ErikAnderson

You know I went to crutchfield and did not have much luck. I'll go back and give it a second go. All I got were lots of warnings that they did not have supporting parts for my car. I'm sure it had something to do with me doing it at 3am.

I got an 85 Subaru GL, I guess it started life with two crappy speakers in the front dash, previous owner wired (poorly.... jesus) some bigger square speakers and left them sitting in the backseat foot rest area. My "stereo" is hot garbage, and is currently just one speaker. Really all I want is to listen to NPR on AM radio and the occasional podcast while I drive. IN my dreams when I close my eyes and think about unicorns and magic and that love is truly real I picture buying a stereo kit off amazon for around 80 bucks that has a head unit and four speakers and wiring it in. Is this just going to end with me getting tangled in wires behind the dash and going from one crappy speaker to no speakers? I know the radio is built in to the dash so I will have to do some cutting. My car is a beater but I don't want to murder her any more than she has been. Anyone have experience with this? I know how to read a schematic and solder things, I'm a maintenance guy and troubleshooter by trade, though cars can be stupid. I really don't want to go to a audio store and pay (probably) more than I paid for the actual car. I have a WRX that I'm trying to drive less and a list of things I need to fix on my GL to make that happen, stereo is second under my broken window regulator.

Yikes. Okay. I'll get reading up on that. I adjusted the idle on the carb and it will idle now but it sounds rough. I doubt I fixed anything so I'll get reading.

1984 Subaru GL. 163k miles My car will no longer idle with no load on the engine. Started with rough start when cold, took multiple attempts. Progressed to rough idle or stall on idle when cold. Got back to the car after a month and now it will not idle cold at all and does not seem to be looking good when warm. Car drives fine as long as it is coasting under a load (above say 1000rpm) or with throttle. I got the AC model and there are about a million miles of lines under the hood. Not sure if it's vac or carb adjustment?? Car starts (but won't idle) fine when warm Any advice? All I got is my phone and searching is making me cross eyed. Thanks so much

Henpecked, wow, you must have spent 20 minutes on that post. Thanks a lot for the time! Sorry I did not get back sooner, especially with the great advice here but I was out on the bike yesterday and ended up in a PNW rain storm, by the time I got home I pretty much collapsed by the fire. I'm not sure if the first route really speaks to me but I guess I'll never know until I try it. The wiring in that car must be pure art. For the moment I have the stock one, and I want to put a speaker in the left hand side, as well as rumor has it to replace the one under or around the glove box. Really all I want to do is listen to me AM radio, maybe a little FM now and then, but I don't stray too far away from news, podcasts, or NPR when I'm driving. I'm super boring. Good idea on the shallow head unit. I never listen to CDs and I'm willing to bet there are shallow head units that will have a usb or aux input for media on my iphone. ***Whoa, the pictures are right-side-up on my desktop, why are they all strange here??***

I got an 84 GL wagon. Did some searches and I found that other people have replaced their old busted 3x5 speakers with other sizes. I know nothing about speakers. I don't care that much about sound, I just want to listen to the news... Looking at speakers there are all kinds of ohm ratings and what not. What do I need to just get sound back in my car?

Super cheap. No frills. 5$ on Amazon. Verified it with a meter and its spot on

So yeah, timing was horribly off. Readjusted it on both cars and they run amazing. Today I learned that there is no way to adjust that stuff "by ear". Something I'm sure everyone else already knew

Thanks for the confirmation, I'll get on it.

My 84 GL wagon, manual transmission just feels like a fat kid running up hill. When I'm mid throttle it feels kind of jerky as well as when I put it in first and start moving from a stop. I had the disty out when I found the owner had it 180deg out of position, upon reinstall I had to adjust it ALL the way CCW in order to "smooth" out the idle. Could timing be a issue here? Granted it sounds carburator-like to me. Clutch feels good at WOT, no running away revs. Really stupid question: Should I check the timing? Compared to my 84 DL (my wife lets me own two ) this car just feels... "off" thoughts on where to start? Thanks, Erik

Good point. After driving it for a day it appears to work every now and again. Right now it's showing under 12v where metering across the battery gives 14.3v. I should know better but just to confirm I'm not overlooking anything right? It's the gauge that's wrong, the system is charging just fine right?

