle like the picture mikeshoup showed. as for "starting a car that way" its just like I described.. you take a screwdriver and touch it to the starter end of the positive battery cable, and then at the same time touch the screwdriver to the solenoid terminal (the other terminal on the starter, with a relatively skinny wire and a feale spade connector on it)

No, that is the fusible link block. The cover opens easily (look on the back side of it, facing the driver) and those are four high-current fuses directly controlling all the current in your cars electrical system except for the starter motor. They are wires, that melt through at a certain current rating like a fuse. Higher amperage than ATO style fuses, though. The relay I speak of, you either purchase in a kit at a parts store (15-25 bucks) or go to a junkyard and snag out of a european car (my choice is a bosch relay, and thats the one I know how to set up. ANY erlay would work, a spare subaru just as well.. but I preferred the bosch.) I got the plug out of a late 80s BMW 3 series, it slid right off and I was easily able to mount it under the hood of the soob. You know how you can sometimes "jump" start a starter by leaving the ley "on," and using a screwdriver to short out the solenoid terminal and the positive battery cable terminal on the starter? Basically, the relay does that job for you. you use the old solenoid wire (plugged into your starter now, the skinny detachable one) to activate the relay, and the relay switches power from your custom installed wire with an inline fuse, into the wire that you then plug onto the starter solenoid in place of the original wire. its easy as pie.

Thats what im talkin about!! I drove a honda civic into a ditch and hit a culvert doing 40 or 50 once.. (bad things, i fell asleep) Flipped a 90 civic hatchback 2.5 times, including once rotisserie-style, and 1.5 end over end.. and walked away. Instinct and seat belt saved me.. my hands stayed locked on the wheel and my feet planted, and my seatbelt was on. If not, I might not be here.. and I certainly wouldnt have walked away so easily.

Relaying the circuit is EASY. All it takes is putting a relay with four plugs under the hood. Those lugs: One goes to a ground One goes to fused 12V+ with a decent sized wire One gets the wire that now plugs into your starter solenoid plugged into it (signal wire, from the key to activate the relay and one gets a wire that goes down to your starter solenoid terminal, replacing the old keyswitch wire. http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=71590&highlight=Click%2C+no+start Go to that thread for plenty of detailed info on how to get the realys, and wire them up. Its a half-hour fix, that is re engineering the car superior to the way it came from the factory.

Driving is a risk that you embrace every time you set the key in the ignition. That is the responsibility of obtaining a driver's license. You have to be careful, but it is unfair to expect a 20 yeear old car to rate well by modern safety standards, in an epoch where "safety" and "security" and the complete removal and deletion of all risk has been made the topmost priority of the legislating bodies of the US. It has been so for the last 20 years or so; the crusade started by Ralph Nader against the Corvair in the 60's ("Unsafe at any speed...") was a great start, it ensured that we all have seatbelts; but to a certain degree, the concern expressed (in society at large, not necessarily expressed in this thread.. I don't want to offend anyone) over all of this safety stuff is going very very overboard. In fifty years, will anyone be caught driving around in one of these antique deathtraps? No, we will all be too pacified to take such a risk, my own bald self included.. BUT for right now, at least 50% of the cars out there are as safe, or less safe than your subaru, if you ask me. Your subaru is FAR better equipped to get the h#!! outta the way, if needs be, than say your early nineties fullsize american pickup. When your card comes up, all you have is your best instincts and proper positioning on the road to save you; if thats not enough I am not about to be overly concerned about the car around me. Of course, I *am* planning on putting a roll bar into my Z.. if it is worth anything, it is worth that. Thats all you can really do in any case. Is it worth it? not for my subaru... Thats just my two cents, I didn't want to get all preachy and I apologize if I ruffled any feathers. *humble pie* EDITED TEXT

To quote the great Kurt Vonnegut, so it goes. Dachshunds are about my favorite breed of little dog.. I am more of a labrador/shepherd dog type of person. I've met so many dogs of so many different breeds and mixes, that I've got rather rigid stereotypes about different breeds, and most of them are good stereotypes. Don't get me started on yorkies and the like though... dogs arent toys, they are friends and tools. I've always wanted a rat named Algernon. Two points for anyone who catches the reference in that one.

Sea Foam Link It is basically just a consumer brand of a common shop solvent used for cleaning clyinder top ends/etc. The most effective way to use it is to snort it up through a vacuum line, because this pulls it into the crankcase as if it were air, at the topmost point. This gives the effect of cleaning carbon deposits off of EVERYTHING. I've often wondered what a repeat application shortly following one would be like.... but never tried it. I also like to think of it as "exhaust leak detector." Just crawl underneath when you start her back up, and look! you can see everywhere its leaking from!!!

Rodents DO make for awesome little pets. Thats a nice rat there, GD. this is a fun thought exercise, honestly. rodents don't "do" cars down here.. the insides get too hot even in winter. So this is all purely theoretical stuff for me.. I mean, you know MY car and its associated rust, right? I used to deliver pizzas, and the only time I ever had any animal in the car whatsoever it was a nosy cat after a sausage and chicken pie, and I had left the windows down. THAT was an interesting experience, let me tell you.. black cat doing circles around inside a car, AT NIGHT, with me and my buddy just sitting down in it.. I dont know how our faces didn't get scratched all to hell

Sorry to have totally ignored your post about wire screen material.. although even a mouse would have a problem with 1/4 inch wire mesh, whatever gauge you get. But I was thinking something similar.. I guess the fan would be good, but the tarp cover would be slightly more than I would be concerned with. The cage built around the car seems a pretty viable idea....

