JPX

I ran into a bizarre electrical issue captured in this thread: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/topic/158835-96-legacy-22-electrical-shutdown-when-driving-cranks-wont-start-no-warning-lights-will-come-on/?do=findComment&comment=1325934 Aging wiring at the connectors - like the spades or multi-wire connectors that plug into the fuse blocks - may cause intermittent problems. In my case, the big red wire for the dash fuse block had a flaky spade which is embedded in the connector B52. You can have all good fuses and relays, but if any of the wiring is damaged or corroded, you will need to get down and dirty with verifying every leg of the wiring - connector to connector. Good luck!

My CA based 96 Legacy has not had front timing covers since I replaced the long-block several years ago. It's true the timing belt and the pulley surfaces get a little grubby. But the probability of a negative consequence is lower given the posh street life the car enjoys (no gravel, mud, snow, hard driving and low chance of bad rust). I gave up on the covers after a rough roundy-round with the crankshaft pulley keyway and a more recent head gasket debacle. I wouldn't recommend running without covers for most users. But if you are at the point of taking your engine apart anyway, then it is a personal choice. My choice is based on the fact it is more likely I have to take something apart anyway before I encounter a problem caused by a missing belt cover on my $1000 KBB-value Subaru!

Yeah the plunger usually has plenty of life on it. The alternator shop I bought a set of contacts from simply gave the plunger a quick run over with a light gauge wire brush to freshen it up. I hadn't thought of soldering the contacts! I need to remember that for this as well as other applications next time. I love learning things like this from these forums. There are kits out there - this is one of MANY examples available : Victory Lap Solenoid Repair Kit

Both ports were clear. After repositioning the plungers manually without the big spring, it was possible to drive compressed air through each port-set. The tiny plungers at the tips were both fine. Have gone about 80 miles so far and the brake bias seems to be okay.

I've changed out the contacts only and got many more years of life out of the existing starter and plunger. This addressed a problem with weak, intermittent click from solenoid when trying to start the car. I've preemptively conducted another contacts change along with a new plunger - still using the same starter motor. Pictures are from 2013 from the plunger and contacts swap.

Here are photos of the 96 brake proportioning valve partially disassembled.....the big spring under the cap is removed with a 12mm nut and a lot of pressure on the spring (similar to taking apart rocker arm springs on heads). Use a small screwdriver to pry out the small circlip. Still wondering what the assembly looks like with the spring mounted properly to address both plungers.

In a previous life I would have cringed at using so much brake fluid. But now I feel such a sense of satisfaction when the brake fluid flows clear and the reservoir looks like the day I bought the car new!

The new proportioning valve is from a 97 Legacy wagon. I don't have any documentation on the 96 Legacy sedan or the 97 Legacy wagon's valve's pressure points. When I jammed on the brakes during the testing, the ABS kicked in predictably and the car stopped straight and promptly. I could not discern any excessive bias to the rears.

A friend of mine was cruising Pick N Pull today and grabbed a newer model proportioning valve (without the brass cap). I've installed this to the car today and it seems to be workable. Fluid flows happily through both the left and right channels, I took off the spring from the original valve. The plungers could be moved by hand. But without the mysterious "whatever goes between the two plungers under the spring" part, it is worthless. I am in the middle of bleeding the rest of the system and changing out the pads. Then we'll see how the newer valve works with the system.

I am a big fan of Motive's power bleeder - happily used with adapters for my GM and VW vehicles. So easy and efficient to push old fluid and air out of all four wheels quickly! But there is no cap adapter available for the 1996 (not sure what other years) Legacy brake fluid reservoir. The so-called universal adapter is a big pain. So I took a trip to the junkyard to pick up an extra 3" cap. I drilled out the center for a barb fitting and used large washers on each side to distribute the load on the silicon gaskets for the fitting. I attempted to use the original gasket for the cap. I cut out the center for the fitting. But it would not seal at all. Turns out the original gasket is meant to use the center membrane - there is a small pressure relief groove on the edge of the gasket. This prevents a true seal with the cap mod. I tried several rigged "gasket-like" setups to try to get a good seal. But it just wouldn't happen. Then I realized that the three tabs under the gasket prevented anything from seating flat. I ground these down flush with a Dremel and a craft knife. Then I placed a toilet gasket (shown in the picture) that had an excellent bevel to it. Cap seals perfectly. - and now I can power bleed my Subaru!