I bought this car 2 months ago. This gripe could have been existing at the time. I'm not sure. Just got home after working 50 days so I can't remember Bought the car in the midst of the PO trying to fix it. Started it up yesterday after two months, noticed the voltmeter on the dash was unresponsive. The car started but it got me curious. Metered Over the battery and got 11vdc. Swapped in a spare alternator and got 14.xx vdc. So it had a bad alternator and was running off battery, but my voltmeter is still at zero. Everything else on the dash appears to work. Have you seen something like this before? Any help would be great Before I start chasin wires and looking in the drawings.

3 years and 10,000 miles ago I fixed mine with a couple pipe clamps and zip ties. /backs slowly away.

What gauge steel is the body of an 84 subaru approximately? I'm curious not only for patching material, but also material to practice with. I won't have video access while offshore but I will have time when I get home to read up.

Thanks Dan, I'm about to go away for two months so I will have plenty of time to do me some research, I'll also do the DL first before the GL

I have a crappy little welder much like this one. http://www.harborfreight.com/welding/mig-flux-welders/90-amp-ac-120-volt-flux-cored-welder-61849.html please don't laugh. I use it for odd tasks here and there, but yeah, it's lame. I'm not the best with it because I've not had much need to use it, but I'm no slouch and I don't see why welding wont be something I'm at least passable at. Can I use this welder on my car's panels? Does it have enough rump roast? My car needs new rockers and probably a wheel arch or two, while I'm at it I'm sure I'll pull out the carpeting and find something in there that needs a patch.

I hope that is all it is. I've been an electrical guy in one form or the other for the last 17 years, fuses and circuit breakers are always the first thing I check... car runs out of gas.... i check the fuses

My .02 You can adjust your idle speed at the carb, I don't know what you have done to your car prior, but it sounds like you have something wrong with your accelerator cable or your carb. I would determine why your gas pedal is sticking and go from there. On my 84 DL the ECS light is always on now that I put a hitachi carb on and removed all the vac lines. A tiny bit of black tape fixed that Your backfire issues "could" be your timing out of adjustment, spark plugs, or plug wires not playing nice. I guess it is important to consider what you have done to the car prior to this and see if any of those things could have resulted in a negative effect. Is the idle sloppy as well?

What year is the car? On my 84 DL/GLs you can pop open the plastic shroud around the steering column with about 6 Phillips screws. I was just in mine about 20 min ago for my ignition. It goes without saying that you checked your fuses and metered for power at the fuse panel right?

Hooked up the AC today, PO had the belt removed. It blows super cold, pretty impressive for a 31 year old car that was maybe not top of the line . I need a key ignition assembly. PO had the tumbler break inside and has been using a screw driver to spin the back end of it to run. I have two spares but one was in his water bucket and the other is a different style. After cleaning the car out I'm pretty sure it was used as a spider factory. It's mostly cleaned out now and I can move forward with a bit of minor restoration. Both rocker panels are shot. I'm a half assed welder so I guess it's time to start getting a bit better..... All in all I'm pretty thrilled about my 450$ car. 10 years I paid twice that for my 85 DL. it's interesting seeing them both side by side. The GL is better all the way around. They are almost different cars.

IT LIVES!!!! So here is what I think happened. Something related to the distributer took a dump initially. Dude tried to fix it and ended up hooking it up 180 out maybe? He then spent two weeks changing out nearly everything ignition related (i have three coils, two of them new in the spares kit) I get the car, look at the manual, look back down at the disty and think that everything is okay, when I DID give it a good look and check to see if everything was correct I understood everything I was seeing as correct. It was not correct, it was 180 out. Today with fresh eyes I went out to the garage and got it running in 30 minutes.... makes that $150 I spent on hauling it home yesterday kinda sting. Oh well, my 300$ car is actually a 450$ car. He had a PILE of spare parts like window glass and brake light housings and alternators, that he kept in buckets that filled with water. Nearly everything but the light housings are going in the trash. funny how things are.

Thanks for the help and mind-to-rest-putting. She's tucked away in the garage now and I'm back to figuring out why she won't start

Car is home and registered in my name. I go off to work in the gulf for a month-month and a half. If there are any big brain mechanics who want to make some bucks & beer when I get home I'd live your help.

Thanks IH! Yeah it's a manual. It's home now, I'm going off to work for four to six weeks then I will be home to start working on her.

Okay. I believe the last owner towed it about 20 miles home on a dolly.... Is my 4wd a 2wd now? What should I check?