With a problem like this, amperage that the wire can flow is as important as voltage it is showing. If you are showing low volts, then chances are the wire can't flow too high an amperage, either. One way to test this would be to rig up a horn and try using the positive wire from the dim headlight to power the horn; if the horn sounds clearly, then you are getting at least most of the amperage you should have.. but if the horn sounds anemic or flat, then you know you aren't getting good amperage conductivity (ie, built up resistance) in your supply line.

I was intending more humor than any offensive, my apologies.. I just came to my end conclusion that if you want to build a basket on the bottom, may as well cage it all up. I have zero clue how much "all that" wire mesh might cost, and it *is* your call. My intent (although I did fail to note it spearately) was that, if you don't want to or don't have the time to seal the entrances to the vehicle up adequately, then seriously, wrap the whole thing in a cage of wire mesh. Seriously, it isn't *too* crazy an idea. I was actually just participating in the brainstorm. Sorry I wasn't clear in my tone, in retrospect I see where you're coming from. My mistake!

An example of ignorance being bliss.. I haven't figured out any other way of including images yet. It doesn't bother me that much, although it would ne nice to have thumbnails in my posts sometimes.. but whatever. One day I might get motivated enough to learn all that. maybe.

I wasnt speaking of poison, I was speaking of diatomaceous earth. It kills them, fairly rapidly, of dehydration, and that eliminates odor. And if you put a wire mesh bottom, and a cloth top on it, whats to stop the rats from just, climbing up to the cloth and chewing through that? You would need to basically wrap your car in a complete cage of chicken wire (FINE chicken wire, like 1/4 inch mesh) and put the cover on it solely to protect the car from the mesh. That doesn't seem like too bad an idea, actually.... if you can deal with paying for all that chicken wire. Just build a cage for your car to keep the rats out!!!!!!

two very real possibilities: first, a slipping or loose belt could cause the alternator not to spin, obviously producing a momentary low voltage situation.. But another possiblity (even though it tested good at autozone) is that the alternator is putting out a low amount of AC voltage from a single blown recitifier diode. Simple way to test for this, set your multimeter onto AC volts, and check the battery with the engine running. If you see any AC voltage, then get a new alternator, and feel glad that you found the problem even though their tester didn't. If you have a multimeter, I suggest testing this just in case.

I suggest a name for the ride: Madame Frumpy. looks like a perfect car for that rally

Need $$$ for plugs.. the wires I dont doubt, cap and rotor MAYBE... i popped the air filter box open the other day, so it wasnt sucking though it, and it made zero difference. fuel filters been changed, but I probly ought to do that again anyhow because ive run this tank dry a couple of times. My old man is big on never letting me forget that running a tank down to empty sucks all sorts of crap off the bottom that it ordinarily wouldnt... I HATE being broke. and a fivespeed swap would SOOOO come before an EJ swap......... but not in my rustbucket! I dont want to bother fixing all that crap, since it goes under the windshield and all.... This car is ultimately destined for the crusher, i just want to have a good running engine, dammit! Its hard enough to defend this car to people when I can honestly say "yah, she runs like a top!" so anyway, to restate.. i need to get a fuel pressure gauge on the rail somehow (heh, "rail" on a TBI ) and I need to examine the spray pattern of the injector... I may well have a clogged nozzle. how would I fix that, can I just take the injector out of the TB easily enough?

Amen. Barefoot driving FTW

never underestimate the power of simple degreaser, and soaking. If youre talking about grime built up on the outside of the engine, just spray it with simple green and get a high pressure nozzle on a garden hose and blast it off. get a toothbrush. it aint easy, but its possible.. MY engine didnt get clean until i did the headgaskets. Perserverance, grasshopper... if you DO use water, make sure to blow out all electrical connections afterwards.

maybe try one of those ultrasonic pest repellers????? I worked at a vet hospital once that was in a VERY old building. We had a HUGE roof-rat problem, over the course of one summer we had to remove ALL pet food from the hospital that want held in a metal can, and we had exterminators trap and remove over 120 rats from the building. THE ONLY WAY TO KEEP THEM OUT IS WIRE MESH. period. If you are getting a storage unit for it, then I would concentrate on keeping them out of the storage unit. if its in a building, then theyve got plenty of other shelter to hole up in. Try getting some bait traps that use Diatomaceous earth.. that is dirt full of these tiny (dead) one celled organisms that dry up and turn into basically this tiny thorny cell.. and when the rats eat it, it cuts into their insides and dries them out, eliminating stink.. if they eat that, even if they crawl into your car and die they shouldnt stink too badly. I would resolve yourself to having to check it all out when time comes to get back into the car, and do your best to keep them out of your storage unit.

man, I forgot to take my frame pictures yesterday when I had the car jacked up!!! the undercarrigae truly looks MINT, except for leaked oil Fuel pump screws came out like butter, everything else is rust free!

+1.. thats what I did with my turn signal flasher once I found it.... and THAT was the most difficult job on this car I have done yet. Thus far I have changed rear brakes, rear bearings, headgaskets, timing belts, water pump, alternator replacement, alternator upgrade, filters etc, tie rod ends, home-brew alignment job, the flasher was harder than ALL that!! Fuji decided "lets make EVERYTHING easy except the RELAYS!!!" My dollar is that there is another relay you havent seen. I wanted to say that earlier but I haven't been up there for the headlight relay, and I have suppressed all memory of searching for the turn signal relay. The only way I found it was to turn on the flashers, and "feel" around for something ticking THEN.. and I changed its twin brother right next to it.