Kookookachew's 93' BC Legacy L build

[kookookachew]

Hey guys, so I've picked up my 3rd Legacy and I got it in pretty rough shape, and no matter what ends up happening it will turn out much better (hopefully) and quite a bit different from where it started so I thought I'd create a build thread to show my progress!

[kookookachew]

So, here she is, a 1993 Legacy L, started life in Colorado as a nice, normal, average Legacy sedan with a 2.2L and 4EAT. However, the previous owners have taken there toll, and I've got a chance to step in and rescue this poor Subie.

Here are some pics of when I first got my hands on it. It had been sitting in a parking lot of my college in Northern NY for about 1 1/2 years. This whole time the passenger window was down about 2 inches, and the front and rear windshields were leaking badly.

This created about 2 inches of water and ice, yes I said ice, accumulation on the floor, along with massive amounts of mold, and a smell that was a mix between mold, and rotten trash-juice. :icon_cry:

Anyway heres the pics...

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[kookookachew]

So, to start out with, I cleaned all of the crap that the PO had left in the car. Seems he was using it as a storage container for his forgotten trash... It actually took me 3 carloads of garbage to the dumpsters just to get rid of his old stuff.

This included: Boxes, bean-bag chair, sleeping bag, easter basket, travel books of the U.S, a broken DVD player, 2 very gross V8 juice containers, and countless other misc. things that were just generally gross.

https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2013/03/IMG_0457_zps917c850b-2.jpg

[kookookachew]

Once the majority of the old stuff had been cleaned out, I worked on checking the car mechanically... From a quick inspection everything looked great! Clean fluids all topped up everywhere... New looking CV shafts, very little, and I honestly mean very little rust. I guess coming from Colorado really helped it out...

So after checking fluids I checked for power, I didnt think there was any since none of the interior lights lit up. But upon inserting the key, I had power! tried starting it, but it only had enough juice to "click". So a quick jump-start later it was running like a champ! I removed the jump vehicle, put it into drive, and drove out of the spot... No issues whatsoever...

Heres a pic of the car freshly out of its spot in over a year... And then one of it at out Car clubs shop where I vacuumed it out to help a little with the gross-ness and then the last one is in the parking lot of my residence on campus. I live in what Clarkson calls the "Townhouses".

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[kookookachew]

On the next chance I got I decided to take the leap and scrap the existing disgusting interior, and boy am I glad I did...

Not only was EVERYHTING moldy, but the seats werent original, and the rear bench was actually out of a wagon, which didnt fit, and didnt latch...

So I pulled out the seats, pulled out the vomit-inducing carpet, and whatever else I could. Along with scraping up the original sound-deadening material that was supposed to be glued to the floor, but with all of the moisture had just soaked up the smell and given up on adhesion.

Here are a few pics, you can see how gross it was, unfortunately I forget to take a whole-interior shot with the sound-deadening scraped up...

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[kookookachew]

Now that the interior was out and the smell inside was bearable again, I began to tackle the electrical issues... When I got it the dome light, map lights, dash lights, horn, rear defrost, power mirrors, and power windows were all in-op...

Everything but the power mirrors and windows was due to blown fuses. This was caused by perhaps the poorest jobs I've ever seen done on installing an aftermarket stereo. The wires were cut from the original harness instead of using an adapter, and then just twisted together with no tape... Eventually the wires grounded out and blew all of the fuses....

I set out cutting and re-crimping with electrical tape all of the stereo wires and now upon replacing the fuses all of those electrical circuits work great!

[kookookachew]

The power windows were even easier to fix, and the power mirrors... Well, I'll get to those...

Here shows a pciture of exactly what went wrong. On 1st gen Legacys there is a circuit breaker and Relay mounted under the drivers seat, under the carpet, and under a metal plate bolted to the car.

As you can see, the wires attached to the CB had become corroded and come loose. This issue was quickly resolved and then the power windows began to work, although slow and weak...


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[kookookachew]

As for the power mirrors... When I got the car the passenger side mirror had been broken off by presumably someone in the parking lot since it was just sitting on the hood....

And I couldn't figure out for the life of me why the driver's side mirror wouldn't work... Well I eventually gave up and went to adjust the glass by hand, when I discovered the problem... As I pushed lightly on the mirror to adjust the glass it just fell off....

Apparently that mirror had been broken off before and just glued back on...

[kookookachew]

Lots of pictures soon to come! I managed to acquire a massive amount of great stuff from the U-Pull-U-Save in East Syracuse, NY...

