eulogious

So I just wanted to start out and give a shout out to presslab who has hooked me up with alot of info so that I could make this happen, thanks! So I got fed up with my front wheels spinning on wet days, so I decided that I wanted to upgrade my loyale 4EAT TCU to an EJ TCU. It's a new processor, it's faster, more "up to date", just better all around, so why not. So after hunting down a 1990 legacy AWD TCU, I went to my local JY and grab a harness, and then got ready to start splicing in wires. So to start off, I had this document of the EJ TCU pinout, which is a good starting point. I then updated it with info that I have gleaned from talking to other and what not to try to get all the pins labeled. I also had some wiring scans for the loyale 4EAT, so that I could match up the wires. Well, I actually have the FSM, so I have another document that I haven't scanned yet that made it WAY easier to create a pinout like the one above. First the 4EAT wiring diagram: Now here's the diagram like the EJ that I have created, this is looking down at the plug, after it's been unplugged. So it's looking straight at the plug, if that makes sense. I will get around to making the connection like the EJ, one the is for the TCU itself, but for now this works: Ok, so here's the pics of it all said and done: And then here's my work area :-\ Nice and roomy… So basically using the two documents above I sat down with masking tape and labeled the EJ TCU wires and then I got into the car and I labeled them as well. This way the wires were labeled and I didn't have to worry about the diagrams anymore. I kept the labels on to help troubleshoot down the road, and I am very glad I did. Made it much easier to try to find the problems I was having. The one soldering tip that I used to speed up the soldering process and create a more solid mechanical connection was to create a hook on the wires end after stripping the insulation off, and the hooking the two wire together. Does that makes sense? This made it easier to solder with one hand, and add strength to the solder joint itself. After that I then matched up the wires, spliced, soldered, heat shrinked and moved onto the next one. I took a while, since my back started to hurt, so I spread it out over 2 days to relieve some back pain. It's pretty cramped in there and there are about 30 wires to splice, so it took some time. I have also created a RPM clipper circuit to limit the voltage going to the RPM wire, just so that it falls in line with what the TCU is expecting. I have a 1992 legacy FSM and it shows the wire coming right on the coil for the carbed EJ22, but just to be safe, I will add in the clipper circuit. I have not done that now because of diagnosing problems up to this point. Here's the circuit diagram I made: So I now have an ej TCU harness spliced into my exsisting loyale harness, so that I can swap either TCU in, so I will never been down because of that. I also know that this works as well. I have gone on a 20 mile drive and the EJ TCU shifts smoother, better, and is just nicer all around driving, and it shifts just like it should and acts just like my other one. The one problem that I do have is that the AWD fails (doesn't go into torque bind mode, but doesn't work, FWD all the time) because it's expecting a 4.11 diff, and I have a 3.7, but they will be fix via software soon At first my AWD was locked into 4wd mode all the time because of a burned out duty c circuit in the TCU. Here's my thread on how I fixed that: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=110121 So in doing all this I have tripple checked my connections and I have verified all my documents to make sure they are ok. So ya, this is the first step in my latest project. More to come on that! I will also scan in some more docs that I used to make this easier when I get a chance, and I will update this thread with those. If you have any questions, feel free to ask and I will help were I can!

Thanks! The real reason I stuck with it is that I need this exact TCU part number for my project to even have a chance at working, so I kinda needed to attempt to fix it to make my life easier. Now I have some experience in fixing circuit boards as well This was my first attempt at repairing a circuit board, if you couldn't tell by my ripped out traces

Hello all, I am posting a link the the new gen forum post where I outline how to fix a fried tcu due to a bad duty c. I thought that I would post a link here, since some of the older cars (like mine!) have a 4EAT in them. Thanks all! http://ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=110121 Feel free to ask me any questions, in the linked post of course

