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Jumping 1985 GL-10, smoke from black box?


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So my battery died last night; I left the door open and it drained out.

 

I tried to jump it, very carefully, as I was told that one should never jump a old Subaru for risk of doing damage.

 

Jumping didn't work but what happened in the process is that I started seeing smoke coming from a little box mounted to the drivers side.

 

The little black box on the on the drivers side contains 4 fusible links; 1.25, .50, .85, and .50. The 1.25 was what caused the smoke.

 

First, is this a quick fix just replacing the link? If so, who has them?

Second, did I just damage my car?

 

Thanks guys!

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That means you have a bad electrical issue somewhere....

 

Ive seen it happen to older EA82s and my advice was to start replacing cables and battery terminals... on 2/3 fixing battery terminals worked... on the 3rd, nothing short of a new wiring harness was going to help (duct taped wires, cut wires, loose wires etc) so the car was scrapped...

 

Which was sad, like a 1989 DL with 91k on it :( super clean

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Ever notice how these little battery terminals suck?

InterstateBattery.jpg

 

I had to replace my postive terminal, and soon will replace my negative one, just for safe measure...

 

On my sisters 91 Legacy, the previous owner monkey-fisted the cable on and it just snapped when I tried to take it off causing me to touch the wrench to the terminal... sparks flew :lol:

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you can replace the fuse links with j-type fuses found in a legacy or ford.

 

with battery terminals, you can replace them with brass marine types, since the cables unbolt from the terminals. This way you can disconnect the battery with a wing nut, instead of distorting the terminals.

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Since there wasn't a problem before you jumped the battery I suspect what caused the fusible link to blow was the jumper cables were connected in reverse of what they should have been. To see if there is a shorting problem you could check the resistance on the protected side of the fusible link connection and check for a short to ground. You could also connect a brake light bulb in series where the fusible link would normally connect. Then connect up a fully charged battery and see if the brake light glows brightly. If it does then there is a problem down the line somewhere. Pulling fuses should help locate the area of the trouble.

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