kdixey

How about Friday afternoon?

DANG!!! Okay...the stereo is in and it is deader than a doornail. I suspect it has something to do with the power. I think I am going to need to completely rerun the wires for the power. Yeah, well I probably should have done it in the first place. Physically getting the deck into the car was the easy part. Taking the door panels off for the speaker wire was trickier. You have to remove the arm rest, the surround on the lock and door handle (CAREFULLY) and then pop a little pin off of the shaft of the window crank. The proceure takes 2 small screwdrivers. Once that little pin is off thecrank is easily removed and the door panel pops right off. From there the wire is routed through the door to the rubber conduit that stretches between the door and the car body (use the old wires to pull the new wires through) and then it routes under two panels at the bottom of the dash. It's pretty straight forward once you get it all apart. I'm going back in so I'll take a few pictures to illustrate.

Great idea, I'll pick one up today. I'm all for the rewire approach. I'll let you know how it goes. Kevin

Okay I've searched the board, read the posts and decided to jump right in and see what happened. i pulled out the ancient POS stereo in "brownie" (my 86 GL) and replaced the 4" door speakers in the front that were so old they evaporated when I touched them. I am stringing new 16 guage twisted pair to the front speakers with quick connects to the new head unit and have managed to tie up and prune back the old wire harness that the previous installers had left entombed behind the carcass of the old tape deck. So here is the dilemna...the red and yellow wires coming into the fused box (supposedly constant and ignition power) are being fed from a blue/yellow and a green wire. I can't find blue/yellow in any of the wiring diagrams and am thinking that it is more of the chop job install that took place on the old stereo. The reason I am asking is that the old stereo only turn on AFTER the brake was applied (then it would stay on). I am about to reconnect the wires and thought I'd post and see if anyone had any wisdom to share. It would be cool if I could remedy that little "feature". I'm moving ahead tomorrow, so I'll let everyone know what I find. Kevin

Okay, the fan in my 86 GL only works at settings 3 and 4. I was wondering, if the fan works at the 2 highest settings I would think that the problem wasn't the fan motor. Seems logical right? Any thoughts? Electrical parts art not my strong suit (although not much else is either) Kevin

It's funny, I've been thinking about this same sort of thing recently. I have both old and new gen (02 WRX and 86 GL Wagon). I love them both for different reasons. The WRX is an absolute BLAST to drive but the car payments are a major PITA. I think if I was going to give one up though, it would probably be the WRX. As cool and fun as it is, there is something hugely appealing about my GL wagon. It may be slow and ugly but I can't remember when I've had so much fun in a car. It reminds me of my very first car (a Fiat 128 sedan) it may be seriously flawed but there is just something special about it. Certainly part of the appeal is that these cars are cheap so the fun is largely guilt free. I wonder how I will feel when you can get a used WRX for $750? Hmmmmm.... Kevin

I just picked up 20 feet of vacuum power cable at the local recycle building materials store for $1 yesterday for the same thing.

My GL had factory 4" in the front and 5.25 in the back. I dropped a pair of Infinity reference 4" in the front and they sound pretty good and I'll drop some 5.25's in the back and likely some 6x9's in the rear hatch door (wiht back seat and rear powered by a moderate sized amp). Good sounding carfi on the cheap. Upgrading the speaker wire can be a real improvement in sound as well as applying something like dynamat to act as a sound deadener. FYI 12 gauge 2 conductor lamp cord is the same thing as "premium" car speaker wire and a good deal cheaper. Kevin

Think about installing some sound deadeners. I'm about to rewire front and back speakers on my GL.

The car is a carbie 86 GL wagon w/4WD. The first thing I thought of was those bolts where the exhaust bolts to the engine. After I worked on the initial engine tune (plugs, wires etc.) I forgot to reattach all the vaccum hoses and it sounded just like it does now (which leads me to think it might be an exhaust leak). I just had two of the bolts on the driver's side wheel loosen up (of course I thought it was the CV joint). So, the idea of loose bolts seems...let's just say I wouldn't be at all surprised. I'll check it out. Occam's Razor: "entities should not be multiplied beyond necessity" Kevin

I have a total newbie question. Over the past few days my 4WD wagon has started to sound like your basic Briggs and Straton riding mower . I recently replaced the entire exhaust (with a lot of help) and am thinking the bolts may have come loose...or maybe I knocked one of the vacuum hoses free noodling with the engine. I've also noticed that the idle seems to be going batty as well. It's idling up at around 2K. Perhaps a better description of the sound is that inside the car I hear it tapping. The car seems to run okay and while it feels like it has less power it doesn't seem to be hugely different than before the lawnower sound. I did a forum search and I get everything from blown heads to broken timing belt (I'll run down and check the timing belt as soon as I post this). Anyone have any suggestions? Kevin

I put the front seats from a 96 OBS into my 86 GL (the first post iin the thread recounts what I did). I used the rails from the GL and attached them to the Impreza seats. It involved drilling new holes in the Impreza seat (the bottom of the seat has got 2 large flat metal edges where the stock rails are attached. I have been driving with them for about a week or so and they are a HUGE upgrade to my old seats (with the caveat that you sit higher so I imagine that tall drivers might not like that). I haven't seen the seats in the 2005 Impreza so I can't tell you if they'll fit. You could pull out the driver's seat in you Loyale and take a look and see how it will match up to the 2005 Impreza seat. It's only held in by 4 bolts (and easy to put back in). I'm not particularly skilled at this kind of thing and I was able to do the swap in a few hours. BTW, if the Loyale seats were like the GL seats I was working with, be careful no to strip the bolts that attach the rails (mine were phillips head). If you strip them it would be a huge pain to sort out. Kevin

my cell phone ...now if I could just find a good spot for my ipod Kevin

I believe they were from a late 90's Impreza. I didn't see the car they came out of. The stock rails bolted to the seat bottom making the switch to the GL rails pretty straight forward. Kevin

