Cougar

I would be smiling too. That is a fair deal.

I heard the show you refered to. Chalk up another one for the Subaru family.

Your welcome for the help. After doing some checking there is another product I would try first. It is made by Gunk and called M15/12. It comes in a small plastic bottle. The Tans-X may be a little too aggressive on the seals. Definately check out what Subaru says about this problem.

I purchased a refurbished ECU through a locale auto parts store here in Anchorage. This was before I ended up fixing my original unit. I wouldn't worry too much about the ECU failing on you. They are usually very reliable. Mine gave out after I installed a new replacement alternator because the original one was having diode problems. I think the little extra voltage from the new unit caused the transistor in the ECU to fail. A shop had gave me one to work on that fit my car and the exact same transistor in it was bad also. I think the transistor either had a production line fault or was not the correct one to use for that design. A generic replacement worked ok. Another car I had of the same year and model didn't have this trouble. If you are going to purchase another ECU for a spare I would try looking for one at a salvage yard, you should be able to get one fairly cheap. You can plug it into your car at the yard and see if it works. I would leave it in place and keep the original as a known good spare.

Welcome to the forum Jason. Lots of good help around here and friendly advice. We even kick the tires a little around here. Your transmission problem sounds like it may be a sticky valve. There is a product on the market called Trans-X. You might try adding that to the fluid and see if that helps stop this problem.

Welcome to the board. You can also download manual information from the Subaru web site. It costs $20.00, but for all the info you want.

Welcome to the forum JohnnyB. Good to hear your car is doing well. Too bad though your original battery couldn't make it to 7 years of service.

The atmospheric sensor is used by the ECU to make changes to fuel mixture as the air pressure changes. This helps when you drive over mountain passes. It sounds like you may need to just replace it. Check the wiring to it first before replacing it, and make sure things are ok there.

You can get refurbished units but they are still fairly expensive, at least over a unit from a salvage yard. I live in Anchorage so I'm fairly close by the area you are talking about. There are some other members around here also.

I would suspect either the fuel pump or one of the fusible links has a connection problem. They are in the box mounted on the coolant reservoir.

It may be the TPS causing this problem. It is possible that it could be bad and not show a code. You could try cleaning the contacts if you can get to them.

Good work. I would try to find the bad gound connection and repair it. It may just be loose. I added to my previous post some new info. Check it out if you haven't already. Your welcome for the help. Drive on!

When you say the lights dim, does this mean the headlights along with the dash lights? You may have a ground problem after all. You could try making a ground jumper lead with a 14ga. or larger wire and connect one end to the ground post of the battery and the other end to suspected bad ground spots and see if things change. It's sounding like there may be a bad ground at the dash and/or the ground to the body frame. I think there is a frame ground behind the battery that is a common problem. When taking measurements do them with the load connected so you will be drawing power and be able to see the voltage drop. Removing the load will reduce the drop. I just checked my manual for a '88. It appears that the returns for the headlights go back to the headlight switch in the dash and are grounded there. This would really make the dash ground suspect. The return wire color is red/black. You could measure the voltage at the headlight to battery ground and see if you have a drop across it while the lights are on. If you do, then you need to check the dash ground and at the light switch.

The bendix may have a problem and is not moving the gear as it should be when mounted to the engine. If the depth of travel is ok and the bendix is working then the gear size must wrong. You may have to get someone from the place you purchased this from to exchange it for another one, as was suggested.

Welcome to the forum Girven. It's good to have a another Soob family member here. It does seem you have a loose connection somewhere as Edrach stated. I think you are seeing the dimming as a result of a bad connection that heats up from the current draw, and as the resistance goes up, so does the voltage drop across the connection. This means less voltage getting to the device. If you haven't cleaned the battery connections with a cleaning brush I would recommend doing that. Also check the fusible links in the plastic box mounted on the coolant reservoir above the left front wheel. These connections are a common problem. Be sure the contacts are tight and clean. If that doesn't help then I would check the main accessory power lead (smaller wire) from the positive battery connection for internal corrosion or bad contact. There may be a bad ground causing this but this sounds more like a bad power lead connection. If these things still don't help then use your meter to find the drop. You may first want to check the voltage between chassis ground and the power to the fuse panel. If it is low, move the meter ground lead to the negative post and see if you have close to the same reading. If so, then you know the problem is in the main positive feed line somewhere. Keep moving back towards the battery until you find the proper voltage. Since the fusible links are the main connections that can cause this kind of thing, I think you will find the problem there. It also could be a bad power relay though. Checking the voltage drop across the contacts will show up any problem there. It's good to hear you have a meter. It's one of the best pieces of test equipment you can own in my book.

I never realized there was a difference in starters between a manual and automatic transmission. Does this have to do with the flywheel somehow? Diameter maybe? I like your name Subie. Good one. Welcome to the forum. No questions are considered too elementry. Here you have brought up something I didn't know about. This helps us all learn something. There are some good technical savy folks here that would make great auto techs at a shop, but do other things for a living.

Sorry, but I have not heard of it.

Good trouble shooting Imdew. Glad you got. You have good taste in meters I see. I would measure the voltage difference between the meter ground and the battery ground to see if there is a problem there. I suspect the real problem may be with the positive wire though. The voltage drop may be due to losses in the wires. Possibly the fuel pump since you stated that it goes down with high engine load.

Sorry to hear the bad news on the head gaskets. The O2 sensors can be damaged with the coolant getting to them so you may have to replace them also. I would also check to see if there is any updated versions of the head you may want to get. I agree with the advice about using only the latest version of Subaru head gaskets and sealent. Using others may mean early failure. While it's true that these newer models have had more than normal problems with the gaskets and heads you did get 140k miles of service before a major problem. How many cars have a better record than that?

To make sure you have power getting to the rear connections I would check them with a test light. You should get a light with the switch turned on. If you don't have power there may be a relay problem.

If you haven't checked the intake manifold gaskets for a leak, you should do that.

I agree with GLCraigGT about the stuck open thermostat. Since it stays open all the time, the coolant never gets a chance to heat up as it should. It will take the coolant a considerable time to warm up and still never reach optimum temperature. Replacing the thermostat will fix this problem. I would use a OEM unit and be sure to put in the correct side up.

I have repaired a few of these units. Two of them were for a '88 GL-10 that had the same problem. A transistor that drives the power transistor for the fuel pump ground went bad and for $1.80 I replaced the bad transistor. Another unit had a problem with the IC that turned on the ECU light. Replacing the IC fixed that. What kind of trouble are you having with your unit?

I am trying to think of any other switches that may turn on when going to WOT and can't think of any off hand. The TPS may have a shorting problem when at WOT. Checking it with a ohmmeter will prove it out.

Have you checked to see if there is a mechanical problem causing this? Like the linkage hitting a bare wire.