While inspecting my 96 Legacy's brakes, I discovered that the right rear caliper was not functioning. The slide bolts are in good condition and sufficiently lubed. The piston is fine as well because I could push it smoothly back in the caliper bore easily AFTER I opened the bleeder screw to relieve the pressure. When I tried to bleed the caliper from the reservoir with my power bleeder modification (different post!), I could not force any fluid to that caliper. The rear left caliper bled fine. Troubleshooting so far: - Caliper is clear - can push fluid (and air) through both the bleeder screw hole AND the hose connection. - Rear brake hose is clear - disconnected from the hard line in the rear wheel well and fluid/air flows freely through it both ways. - Hard brake line from rear wheel well to the proportioning valve is clear. When I removed the hard line from the valve, the trapped fluid immediately drained of the rear brake hose. Testing the proportioning valve: - I could readily blow compressed air through the ports for the left side caliper. - I could NOT get any air to flow through the ports for the right side caliper. - Conclusion so far is the valve is not working. Upon disassembling the valve cover, pieces of some type of gasket fell out with some black colored brake fluid. The main gasket for the valve cover was intact and in good shape (probably would have brake fluid leak in engine bay if this particular gasket was bad). I can't find any information about how this particular valve is constructed to operates. It appears that gasket debris was located UNDER the spring. Further, the spring is pressing on one of the plunger buttons - but it is not touching the other button at all. My next step is to remove the spring retaining bolt and seeing what the plungers look like. Anyone have more ideas on how to proceed? (other than the obvious buy a new proportioning valve)

Good on you winginit! You pretty much went down the same path I did with my 2.2L head gasket change. It seems to be holding up!

I used one of those El Cheapo Airtext fuel pumps on my 1996 Legacy L. It works fine. Has been running fine for >7K miles. (2 years). Needed the usual wire crimping and a fuel hose tweak to make it look like a factory unit. You have to be patient and in a zen mood as you pull the pump stack out of the tank hole since it needs a little finesse to take it out with the float, sender, pump and all through the hole. The real fun was when the car wouldn't start one night and the AAA guy started pounding on the fuel tank with a rubber mallet while yelling at me to try starting the car. It got the car running so I could drive it home rather than be towed. But the next day I promptly changed the fuel pump out.

That's like the 88 mph thing from Back to the Future!

I just finished a head gasket changeout on a 96 EJ22 in the car. I didn't really have the space to deal with pulling the engine (and I have done it before with this car). I wish I had pulled the engine this round. The driver side head is the absolute worst to get to.....it took 6 hands to get the head back on and it was really difficult. The head bolts are too long to remove fully from the head. And these are the "easy" ones since they are SOHC heads. My back was very sore from the ordeal. I can't even imagine trying to do this on the DOHC engines.

1996 Legacy L. After putting my car back together following a vexing electrical problem, I was happily driving the car around for 2 days with no issue. I still had a mess of wiring hanging out under the dash since I wanted to make sure the electrical problems were resolved before reassembling the lower dash panels. I finally secured the lower dash panels and wiring, did a quick restart test and then went to bed. This morning I drove the car for 20 minutes with all lights on, radio, phone charger when I noticed the Check Engine light came on. The car bucked a couple of times, then popped out an ABS light. I recognized this combination - I have seen before on failed alternators. I turned off all unnecessary electrics and tried to stay off the brakes (brake lights) to get the car as close to my work as possible. I noticed the fuel gauge was bottomed out and was puzzled why I could not see a battery light in the midst of this. I drove another 10 minutes in this state of tension knowing I was exclusively on battery power in Bay Area morning commute traffic. I managed to get the car into my work parking lot and was trying to back into my space when the car finally completely died. The additional 55w reverse lights sucked out the last of the battery charge. I ended up pushing the car into my spot for the last 10 feet. Throughout the work day, I replayed what happened the night before and concluded that I had not plugged in the left side of the instrument panel's connector. The battery warning light is on that circuit. Without that light on the charge circuit, the alternator will not charge the battery properly. Fortunately some wise folks on this forum have already discussed this at length....http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/topic/143889-alternator-not-charging-dash-light-was-to-blame-seriously/ ! When I got off work, I quickly opened up the instrument panel and plugged the connector back in *dur*, and got a jump from a co-worker. The car started right up and drove home with no issues other than a Check Engine light that was an artifact of the power failure when the P0500 Vehicle Speed Sensor. This was reset with my OBD reader and we are back in business. Public Service Announcement - make sure the battery light works and your connectors are installed properly!