Hello All, So I am posting this in this in the New Gen forum, even though this is going into my loyale because there are more 4EAT in the new gen's than in the older gen. To start off I would like to thank presslab and Gloyale for answering my questions leading up this whole deal, thanks guys! So I have acquired a 1990 legacy AWD TCU so that I can adapt it into my 1990 loyale. But when I got the TCU and plugged it in I got instant torque bind, and I mean instant. It was apparent to me that the TCU wasn't going into limp mode, the hardware had to be bad somewhere. I was also getting the 16 power light flashes that mean that the TCU has a fault somewhere. So I took it for a drive, and man it was binding up like a no other in the corners, so the AWD was not working. I tried putting a fuse in the FWD fuse holder, nothing, still binding. I went and tripple checked my connections and verified all the voltages, and everything was fine except for the duty c circuit. I got nothing out of it. So after saying a few curse words and after contemplating pissing on the stupid TCU, I sat down and PM'ed a couple people to see if they could help me. Presslab suggested that I check the board's transistors, and to start by following the duty c solenoid pin and tracing the circuit. Well low and behold I found the culprit! Here's a diagram showing the TCU pinout, the Duty C solenoid is pin 3 on connector B33: Blown transistor: Duty C Solenoid Circuit Path: The red highlight is the path, and the orange circle is the blown transistor, just in case you all didn't catch that. As you can obviously see, this transistor was blown So my hopes shot up, I might have found the reason it wasn't working! So the next day I went to my local electronics wholesaler and picked up a new transistor and a solder sucker so that I could remove the old part. New transistor: Solder sucker: So after getting home and only spending $6 it was time to attempt to get this bad transistor out. So I would highly recommend getting a good soldering iron before you attempt this, heat will KILL the board, so be very careful. Use no more than a 30 watt iron. I didn't take pictures of me actually taking it out, but I will explain what I did. The first thing was to add a little bit of solder to the existing solder joints to heat it up so you can suck it out. You don't want to be hanging out too long heating up the solder, you could damage the board by getting it hot, so all this has to be fairly quick, which is a PITA. So heat up the exsisting solder and suck it out. Repeat for the other 3 holes. I had to repeat this process about 3 times on each hole to get most of the old solder out, so take your time, and repeat, it will come out. So once I had removed enough solder, I was able to wiggle the blown transistor out. My Soldering Iron, Sears $50 special but it's a Weller Here's the empty holes: Here's the blown transistor: The stuff circle in red is what you don't want to do I was very lucky that the contacts were still on the bottom, so I was able to salvage this, but THIS IS WHAT YOU DO NOT WANT TO DO! I rip the traces out. Very BAD. So take your time! I didn't get enough of the solder on the top of the solder joint, so when I removed the transistor, I tore out the top part of the traces. So don't do as I did on this one Man, I got lucky. Okay so now that it was out, it was time to get the new one in: Yellow circle shows the new transistor: The bottom of the board: Once that was done, all I had to do was add a little bit of solder and hope for the best! All soldered up on the bottom: Topside: As you can see I didn't get solder all the way up to the top of the board. This is due to not using any flux. If I would have dipped the end in flux, the solder would have flowed better. But this doesn't bother me, since I ripped the tops of the traces out anyways, it really doesn't matter So then it was time to test it. So I went and plugged it in, started the car, turned it off, and then started it again. I did this because the first time the TCU won't show any lights, it's only after you turn on the key and turn it back on does it flash. And no flashing lights It worked! So to verify I took it for a drive. No torque bind, it shift smoothly and went into lockup and all. Everything worked great! So in conclusion if your duty c solenoid fails and you fix it but the car still has the same symptoms, you might want to look at the TCU, since it can be blown by a bad duty c! So with a little patience and a steady hand you can fix it for about $1.50 and go on your marry way. I hope that this helps someone else out. If anyone has questions, just ask, I will help the best I can! This is just the first part of my project that I am doing, so I will be posting more in various forums sections as I get more done!

