TOsborn

Good luck with the rebuild. Is that your old Ford in the background? My daily for when the GL decides it's not happy is a '65 F100.

Okay, and a question for everyone. I've finally found two headlights that don't fog up (after trying about four from pick a part...). But how do I keep my corner clearance lights from fogging up/moisture building up in there? They are vented stock, so is this just inherent? I've replaced the prior broken bulb holders with good junkyard ones that seal well, but the plastic keeps filling with condensed water. I've never really noticed it on other GLs. Thanks!

Okay, a few new photos of the tiny beast. ^Front end needed a bit of cleaning. ^Up hiking around the Vance Creek area above Shelton. Snow got way too deep, way too quick... ^Today, after a quick wash. ^Bumped the rear end up one adjustment on the OEM struts to level the car out a bit. Was a bit nose high when both the front/rear are adjusted to their lowest setting. ^And just for fun, a license plate frame. A friend was drunk on ebay looking for vintage WA GMC dealer frames for his truck, and ended up buying these. Of course his Jimmy isn't an import, and I have no idea what a GM import is. Maybe they sold import cars at the GM dealer in Renton, WA? Any history on these would be cool.

Man, didn't know those wheels existed. Car looks great with them.

I've been itching to head to Eastern WA lately, might head over for my GL if I'm free in mid April to say hey and check out your rigs.

Holy crap, the cars's family lives in Alabama. That's trippy!

Problem solved, relay must have had burned contacts on the inside, but was still actuating. Thanks for the help everyone. Funny though, every parts store listed the blower motor relay for an '86 GL as a rectangular relay that exists nowhere on my car as far as I know. I found the relay I needed by just looking up the part number.

Good point, for some reason I forgot to just jump the relay. I'll just jump the load side and see if the fan fires up. Thanks!

Nice looking XT!

I don't know, I think I've seen it around before in junkyards. Maybe someone smarter than me will chime in. I like how "thin" or skinny the wheel is, feels good. Plus the little thumb rests are kind of nice. The blue is the original color, but somewhere down the line this one was repainted. It matches great though with the original paint. I'm heading out to Quilcene tomorrow for some hiking, will try and take some more shots of the car if the weather isn't too bad.

Just rolled over to 96k a few days ago! It finally doesn't sound idiotic anymore while running. Found out that my horrid exhaust leak was caused by both passenger side exhaust studs having pulled out of the head. Heli-coiled them (from laying under the car, it sucked) and now it purrs. Also fixed the horrid bearing squeal, found it was the tensioner bearing for the A/C belt. Repacked it with grease and it's fine. So for the first time ever, no exhaust leak or bearing squals! Though in the last few days my oil pressure guage and temp guage have been reading off. The oil pressure guage will go to 85PSI and sit there, even while idleing. Maybe the pressure sensor is going out. And the temp guage will go straight to red to, even when it is obvious that the engine isn't overheating. Going to look into that one soon, as in tomorrow. Might be a good idea to throw a water pump at it, just in case.

No problem, just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing anything. Back to square one to re-check again!

Just double checked the speed switch, no power there. And after problem the pinout of the switch, it would appear to be working correctly. So it seems to me like this would be a relay/fuse issue. The relay that was actuating was located under the dash next to the headlight relays and others (there were four total), is there another one I need to check?

^The speed selector switch or the main switch? I definately have power to the first, and last I checked I didn't have any to the selector switch (though I could have made a mistake or something, I'll recheck. Just tired of tearing this darn dash apart haha). Thanks!

Been having heater blower issues with my '86 GL Three Door.  I've been through just about every blower troubleshooting thread on here and haven't solved the issue, so figured I'd ask.   The blower has always been sort of intermittent, as in it would take turning it on/off and cycling the speed switch a bit to get to start (only on cold starts, once it was going it wouldn't stop for the rest of the trip).  Finally it's decided to not turn on at all.   I started by checking the relay, and it is actuating (as in I can feel it click when I turn the switches on/off).  I have since replaced the control switch (one with all the vacuum lines running out the back) as my old one was crumbling.  I have power to that switch, and I'm assuming to the relay since it's working.  Also, the under dash "fan" fuse is alright.  I dug deeper, and ended up replacing the fan resistor, as a few of the coils were broken.  That didn't help.  On a last ditch effort I just picked up a new blower motor, and after plugging it in, it still wouldn't work.   So, where to look next?  I think they only fuses/relays associated with this motor are the under dash relay and fuse in the panel, am I missing one?  Last time I checked, I didn't have power to the speed selector switch, should I?  And finally, I can't seem to find a powered lead on the harness for either the blower or resistor, should I?    Thanks in advance.  I've searched this forum for the past few weeks to try and resolve this issue and still haven't figured it out.