I placed an order for a LoadPro last Friday , kind of expecting I would not identify the problem this weekend. Even though I found the problem without the LoadPro, I will happy to have that tool in my arsenal. These types of electrical problems on aging cars will always come up in the future. Also helps to see what the problem AND the solution looks like without it.

Ah! A big change! When poking at pin 10 B52 at the interior fuse block to check voltage, all the warning lights came on. With some wiggling at this connector, I could get the car started! Even though I had voltage at the ignition switch connector B72, something funny was going on at the fuse block on B52. It choked here and there as I tugged on various portions of wiring under the dash. But I could get a running car if the connector was happy. As I look at the connector, there is some blue discoloration, similar to the stuff I saw inside the fuse box - probably same location. I will have to clean up that pin.....and if I can't get a satisfactory connection, may rewire it altogether. Was able to drive the car off the street and into the garage so I can clean up under the dash. Cougar, Fairtax4me - thanks for the advice! Hoepfully others can learn from this experience as their Subarus age. Cheers!

All kinds of 12V from the back side of the fuses on the engine fuseblock. Just to be sure, I took apart the fuse block down to the mutilayer traces. No moisture or corrosion (despite the close proximity to the battery). There was a lot of dielectric grease smeared around in there. Wiped it down just to eliminate that as a variable. Hmm.....something somewhere between the main engine fuse block and the interior fuse block.

OBD connector red wire pin 1 B40 is 12V. Pin 85 on B84 is 325mV to ground with key on. I probed fuses 1,8,15,16 - red test lead to fuse tips and black lead to dash metal. 325mV on all of them. I do get 12V on the wiper fuse #2. Guess I need to go after taking apart the engine fuse block next.

I took the entire interior fuse block out of the car and took it apart. It is made up of three layers of metal traces sandwiched between the plastic plates. I found a small spot of corrosion in the lowermost section of the box (at the i5 connector). I've seen something like this on Volkswagens where the windshield leaks directly into the fuse block. I cleaned it up and tested continuity across multiple traces. I went through all the fuses themselves for continuity then reassembled and put back into car. But I never noticed those metal tabs on the backside of the fuses Cougar! I'll test these out this morning.

Also I found out what the "2 barks" sound under the hood was.....it is the ABS pump initializing at key on. So at I know that still works.

Interesting. No voltage at the DLC (I presume you mean pin 5 B78) with the key on. Currently rechecking fuse 15 and its terminals - which checked out okay. I don't have DTC reader - only the OBD reader. I am getting 12V solid on pin 39 B84 at the ECU. Power of some type is getting to the ECU. The voltage does drop slightly to 11.2V when cranking the engine.

Hmmm, after spending an hour in various contorted positions, I got the main relay out to bench test. For future reference, the relay is mounted to a small metal plate that is held to the left dash wall with a a phillips screw. Unless you tore out half the wiring harness or pulled the dash, it would be a miracle to be able to remove the relay from the metal plate with that screw in. On the bench: - Main relay tested 77 ohms across the coil (pins 1 and 2), - Main relay clicked with 12V across coil - continuity on pins 3 to 5, and pins 4 and 6 with coil energized Fuel pump relay - 70 ohms across coil pins 1 and 3 - continuity on pins 2 and 4 with coil energized Would be really nice to know what the ECU logic tree is when power is applied to it. Wondering if I am look at the wrong spot.....if the ECU is bad, it is totally bad. No good way to troubleshoot the ECU itself at the pin level. The other side of this is if the inhibitor switch on the gear selector is doing something funny to make the ECU or the TCM not turn on. Going to reconnect everything, but leave the lower dash disassembled and take some more readings: - verify LG wire is good from the main relay pin 2 B47 back to the ECU pin pin 63 B84. - check ground/continuity from main relay pin 1 B47 Might hard wire that pin to ground just to be sure. - recheck all ECU related grounds (mounting bolts/brackets).

Thanks for the tips guys. I went through a lot of grounds in the engine bay and under the dash, including the set on the TCM and the steering column - removed, wire brushed and retightened. Still no change. I was thinking a bit more about the LG wire from the ECU pin#63 that goes to the coil of the main relay pin#2 B48. Since I have power there, that means the coil is getting power. So either the ground for the relay is bad, or the coil and/or contacts for the main relay are bad. Will have to try to get under the dash tomorrow to figure that out.