Singlecoil

I hate to resurrect an old thread, but I'm having mouse problems in my '86 GL wagon. I first noticed the smell and a funny noise when the vent fan was running. I removed the fan and found two dead mice and tons of nesting material. Then today I heard a loud clicking when I first started the car with the vent fan running. This time I knew what it was and pulled the fan again. This sucker was still alive, though the fan broke one of his back legs. At least he didn't stink up the joint. I have a Weber carb on this car. Where is the intake for the fresh air vents and fan? I need to put some chicken wire over wherever they are getting in and pronto. This car obviously doesn't get driven very often and garaging it is not an option for the moment. Thanks.

Xlnt news! Thanks.

I'm going to be selling my 86 GL wagon with a one year old weber in it soon. We were going to keep driving the subie when our third child comes in March, but we recently found out we're having twins! Four kids and a subie don't mix, so goodbye subie, hello Honda Pilot. Anyway, I don't have to do emissions tests where I live and I'm wondering who I can sell it to. Is it an automatic flunk because of the weber? Is there anyway somebody can register this in an area that has emissions tests? The other issue I have is that I got rear-ended about 2 years ago which ended up totalling the car. I got a new tailgate and bumper from a USMB member and fixed the car. Unfortunately I didn't get the VIN number off the parts, so the Washington State Patrol decided to give it restricted title. I can't sell it out of state for 3 years (1 more year). To sell it I provide a notarized release of interest to the buyer. I have a friend who is interested right now, but if that falls through, I'll post some pictures. It has 194,000 miles, dual range 4x4 5-speed. This car is pretty much rust free and I've owned it since 1994. At 162,000 miles, we had a factory new engine, new clutch, water pump, and oil pump installed. Everything works: all fan speeds, A/C, rear defogger, Panasonic CD player with aux input. It needs tires and possibly front struts as the front tires seem to angle in a bit. They are maybe adjustable, I don't know. We recently had a front brake caliper rebuilt as well as new pads and turned rotors. The right front passenger door is a slightly different color, which I didn't notice until about a year after I bought it, so I think it was hit on that side before I bought it. I've been rear-ended 4 times, all were pretty minor except for the last one when a Ford F-250 slammed us. They did a great job putting it back together, though.

Man, that was fast! Thanks.

So we have kid #3 on the way and the Subie just refuses to die. That's a good thing because we certainly can't afford a new car right now. I'm not sure we can fit three car seats in the back of our '86 wagon, but I do know that we need shoulder harnesses to properly use the booster seats. Has anyone on here done that mod? Is it something the dealer will do for cheap? (yeah right) Thanks.

UPDATE! Three years later (almost) this rebuilt resistor block is going strong with the NTE resistors shown above. I broke off the ceramic coating, though I'm not sure if that was required, and soldered them in as shown in the other picture. One bit of advice: After I soldered the second batch, I did not turn the fan on until they were reinstalled in the housing so they would have immediate cooling. They will glow rather quickly without airflow. I don't know if that is what made the first batch fail quickly or if the different brand of resistors didn't work as well. I suspect they were just not the same quality as the NTE ones.

You know, I wondered about that. When I raided the junkyard for my relay, I grabbed the connector as well by just snipping the wires with my leatherman. I plugged the relay in and it worked so I figured I was good to go. Do you think it is worth taking the panel off and replacing that connector or should I be OK if it works? I'm generally from the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" school of thought. Thanks.

Good idea. Mine is an '86 GL wagon. The relay I got at the junkyard was off an '87 sedan. The numbers on it were identical to mine and it was in the same location as mine.

Done!

Here is a picture of the relay Skip was talking about for the fan motor. You need to remove the lower panel in front of the driver (six phillips screws-3 metal, 3 plastic, then pull the rear down firmly to release the big clip over the steering column), then remove the fuse box with three phillips screws. It is the relay with the colored wires as shown in the picture, green/white, red/yellow, white/red, and blue/red; I think it was the one furthest to the right (passenger) side. If your fan is totally dead, i/e won't work in position four and your fuses are good, this is a likely culprit. If your fan works in position 4, then you have a resistor block project, see below. And if you want to make a custom resistor block, here is a link to a thread from a few years ago when I fixed my own with some electronics store resistors. http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=18580 It has been going strong for 3 years or so without any problems, though my fan relay did just burn out as pictured above. That may or may not have been related. The first pic in the thread of the two ceramic resistors are the ones that failed rather quickly. The second pic of the NTE one are the ones that have been going strong. I just used pliers to carefully crush the ceramic coating.

Thanks Skip and Gloyale! Thanks to you two, the relay was easy to locate. It was obviously bad when I pulled the plug and saw the scorched lead. I went up the road to Meridian Auto Wrecking in Graham and found a replacement. They didn't even charge me for it! I plugged it right in and it worked immediately. By the way if anyone is doing this in the future, you don't have to pull the ECU, just the fuse box to access this relay. Another USMB save!

Thanks for the tip, Cougar. Where exactly are the relays located? Left side? Right side? Do you happen to remember which panels need to be removed to access them? Thanks!

I'm having a hard time troubleshooting this one. The fan for the A/C, heater, etc went totally dead. The fuses for the fan and heater are all good. I checked for power at the motor and didn't get any. I pulled the dash cover and put the multimeter on the harness to the switch and can't detect any power to any of the five leads on there. Is there something that would kill power to the switch but not kill the fuse? All four fan positions worked prior to the sudden death. Any tips for troubleshooting this one? It's getting hot and my A/C is actually functional if I can just get the air to move.

I don't suppose you have a picture of that setup? I trashed a couple of the solenoids that were in that general area, so hopefully a trip to the junkyard isn't in my future. Thanks.

Can you give me a hint? I have a torch, some baling wire, several rolls of duct tape, and some JB Weld so I should have my bases covered.