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the stupid S**T previous owners did to your soob - a place to vent and commiserate


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trying to find the headlight relays in my brat tonight (passenger side headlights are super dim, and it's not the fuse) and I saw this under the steering wheel...

DSC04215.jpg:eek: Yes, that's a c-clamp holding my clutch pedal together. Definitely going to be tightening that before I go to work in the morning!

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hi,

you can't take anything for granted on an old vehicle !

about your headlight issue , since you are in that area of the clutch cable- - find the main wiring harness that comes through the bulkhead , follow it up a few inches and look for a single (black heavy gage wire )that branches off , its a main ground wire and mine was not grounded and caused issues just as you described. the black wire aprox 5-7 inches long from the harness , should have a ring terminal on it , but could have been cut or , who knows ? anyway put it to a good ground on the bulkhead if possible , this sure fixed my lights problems and weird other electrical stuff that was going on.

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It seems the previous previous owner (last owner was an older lady) did something with the wiring. I have "hot wire" from the batter except the clock. The lights turn off with the ignition. That means I have no constant power to my stereo and have to change settings every time it starts.

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p/o broke the headlight lense and covered the gaping hole with epoxy and an autozone discount card:lol: Negative battery terminal was held on with electrical tape, left open container of old coolant to spill in the back of the car.:rolleyes: if i wouldnt have bought the car, the guy was going to have it crushed!:eek:

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Oh, just about the whole car...

 

We'll start with the springs that were cut in half... comparison is an unmodified 98 forester strut/spring

 

IMG_20110811_183825.jpg

 

Resulting slam from having half a spring...

 

IMG_20110806_190756-1.jpg

 

And then... Im not sure what they tried to paint the front bumper with...or WHY. But this is it.

 

IMG_20110806_190812.jpg

 

And overall just driving the car til it was ready to scrap.

 

OH and lets not forget cutting the entire radio harness out. SPEND $10 FOR AN ADAPTER HARNESS.

 

An autozone hot air intake made of the cheapest plastic ever.

 

IMG_20110813_172630.jpg

 

Note the wires for the MAF, no more plug, just individual wires....

 

Also an autozone auto trans shifter handle. It was mounted too low on the selector shaft so the button was always pushed down. This made the key IMPOSSIBLE TO REMOVE.

 

Im surprised theres no more autozone isle 5 specials like flashy pedal covers and the like.

 

 

 

Why god why?!?!?!

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It seems the previous previous owner (last owner was an older lady) did something with the wiring. I have "hot wire" from the batter except the clock. The lights turn off with the ignition. That means I have no constant power to my stereo and have to change settings every time it starts.

 

I had this happen when I installed my cd deck. There are 2 power wires that need to be flip-flopped. I can't remember which ones, I think it was a red one and a yellow one.

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The stupidest S**t I see are sweet ea81s in the junkyard. It breaks me heart. You rust state people would cry at the niceness that gets crushed here. I wish there were money to be made in fixing them up and selling them. Then we could at least keep them on the road.

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find the main wiring harness that comes through the bulkhead , follow it up a few inches and look for a single (black heavy gage wire )that branches off , its a main ground wire and mine was not grounded and caused issues just as you described. the black wire aprox 5-7 inches long from the harness , should have a ring terminal on it , but could have been cut or , who knows?

 

Thanks for the suggestion! Unfortunately I'm coming to the realization that not only was a new engine put in my Brat (an EA81) but whoever did it also decided that it was necessary to completely rebuild the wiring harness. Nearly every last bit of it is loomed with lots of electrical tape with connectors hanging loose and unplugged. It's probably a miracle that it runs and functions as well as it does(almost everything electrical except for the PS headlights works now after replacing some bulbs and cleaning some contacts.) Long story short, there's no evidence of a ground plug anywhere around the steering column... :banghead:Suggestions? Any way to add a ground wire in there without tearing apart the dash and laying out the wiring harness so I can trace wires?

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PPO had it dealer serviced for 20 years then PO supplied no records for 4 years. Every mild steel piece in the cooling system that could corrode or rust out did. If the dealer serviced it as specified and book stmped it should be as pristne as day one like my other 87 Subaru!!

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Well...

The PO of my brat didn't rebuild the engine correctly, so when i got it; it had a thrown connecting rod :eek: needless to say i had to get another engine to put in. All that is done with and it runs great :banana:

Now its just dealing with other random cosmetic stuff that went wrong while this guy had it... dents, scratches, the rattle can silver painted grill, running light driverside bumper blinker replacement... the list goes on zzz

Will be posting up a build thread soon. I just need to find a good image hosting site... Does facebook work for hosting images??

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Will be posting up a build thread soon. I just need to find a good image hosting site... Does facebook work for hosting images??

 

I am working on a contribution to the USMB that will allow users to upload images and return a url to paste into posts. I have a few hosting sites now, but will get ticked if I start serving a bunch of images all of a sudden. I will post a thread when I have this up.

 

In the mean time. you can use facebook. just have to copy the "download" link and paste it in. but be sure to remove the ?dl=1.

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The previous owner of my Brat thought it would be a better idea instead of buying replacement window crank handles. He would just loctite sockets on the crank splines and use ratchets to roll the windows down.

 

 

 

HAHAHAHAHAHA

 

Ok that made my very sad day a little lighter :)

 

Use a power driver and instant power windows.

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Somehow the Justy had front calipers and rotors that allowed the vehical to move, but when it cam time to refresh them, i had to use a 15lb sledge to get everything apart.

 

So does not doing something count?

 

 

And be careful with the c clamp, as it looks like a very sensative and highly calibrated instument.

 

:lol:

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I am working on a contribution to the USMB that will allow users to upload images and return a url to paste into posts. I have a few hosting sites now, but will get ticked if I start serving a bunch of images all of a sudden. I will post a thread when I have this up.

 

In the mean time. you can use facebook. just have to copy the "download" link and paste it in. but be sure to remove the ?dl=1.

 

Thanks for the info. And yea, it would be awesome if this site had its own image hosting. I wonder why nobody thought of that before?

The ratchet handle made me lol :D

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This site DOES have image hosting, just not very much, because it all costs money. Any of the free hosting sites out there will allow you to link to the pic, so I don't see why it's a big deal to do so. Most of the time there is a "share" button after you upload the pic, click that, follow the directions, and you should get to a link you can copy and paste to wherever you want. I use google picasa since I get to host like 1000 pics for free with my gmail account, so I have just been using that for the last few years.

 

Trying to add something else to make it "easier" is kinda silly, since it's really easy to copy and paste the link. No need to reinvent the wheel IMHO. If someone doesn't know how to use a forum, then a quick google search should point you in the correct direction on how to use forums, and most likely how to post pictures on forums as well...

 

Maybe USMB should make a sticky somewhere giving instructions on this? It comes up every now and again with new users, might be helpful.

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