Nice looking soob!

Back from the dead, returns the thread. The car was moved last night from it's deep storage in Oly up to my house in Lakewood. Work will begin again soon (after my Yamaha motorcycle project is finished). Until then it'll continue to be stored safely.

Just thought I'd post that this car has been running great! Put 7k miles on it since purchased, and it keeps on going. It's been from the Canadian border to the Mexican border, up and down forest service roads, and through deep snow and rivers without getting stuck (this could be due to me being more cautious than I used to be...). And the dual range rules. Other than minor maintenance, it's required no large repairs. Only on road failure was the voltage rectifier calling it quits, easy repair. Quite happy with it, as everyone locally advised me that it will explode immediately. Since my '96 Outback only lasted about 6k till it needed head gaskets (at 160k) I'm hoping this one makes it well over 100k till I have to pull heads. Currently its almost at 93k, and I'm stoked to hit 100k!

Wow, looks great.

Hello, quick question. How is octane booster and premium grade gas going to help him? Sounds like some carb cleaner or some of those fuel system cleaners and putting some miles on it would do best as you mentioned above. Not trying to be rude, octane booster and premium gas seem to be a common wives tale when trying to clean up old carbs without removing them. Nice 'ol wagon by the way! Hope it serves you well!

Okay, thanks for the heads up. I checked the cap/rotor but was in a bit of rush as it is dumping rain and didn't check shaft play. Thanks again.

Today the tachometer on my '86 GL started acting a bit off. Between 2k and 3k RPM it jumps around. Works fine below and above that range. I've checked the ground wires at the coil, and the distributor seems fine. Anything else that would be worth checking? The engine is an EA82T. Thanks in advance.

Road trip in the GL has begun! Started out in Tacoma, WA and am currently in Crescent City, CA. Taking the coast hwy south, started on 101 in Olympia, and will be taking that till Hwy 1 (in CA) and following that to LA. And camping out the whole way. Car has run flawlessly so far, except for it picked up a slight lifter tick again today. Will be doing an oil change at a campground in the next day or so to fix that. After LA, planning on going east, through vegas, and then north to visit Bonneville. After that North to Idaho for some hiking, then back home! Fingers crossed the EA82T holds out for the trip!

Did some final work on the car today before leaving on the trip. Had it up on my friends lift for exhaust repair/rebuild. Succeeded in welding the holes drilled in the pipe after the cat, and installed a new muffler. Ended up using and old truck muffler from the scrap pile, as it is in much better shape then the stock Subaru one (somebody attacked it with a screwdriver, and generally beat the heck out of it). Used all of the stock mounting bits of the old muffler and welded them to the new one, it came out pretty slick. And now I don't sound like and idiot running around with no exhaust, so bonus there. Also, the small tip tucked up in the stock relief makes it virtually noticeable from behind, which I prefer. One day I'd like to remove the cat (it's beat to heck, and probably isn't doing too much anyways) and make a full new exhaust to help it breathe a bit better, but that's down the line. While I had it up in the air, -rotated tires -new LSD oil -new rear brake pads -fixed leaky oil pan gasket

The leaky radiator has been bugging me for awhile, and had to be fixed before the long drive: So found a shop with one in stock, and installed a new radiator today! While I was in there I also took time to re-inspect timing belts and water pump, and everything looked okay, the timing belts appeared to be new! The cam seals didn't appear to be leaking either, which was good. Surprisingly, the new radiator ($99.99 at Oreilly's) seems to fit better than the old. Made putting it back in and bolting the fans back on a breeze.