Man, I love lmgtfy!! Good times

Ya I basically have "factory" cruise now! At least most of the "factory" parts The original owner spent $550 to have the dealer install the cruise control back in 1990 when they bought it new, I have the original invoice For that much money, especially back then, I have no idea how it was acceptable to have your $550 cruise control system NOT function properly If I spent that much money to have cruise, you damn well better bet it will work the way EVERY other cruise system works, or I will raise hell. But not the PO, they just didn't care or something. Seriously lame :-\ It cost me about $40, a little bit of R&D, and time to fix the system. I just don't get some people I should do that. I will look into what it takes to get an article submitted and what not. Then I can take better pics as well Thanks for the suggestion!

So to sum up everything... I started out with having cruise control that "worked" but wouldn't hold speed up a hill, wouldn't accelerate, etc because I have a turbo motor and when I hit boost the engine no longer produces vacuum, therefore causing the vacuum operate cruise control not to work. So first I had to come up with a vacuum pump to put the cruise control on it's own vacuum subsystem. I then modified a factory vacuum pump by removing all the controls from the pump, just leaving a pressure switch, reserve tank, and pump. I then proceeded to wire in a relay to kick on to turn on the vacuum pump when the cruise was turned on. Then I had to add in the cruise control steering wheel controls. That was easy. Just splice away and you are good to go! So all said and done I am very happy with this setup. I have solved all my problems with the cruise and it's WAY better than it was when I first got it. I hope that this helps someone else out. If you have any questions about it, feel free to ask!

Ok, giving a final update with pics finally Lots of pics, you have been warned... So I got the ring connector I was talking about earlier, it happen to come with a new switch assembly that I found that had intermittent wipers on them, so I pulled the wheel, installed the new turn signal/headlight switch unit, found out how the dealer system tells the cruise what to do, wired in my new buttons, and BAM! I got intermittent wipers AND cruise controls on my steering wheel all with one stone Here's a the pinout for the dealer cruise control unit: Here's a couple photos of my modified vacuum pump assembly: Here's what the original looked like from a factory installed cruise system: Now, the dealer unit is a real simple unit and it was easy to figure out how it worked. Basically there is a small control unit for the cruise that is located where the power mirror control is normally located: Here it is out of the car: All this unit has is four wires going into it. One main power, and 3 others that turn it on/resume/accel, set/decel, and turn it off. All the switch does is apply a positive voltage to the correct wire to get it to do that function. Meaning that if I want to turn on the unit, all I have to do is apply 12v+ to the on/resume/accel wire, and it will turn on/resume/ or accel. Easy enough. Subaru also made it easy for me with the factory cruise buttons, they are wired with power (12v+) already! All I had to do was take the wires for the steering wheel buttons and splice them into the wire coming from the existing switch and bingo! Now my steering wheel controls work for the cruise Here is the connector I spliced into (I haven't spliced it at this point): And here it is installed in my car Here's where I moved stuff around in the engine compartment and where I spliced into the cruise harness in the engine bay to install my relay: Here's a pic of the dealer vacuum valve that is powered by engine vacuum: Here's a shot of the vac pump unit installed, the red wire is the power to the motor of the vac pump, it buried but you get the idea, it's locate in the stock location: Sorry some of the photos aren't so good, they were taken with an iPhone

I believe that there is some sort of amplifier in there and you have to find the inputs to that, like from the tape player. I bet that's why it didn't work just wiring it up to the speakers... Once you find those inputs to the internal amp, then it's just figuring out which input is left and which is right. The problem is finding those inputs. Trial and error with a DMM is really your best option. I would tend to lean that this is going to be a little difficult to achieve, since you don't have a wiring diagram for it. I wish I could help you out more, but that's all I got. Good luck, it will be interesting to see what you come up with!