The holes on the metal base of the Impreza seats are set closer together than those of the GL and there was enough room on the base of the seat to accomodate the extra width. The seats themselves sit a bit higher (I lost about half and inch of headroom) but also appear to be a bit shorter front to back (I have to sit closer to reach the pedals). Of course no height adjust because I used the stock GL rails. All I know is that they fit and feel waaaaaaay better than the stock ones did. Kevin

Here are some photos of the "new" seats. My shots of the drilling process were too dark so I whipped up the diagram in Photoshop to help with the visualizing.

After much gnashing of teeth and wringing of hands I am please to report that I now have a set of late model Impreza front seats in my 86 GL wagon. The installation was actually easier than I had thought. I took the seat rails off of the GL seats and redrilled holes on the bottoms of the Impreza seats (I'll post pictures later this evening). The Impreza seats have a little raised area where the rails bolt to it. As luck would have it there is space on the raise area and since the GL seat rails are smaller there is room to make a new set of holes. The NEW holes are 12.125" center to center vertically and 17.25" center to center horizontally. I marked the bottom of the Impreza seats with a sharpie, place the GL rails (to make sure) and drilled pilot holes. Then I enlarged the holes (making them a bit larger than needed to make room fopr wiggle (more on that). The GL seat rails bolt right on. You will need a set of nuts as the stock nuts are welded on to the seat bottom. The bolts are 8mm 1.25 30's. Also, the bolts form the Impreza rails, while the same thread use a hex head which doesn't fit well into the narrower GL rails. The bolts from the GL rails have a Phillips head and work better so keep them or get some new ones. I ended up having to go buy one because just as I was finishing I ran into the biggest problem of the installation. I stepped on a mole and when I turned to see what the h*ll was squeaking I kicked the last bolt across the yard never to be seen again. Finally, the wiggle room came in handy as I realized the final seat rail was bent making installation more challenging than all the other three rails put together. The good news is that the seats are in and so far so good. The biggest difference I noticed is that the seats are higher so it feels a bit like a Forester while driving. That being said, the seats are a HUGE improvement and I would recommend the swap. I'm not nearly as adept as most of the people on the board and I managed it without losing any limbs.

The ticking sound was (and I am loathe to admit it ) 2 loose lug nuts in the drivers side front wheel. This morning I went out and picked up 2 CV joints, ball joints and some brake pads (since I was going to be in there anyway). On the way back from NAPA I noticed the tick turned to a slapping sound and something about it seemed wrong. So, I pulled over and went to the source of the sound (the drivers side front). I grabbed the wheel to get better purchase while looking underneath and I heard a familiar "slappy" sound. After a bit of inspection I realized there were 2 loose lug nuts. One $12 lug wrench later the ticking, knocking and slapping were all gone. I returned the CV joints and kept the ball joints (they need to be replaced anyway) and the brake pads. So, there you go, a tale of a newbie and his Subaru. Ah well, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. I guess the same principle applies here. Kevin

I'm getting a ticking sound as I turn the car (86 4WD GL Wagon). I am getting the sound mostly when I turn to the right at speed. I have heard it a few times going straight over 20mph. The best way to describe it is the sound a car makes when it goes over a washboard surface or if it had a rock stuck in the tread. I'm sure it has been doing it since I bought it, but a friend and I replaced the old rusted exhaust and its alot quieter so I suppose I am just now hearing it. I don't know much about the car (although I am slowly learning). I WAS planning to get some Hella driving lights, but I am guessing THIS will be the next project Oh yeah, 184K miles. Any thoughts?

I just put a set of Impreza seats in my EA82 GL. I used the stock GL seatrails and drilled new holes in the Impreza seats to match. It was pretty easy and the seats fit well. I lost a little bit of headroom because the Impreza seats are taller (it feels a bit like a Forester now). Overall a HUGE improvement. Kevin

I like the look of the rattle trap extreme.

That's a good idea. I went to the local hardware store and thye only had this foil backed material that looked suspiciously like bubble wrap. It probably would have worked, but it was a bit spendy. I'll zip over to the chain stores see what they have. Thanks

Any creative solutions to adding some sound insulation to the doors of an 86 Gl Wagon? The dynamat kits are EXPENSIVE! There has to be a better option than that. I just installed some decent speakers and I figured now that I'm getting goodd at taking the door panels off... Any ideas? Kevin

I have always been leary of free installation. I bought a deck and some speakers recently at BB (we don't have many options in B'ham) and the installers starting going over all the possible "extras" that weren't covered by the free installation...by the time it was done I was looking a very expensive FREE install. I decided to do it myself. I have enough car-fi experience (and its really not that difficult anyway) that I can do it if I have a free afternoon and no rain (no garage).

Of course its hard to tell by just looking at a photo but I think $850 seems on the high side. Considering the amount of older Subarus in in the area (especially around Seattle) I'd be inclined to offer less. The body looks to be in good shape.