ferox Posted March 3, 2008 Share Posted March 3, 2008 OK...I am at the point where I have to ask for help. My forum searches are totally ineffective. I have tried every combination of search preferences I can think of and I still get poor results. I lurked on this site for about a year and a half before I joined, and during that time of intense learning I just went through the thread stack manually, so I know there are some really informative answers and explainations in the archive, but I can't get to them. I have even typed in the exact title of threads just as a test and they don't come up in the results. A couple of weeks ago someone else posted a similar problem, but discovered the Relevancy search preference solved their problem, but that still didn't give me better results. I hate asking questions I know have been answered in detail many times over, so instead of troubleshooting what I am doing wrong, can someone give me an example done right? Or is there a sticky or tutorial I missed? I have been trying to get this to work for quite some time now, so I must be missing some little thing that's giving me useless results. Actually here's a real example: I have an '81 hatch that I want to switch to the 100 amp GM internally regulated alternator and remove the external voltage regulator. The thread on the alternator swap is easy to find manually, but someone posted a simple, but informative thread on the color coding of the three wires that need to be spliced after the external vr is removed. I can probably just take the EVR apart and figure it out, but I like second opinions. I have tried too many word and preference combinations to list, so how would you search for this information? Sorry for the long thread and thanks in advance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idosubaru Posted March 3, 2008 Share Posted March 3, 2008 you are good to ask, thanks for doing it! it's smart, makes things more efficient and you really get more information that way. the search function works best with 4 or more letters. that's been brought up multiple times and it appears there's no way if you want to search for something with 3 letters there is one option that works fairly well - try this: *XT6 or XT6* the most handy feature i like to use is to go to "Advanced Search". Rather than click on "Search" - click on the little arrow right next to it and go to the Advanced Search option. When you do that you can narrow down the forum - like yours would be Older Generation forum. Then you can also narrow it down by "search titles only". good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subieguy Posted March 3, 2008 Share Posted March 3, 2008 Try this link:http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=47847&highlight=alternator Hopefully that will help. Richard Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idosubaru Posted March 3, 2008 Share Posted March 3, 2008 While you're surfing USMB - it's also helpful to make a folder just for Subaru information. Create documents with links to specific USMB posts that may interest you in the future. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ferox Posted March 3, 2008 Author Share Posted March 3, 2008 THANK YOU! Thank you grossgary for the solid search tips. I haven't tried them yet, but that's totally what I was looking for. I knew there had to be some "operators". I was making up my own to see if I would get lucky. And Thank you Subieguy, that is the exact thread I was talking about, and it looks like you found it using "alternator" as your search word if I am not mistaken. Another implicit tip. I have been so frustrated by this. It's been like some crazy puzzle box, but instead of a pellets of monkey chow on the inside its got tidbits of the collective subie wisdom and knowledge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idosubaru Posted March 3, 2008 Share Posted March 3, 2008 tidbits of the collective subie wisdom and knowledge.hmmmm.....drool.....wipe off keyboard.....glad you found that thread! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hooziewhatsit Posted March 3, 2008 Share Posted March 3, 2008 I believe boolean operators work too - so searching for: +Subaru +Impreza will give you all the threads that have Subaru AND impreza in them. But searching for: Subaru Impreza: will give you all the threads that have subaru and all the threads that have impreza - which will be significantly more and basically be useless. This helps a bunch too. hmm, just played with that for a few minutes, and searching with the + didn't return any different results than without them. I've found the most relevant links are usually at the bottom of the page under a thread. So if you find a similar thread while searching, be sure to look down there also. -Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idosubaru Posted March 3, 2008 Share Posted March 3, 2008 hmm, just played with that for a few minutes, and searching with the + didn't return any different results than without them. you're right, i edited my post so noone gets confused. i would have tested it - (but i was on dialup!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hatchsub Posted March 3, 2008 Share Posted March 3, 2008 Maybe this should get bookmarked or put somewhere where everyone can find it? Good info for everyone in this post. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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