Ok, scratch my first idea... After thinking about this I made sense of the system, and here's what I would do. It looks like in order to disable the ABS, you remove fuse FB-5 fuse 19. When you do that, the ABS unit then grounds the ABS warning light wire, turning on the warning light. So I would use a combination of a DPDT switch and a 40a bosch style relay. You will want the relay to handle the "fuse pulling" since a normal "heavy duty" switch can only handle up to 10a MAX, you want something that can stand the amps, and I bet you the ABS unit fuse is more than 10amps, and even if it was 10amps I would want something that could handle more just so I know it wouldn't fail and fry something in my ABS/brake system causing a massive failure while driving So I would use nothing but a relay for that, even if you don't disable the light. When messing with the brakes, one must be very careful and overdo it on everything to make sure nothing fails. The ABS light will pull very light amps on the other hand, so using a switch for that should be fine. So wire in a relay to cut the wire coming from FB-5 fuse 19, then wire in a DPDT switch: Circuit 1. "Common" to relay trigger wire (ground); "on" side grounded; "off" side open. Circuit 2. "Common" to ABS light; "on" side open; "off" side to ABS Unit ABS light output. This way when the switch is "on", the power is cut to the ABS just like removing the fuse, and the ABS light is disabled at the same time, but when you turn it off, the ABS is enabled, and the ABS light control is returned to the ABS unit, just like stock. That's what I would do. I don't think the TCU really cares about the ABS, so I wouldn't worry about that. Let me know what you think!

Sounds like an interesting idea... What type of trans do you have? I have a 1995 legacy FSM and looking at the TCM output for the auto, and it says that for the TCU to think that the ABS is ON, it needs to see less than 1v, so that means that if you ground that pin, it will think that abs is on, and then you can "pull the fuse" and the TCU will still think it has ABS, even though I don't know if there's any advantage to that or not. Something to think about. Here's the diagram for the TCU: I don't know what will happen if the TCU thinks the ABS is connected when it's not, but I don't think it will hurt it. Here are the FSM wiring diagrams for the ABS unit itself for the 1995 lego, just because I am feeling nice So I would use a DPDT switch, one circuit to disable the ABS by splicing into the power wire for the ABS light AFTER the light and grounding it and leaving the end going to the ABS Unit open effectively disabling it while leaving the light off, and the other circuit ground the TCU pin allowing the TCU to think the ABS is still working. That way one flick of a switch and the ABS is disabled, but no lights, and the TCU won't be all sad, flick it the other way and all is back to stock. This of course has not been tested and is just my thoughts looking at this, and I don't even know if splicing the wire after the ABS light would work since I don't have an ABS car, but that's what I would do to start. It's a little more work, but if you are going to go through all the trouble of installing a switch, you might as well do it right! I hope this helps!

If you do decide to remove the dash, you should also replace stuff while your in there, like the heater core, dash lights, etc. Anything that you might have to remove the dash again later to get to if it breaks. Might cost more now, but save a huge headache in the future. I have to replace my heater core, and I am not really looking forward to it at all :-\ If you want to know how to remove the dash, search for "heater core replacement" or something like that, there are a couple howto's for that and they tell you in detail how to remove everything. Miles did a great job of condensing it down though

I agree 100% with you, but if you only spend $500 on your subaru, I doubt you will want to spend anywhere near half that for cruise. You can pickup a used system for pretty cheap, and around here you should also be able to find any parts that might break fairly easily. Mine actuator is 20 years old and works fine. When it breaks, I will get a new one for cheap. In fact I think I have one in a parts box coming my way anyway, so I should be good to go Just my opinion...