Actually I managed the passenger taillight and center piece, passenger front turn signal, MAF sensor, door panel pockets and speaker grills, a complete set of seat-belts, rear quarter window trims, front windshield trim, both power mirrors, a factory amp+sub out of a 3rd gen Legacy, an entire leather interior in perfect condition from a '99 Legacy GT including carpet, tweeters, and premium speakers, and a rare information center from a forester that I want to try and retro-fit, all for $71.50!!!

[kookookachew]

Did some more work today, will be back on it after dinner settles :p

So, I pulled the drivers seat back out, and then used laquer thinner to clean and prep the floors and began to prime them. After the primer was dry I laid down a few coats of rubberized undercoating to help insulate and sound-proof a bit since I had to scrape up the original sound-deadening.

While that was drying I replaced the knock sensor, cleaned the MAF sensor and put in some new NGK plugs. Before it was definitely not running correctly because it would idle around 550 rpm and very rough, and also had no power and sounded like it was running on 3.5 cylinders...

After I pulled the knock sensor I could clearly see why...

https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2013/03/IMG_0518_zps2e5a84cd-2.jpg

Once the undercoating is done drying I can swap out the seat belts for some new ones out of another 1st gen that aren't moldy and disgusting, and then the new carpet and leather seats can go in. Eventually I plan on going back to the junkyard and getting seat belts out of a 2nd gen that will match the new leather seats and then I'll have manual seat belts instead of the problem prone automatic ones...

[kookookachew]

Much work was did last night! In fact I got soo wrapped up in working on the car I forgot to go to bed, and it didn't roll back out of the garage till about 7:30 this morning :P

First I was still waiting on the rubberized undercoating to dry, so I took off the old broken mirrors...

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And replaced them with nice working units that even properly fold in! After that was done I took out the Walmart special door speakers from the front and put in a nice set of the original Subaru premium speakers, cleaned up the mess of wiring, and then threw on the door pockets and speaker grills I grabbed form the junkyard. The color doesn't match, but I'll get to fixing that at some point.

After the doors were done the under-coating STILL wasn't dry so I set to work on the tail lights. I replaced the broken center piece with the junkyard unit and new bulbs, and then set to work on the quarter panel with a sledgehammer and a mallet... Once I got the panel knocked out enough I was able to fit the replacement taillight in, it still needs a good bit of work back there, but its legal now and when the weather warms up a bit, I'll set out on doing some real body work.

After I finished that the taillights was able to get back inside and pull the old, disgusting moldy seat belts. I installed the junk yard ones that are more worn unfortunately, but at least usable. Once the seatbelts were in I finally got down to the tricky part, fitting in the carpet...

I was both surprised and not when I fit the carpet from the '99 in... It fit surprisingly well, with many of the holes cut in it in exactly the right spots... However it did take soem trimming where the seat belt retractors come out of the floor and also around the center console area where the seatbelt retractors are located there. Unfortunately I did trim a bit too much off of the center and so there is a spot where you can see the edge of the carpet at the rear of the center console, but everything else went perfectly. I will probably rectify the carpet issue by throwing in one of those large carpeted floor mats that goes over the center "hump" and I can tuck it under the center console.

Once the carpet was in I thoroughly vacuumed it and installed all of the trim pieces, which went on well, and matched up with the carpet almost exactly.

Then came the most anticipated part... I installed the rear seat first, which went on perfectly and works great. The original seat to the car was non-folding so had to pull the steel bar the ran along the center of the gap behind the seat, but not even a concern. Its even better then the replacement seat the PO had thrown in since he had thrown one in out of a wagon that didn't fit correctly, and didn't latch either...

After the rear seat I bolted in the front ones, with the only extra step being swapping out the buckles so that the seat-belts will latch. I also installed the factory under-seat sub from a '01 Outback while I was installing the passenger seat, but I have yet to wire it up.

Next went the center console and then I was done! Now the car is completely legal, with all of the lights working properly, it runs like new, and the interior is not only pleasant to be in again, but is actually very luxurious and comfortable with the nice leather seats!


And, as most people will probably just skip to the pics... Here you go! ;)

Undercoating in...

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Door panel pockets and speaker grills...

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Seats!!!

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Taillight pieces installed, and looking much better....

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Front turn signal installed to replace smashed one...

https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2013/03/IMG_0541_zpscc8bbd7a-2.jpg

[Muse]

That is awesome, man... Most people would've just given it up as a lost cause... You have earned my admiration on this one... and I get the feeling it's not even close to done.

