Cougar

Take voltage readings on the pins I told you about for the instument cluster connector and tell me what you record for the readings. Reference the readings to a good ground point.

Here is a link to a site that may help you. http://www.troublecodes.net/Subaru/

Looking at my reference it shows fuse 12 is supplying power to those circuits along with others. Pins 15 and 25 in the instrument cluster carry the power to them. It looks like pins 21 and 22 are the ground.

I would recommend you get the battery checked out to see if it has a shorted cell. If the battery is ok it sounds like you then may need to replace the alternator with one that has a higher current rating. You may need one that is rated for over 100 amps. You should also repair the burned wiring so the charging circuit is protected.

To see if the coil is ok you should have voltage on both sides of the coil when the key is "ON". If you don't have voltage on either side then check the fuses for a blown fuse. Also check the fusible links. If you have voltage on both sides then you should check the trsistor ignitor. They can go bad. The fuel pump will not work after the initial charge up if the ignition isn't working.

I think he meant replacing the light sockets if they are damaged and soldering in new ones with short wire ends, or pigtails as they are called.

Make sure the fuel pump is getting the proper voltage (12 volts) when this happens. Measure across the two leads to the pump when checking it.

If he is using higher wattage bulbs than original it may be the problem. Also check the wiring at the lights for damage and the fuse connection.

In order to help you further with this Gregg it would help to know which fusible link is blowing out so we can know what circuits could be causing the problem. A bad ground should not cause a link to blow out since it will add resistance to a circuit rather than make a low resistance short. There may be a pinched power wire that is touching ground or something like causing the problem. By knowing what circuits to check, it will help eliminate the possible trouble areas the link is tied to.

I would take a look at the light switch as the cause of this trouble. It may be just a bad connection at a connector near the switch also.

it sounds like you put iin a larger fuse to stop it from blowing out. If this is so I would disconnect it as you may start a fire. You stated that you had a bad wire and it is burning. The wire is carring current to something that is drawing a lot of current and needs to be fixed, It now appears that the wiring is bad also.

From the numbers I can see on the resistor it looks like the resistor value may be 6.5 ohms. You could try to replace it but the problem is what caused the resistor to be burned in the first place. Excessive current caused the damage and the circuit that the resistor provides power to needs to be checked out. It may provide power to the fuel pump, injectors, or.... something else. If you put in another ECU and the problem is still there then the new ECU will be damaged also. Try to see what the resistor ties to and if it goes to an external pin on the ECU to help find the area to check.

Sorry I can't tell you how to remove the dash, but are you sure that has to be done? What is the trouble you are having? I may be able to help you so the dash doesn't need to be removed.

The symtoms you describe indicate there is a bad connection in the main power buss to the accessories somewhere, not a short. Make sure that the smaller wire to the positive side of the battery is making good connection. Check the fusible links for a bad connection. The problem may be in the ignition switch connector. You will have to remove the cover over the steering column to check that. Do that if you don't find any trouble in the other areas.

After looking at the picture it looks like resistor R1, in the lower right corner of the picture, is burned.

I am out of town again Northwet. I will be back again after Tuesday and see what I can do on this. Sorry I didn't back to you before.

Your welcome for the help Justin. Glad you got it going without too much trouble. On your speaker problem I would guess that the speakers are open and need to be replaced since the others are working. You can prove that by jumpering a known good speaker across the leads of the suspected bad one. You can also measure the resistance of the speaker coil when the system is off and you may have to remove one wire at least from the speaker to isolate it. The resistance should be around 4 to 8 ohms. Another thing that comes to mind is the wiring for the two got crossed somehow. If the speakers were ok before the change then I would suspect a wiring problem. As far as Subaru service manuals go, you can get them from Ebay. There are a number of CD versions of the repair manuals available along with the factory repair manuals. I prefer the real manuals for my own cars but also got a CD for helping others like yourself with their car troubles. My CD is a Mitchell reference and it covers the years '83-'00. It isn't as good as a real manual but it gives me pretty much what I need. Thanks for the offer on the computer help. I may need it sometime down the road.

Fuse #5 powers a number of different things so you have to make sure it is ok. Since the horn is also tied to that fuse it is easy to check it by seeing if the horn works, telling you the the fuse is ok. I helped one person troubleshoot his ignition system and after a lot of testing to see what was wrong we found that fuse was blown. Always check the fuses first when you are having trouble.

Your welcome for the help. Glad to hear you got it going. Thanks for the update.

That's a good deal. She may want to see if can get an extended service warranty through her insurance company to cover the other things on the vehicle. Though the engine is the main concern and hopefully she will now have many trouble free miles ahead.

That's a good deal. She may want to also get an extended warranty through her insurance company to cover the other things on the vehicle in case of trouble. The engine is the main concern though, so she may be fine with just that.

Since you have 12 volts on the red wire of the relay but don't have voltage getting to the Blk/red wire of the same relay it seems that the relay may be bad. Like a switch, those two points should be tied together when power is applied to the control coil of the relay. I think the yel wire is supplying that. The coil may be open also. To see if the blk/red wire ties to the pump you could check the resistance between that wire and the Blu/yel wire on the pump. You should see a low resistance if they are tied together. This would prove that you have the correct relay also. Another thing you could try is swapping the relay with another like it to see what happens. Edit: After looking at my data again it appears you do have the correct relay going by the wire colors you mention. The only way to get the readings you got from the relay means it would have to be bad, so replace it. The Blk/red wire should be hot. If you want to prove it you can run a jumper lead from 12 volts to the lead. You will hear the pump run.

My data shows that power is tied to the fuel pump relay from a red wire on pin 2. The power is switched through the relay on a Blk/red wire tied to pin 4 of the relay. This wire then changes color to Blu/yel at the pump and is tied to pin 1. You should have 12 volts on all these points. The other side of the pump is tied to ground.

Leapin' lizards Batman! Did you see the picture of that dash?

If the belt is loose it might not make any noise. Be careful about applying too much tension to the alternator belt. That is bad also.