Well, technically it pulls the pedal, but same idea. It's attached to the top of the peddle assembly, so therefore when it pulls/sucks it accelerates (it's vacuum operated ), and then when it release the vacuum, it decelerates. It's a really simple but effective system. Works great and has for the last 7,000 miles since I fix it, I just used it about 10 min ago, and I am about to use it again on my way back to work I really like cruise, especially at 2am, that way I don't speed and my speed stays the same

No it's a different system. The dealer one is a complete stand alone system that can be installed really on any car... It just uses the brain, peddle actuator, and thats about it. The problem I had with mine is that it was vacuum controlled on a turbo car Gee I wonder why it wouldn't hold going up a hill, the engine doesn't produce vacuum under boost. I installed a vacuum pump and a relay and it was working great Apparently the system was installed by the dealer when they bought they car in 1990, it's on the invoice, so I would say that it's reliable. When I got it, it "worked" but it just wouldn't hold speed up hills, but it still tired. Once I get my steering wheel controls wired in, I will be much happier with it. I hate the stupid dash mount controls, but at least it works

Get a used "dealer" kit, not a factory installed version. It has the brain, peddle actuator, and everything else you need to install it on any older subaru. I have even adapted the steering wheel controls to mine, or at least I will when my parts show up next week I got an entire dealer system off here for $50, and it included everything to make it work. I used it for parts to make mine work properly and to add the steering wheel controls. It is possible, shouldn't be THAT hard to install yourself, the only problem is finding a system... Good luck. I will help you where I can!

Then I would swap out the TCU and see what happens... I hope that it's "just" an electrical problem... at least an easy TCU swap to fix it. Electrical problems can be more of a pain than mechanical ones sometimes. Got love computers in our cars

Sorry I didn't respond to this early, I didn't notice it! So it's all good I am getting a 4.11 diff that is that is the non-stub style with the trans, and that was my next option converting it, but I would honestly rather just pick one up with the stubs and be done with it. Scott offered me one off of a 91 legacy so it worked out , but thanks for getting back to me! I do believe I read something about a highguys lift? I am correct on this? That and swapping springs and other tidbits can get you more lift, I do believe as well. Either way, it will be good to have more than one person/business producing the lifts. That just means that if I do get a legacy at some point, it will be even easier, and hopefully cheaper due to competition, to lift it! Keep up the good work guys!

Ok, that makes sense. I have never had a car with ABS, so I have never looked into all the different types of ABS there are, or really ABS in general since I have not had a need. Maybe it's time for some help from google to learn about ABS... So it makes sense that different manufactures have different system (DUH!) Thanks for the response nipper! Also good to know that you don't have to vac bleed a subaru. Hijack done ...

Did the FWD light come on on the dash with the fuse in? Just to verify that the actual fuse worked and was making the connection...

That's sad :-\ Well at least you narrowed it down a little. Obviously something mechanical is going on with it, since software can't help. That really sucks. There are some super smart folks on here, so don't give up quite yet though! If I think of anything else I will chime in! Good luck!

I don't really know, but I do that that their "nephew" pulled the engine and resealed it, so I am guessing he just wasn't familiar with the soob, so after he put it together, he saw two "vacuum lines", and then attached them where there was nothing. Or something like that. I also think that's part of the reason I got it for fairly cheap Fililng it is such a PITA. I had to go buy a funnel, and then fill it 1/4 quart at a time, or else I would overfill it. Took me about 5 times to get it correct Luckily, at the time, it was squirting the fluid right back out, so I didn't damage it by overfilling it!

Good to know! Sorry for the hijack, but do you know why this doesn't apply to subarus? I am just curious on exactly what I read, and why it affects some cars, and not others. Thanks!

I believe any fuse should work, it just needs to close the connection, so just use any size fuse.

Something that I just thought of relating to the putting in the FWD fuse... You should make sure that the FWD fuse actual works the way it should, ie when you instert the FWD fuse, it's only turns the front wheels. The reason I bring this up is since you are already having problems it's possible that putting in the FWD fuse might not help you out at all. For instance, the physical wire that goes to the duty c solenoid is physically grounded out somewhere, so even if the FWD fuse is in, it will be locked in 4WD because the TCU doesn't actually control the solenoid at this point, since it's physically ground somewhere in the trans or on the car itself. So I would test it to make sure it functions the way it should before you go on a long drive. I just thought of that...