[Yokosilver]

Can barely tell it's the same car! Awesome work, man. I love seeing restoration projects like this. you mentioned paying $71 bucks for the pick a part stuff, but how much did you pay for the car originally?

On a side note, my inlaws have a 1st gen, this thread really makes me want to buy it from them if they still have it when I get back to the states.

[Muse]

Yeah, how did you come by this car?

[kookookachew]

Haha well the car is an interesting story. It had been sitting on my campus in that spot in the first pictures for a year and a half to two years.... The PO had driven it to school from Colorado and then did some crappy work on it and gave up and just left it in the lot. When he parked it it had the passenger window down a couple of inches so it filled with water and thats what created the gross situation.

About a month ago he contacted me, knowing I'm a pretty big car guy, and asked if I knew a place where he could get it scrapped. I asked what was wrong with it and he said it would probably run ok, but it had a bunch of electrical issues and was really gross inside.

He also mentioned that he was hoping to get $100 for it when he scrapped it and I offered him $100 and then he wouldn't have to bother with getting it scrapped.

I didnt hear anything for about a week and a half and then he messaged me on facebook saying that he had to return to Colorado suddenly and that he wouldn't be back, and then he asked if he could just send me the title and keys in the mail and that would be it.

I of course agreed and thats how I got this great little Subie for free!

[Zangado1]

Great job,a true "feel good story" nicely done on your photos. I can't wait to see the total tranformation. :smt023

[kookookachew]

Haha thanks! I do feel good that I was able to rescue this poor car from the crusher, it certainly has a ton of life left in it! I will be painting it once the weather warms a bit, and doing some real body work to that mashed up rear quarter.

And eventually I'd like to do some sort of power-train swap. Not sure to what yet, but there is plenty of time for that, I'd love to do an H6 swap, with a manual since I haven't run an H6 engine yet so it would be fun to say I've run 2.2L and 2.5L N/As and a 2.5L Turbo, and an N/A H6 :P

But soon I'll wire in the factory sub and strange information center I found in a Forester, and I'll also be doing tires, rims and suspension. Likely going to some luggy tires and suspension from an Outback...

Also soon I'll be throwing on the UEL from my Outback. Converted it to stock when I sold it, and hopefully throwing on a nice Magnaflow muffler or something (sounded great on the Outback).

This car just has so much potential and have so many different directions I could take with it...

[chrish8r]

Very nice job getting this beaten up car to a respectable state!!

[nikolaus.conrad]

Subscribed! Great to see another NY member!! I have friends that go to Potsdam so ill be up that way often!

Is the car front drive or AWD? And how many miles? I'm so curious lol

[kookookachew]

Subscribed! Great to see another NY member!! I have friends that go to Potsdam so ill be up that way often!

Is the car front drive or AWD? And how many miles? I'm so curious lol


Awesome! We will have to meet up! Its an AWD with almost 131K on it. It came from Colorado so no rust! It is eerily clean compared to my old '99 OBW that was definitely getting eaten by cancer by the time I sold it.

[kookookachew]

In fact, in reference to the AWD, I just performed a mod thanks to defcon5 over at RS25.com that enables me to select 50/50 torque distribution on-demand! A write-up with my pics will be up tomorrow :)

[kookookachew]

Well, as promised, heres what I did...

I installed the basic 50/50 AWD controlled by a rocker switch in my '93 Legacy L and it worked great! I did have to reference the FSM for 1st gen Leggies, but it was very easy to track down the correct wire and then test it before cutting. The only thing I was concerned with was after I buolt the dummy load I read the FSM for my car agin and noticed that the resistance values are slightly different (9-15 ohms) vs (10-17 ohm) But it all worked out perfectly anyway!

Heres my resistor board (Dummy load) resistance was a perfect 17.0 ohms out of the wires, and as you can see I mounted my heatsinks a little differently. I even used a small amount of thermal paste to help even more. Everything was attached securely to the board using hot glue, and the back side was covered in a few layers of electrical tape and rubber mounting feet were stuck on to help with vibration and potential shorting.

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TCU mounting location on the 1st gens... Super easy to get too, and fairly unmistakable

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The white with black stripe was the wire I cut, tested it first using the procedure in the FSM and everything went smooth :)

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Resistor board mounted... No problems there either!

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Drilled a hole in the center switch plate on the center console, will be adding a FWD switch eventually, thats why it is mounted the way it is. Also used hot glue again to keep the wires from coming loose or shorting on each other in the future, I love hot glue! (Until I burn myself :P)

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[DarkPhoenix]

That's sick dude!

[nikolaus.conrad]

Sweet! I wonder if this will also work for 2nd gens as well. When I get another Leggy we'll have to have a shoot!

[kookookachew]

Yes, this works just as well on 2nd gen Legacys, Imprezas, SVXs, Foresters, etc... Anything with a 4eat as far as I know that doesn't have some form of VDC... Just a matter of determining which pin on the TCU controls the Duty C solenoid.

[kookookachew]

Well guys, some more fun was had tonight with the factory electrical system of the Legacy...

This time I added in an on-demand "Sport" mode, and also FWD on demand as well, oh and some other fun stuff that only pics can show...


So thanks to the guys over at subaru-svx.net I became aware that the "Power" mode in the 4EAT can be activated with a switch instead of stabbing at the throttle... This is made possible by simply grounding out a pin on the TCU and voila! Power mode 24/7! But constant power mode isnt entirely desirable since the torque converter doesn't seem to lock up at highway speeds creating poor fuel economy.

To remedy this I simply stuffed an 18Ga wire into pin A4 on the TCU, pin 4 on B46? (The 20 pin connector on the TCU) It should be on the side that is only missing 1 or 2 wires. (The other side is missing more) and ran that wire to a simple SPST push-button which I mounted on the center console near the shifter. And then running the other side of the switch to a ground. Easy as that...

Pics...

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Now power mode can be enabled any time the car is in a forward gear, but it does get disable with the cruise set or Manual mode activated in 1st-3rd gears.

Before anyone gets bent out of shape, Power mode does not create red-line shifts or destructive transmission behavior. Just more positive shifts located at more desirable engine rpms. (Under normal driving the car feels completely normal, just a bit more responsive and peppy than it would normally be. The TCU also seems much "quicker". Downshifts come on much quicker and with less provocation, no need to completely mash the car to get it to go anywhere...

Another interesting point is that in the JDM and EDM, Legacys, SVXs, etc all came with a button from the factory aside from the manual button that enabled this feature, so the TCU and transmission are actually designed to be able to do this, just us in the Americas get the short end of the stick again...

[kookookachew]

Well, as I said I also wired up the FWD fuse system to be controlled from inside the car... This was also extremely easy, although I may have implemented it in a rather crude way. I simply crimped some wire to spade connectors inserted into the existing FWD fuse location. I ran these wires along the OEM harness and into the cabin through a grommet and up to the center console where they are connected to a SPST rocker switch located just below my 50/50 lock switch :) Super easy to do and now I have about as much control of a 90's 4EAT as possible...

Power mode on demand
50/50 Torque distribution on demand
FWD on demand
Manual mode

Quick pic of implemented switches... Eventually I'm going to be making some nice decals or labels to label the switched with their functions to make them look a little nicer

https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2013/03/IMG_0559_zpsb7fdc9be-1.jpg

[kookookachew]

Well, like I said, I did a little other work as well, (Well it was a lot more work... -_-) The previous PO had done a faorly poor job wiring up an aftermarket radio, I had already done a quick patch job to keep wires from shorting and grounding so I could get the cars electrical systems working, but this time I went to town... Cut all of the aftermarket wires out and wired in an OEM plug... This also allowed me to connect a few Subaru goodies. A factory under-seat sub from an '03? Outback Limited and an awesome and rare little display unit the does compass, speed (of sorts), outside temp, barometric pressure, and an altimeter. Both of these devises use the factory stereo wiring harness for power, sound, dimmer, etc so thats one of the main reasons I wanted to fix up the wiring under there. I've included some quick pics of the display, but note that the dash is not done, I need to grab a Subaru wire-harness adapter so I dont have to chop anything else when I actually hook up an aftermarket radio, which will not be the terrible Walmart special that was in there...

https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2013/03/IMG_0570_zpsbfacc409-1.jpg

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[Reason]

Great job here, you put in a lot of work. Keep it up!

[DarkPhoenix]

That's awesome!! I want one!

[Muse]

What, pray tell, is this 'manual mode' you speak of? I see the extra button on the shifter...

[kookookachew]

Yup, thats it, all of these cars come stock with that one... I was just summarizing all of the various control I know have over the 4EATs function. Manual locks the car into 2nd or 3rd depending on what position it is in, and supposedly makes the AWD mapping more aggressive in 1st.

[nikolaus.conrad]

Keep up the awesome progress!!