legacycentral bbs

this weekend i hooked up a new Subaru radio out of a forester 04. i made the harness using a impreza radio hardness from a junkyard and bought the two harness needed for my91 legacy. everything was setup but the dimm/illum. i really wanted this hooked up. found out from an other thread i could use the power antenna pin and swap over to the illumination+, so i did that then hooked it up to find out it worked but only showed the display (not the radio buttons) so i said f*** it and just hook it up straight so the dimming didn't work. i think at this time the Illumination+ touched a wire it should have and the speedo/rpm/park, reverse,drive etc lights wouldn't show. i check the fuses to find two fuses blown, radio and illum. after replacing them i still didn't get the lights to work. i missed around with the wires and grounded the Illumination+ to the radio's ground and it works....but now i can no longer dim. am i missing something?


this is what i used to make my harness http://www.geocities.com/svxdc/WRX-pinout.htm

this is leading me to believe its a short somewhere in the wiring. whats the most i could be paying to get this fixed?

You may have fried the illumination control unit.

i'll pull up the manual when i get home but is the control unit something i can just swap out or do i need to cut and rewire?

btw i also tired hooking my stock radio back up to see what happens. still no lights even with new fuses. pointing to the control unit?

any other ideas would be great.

You should be able to replace the control unit with just unplugging it and putting in a new one.

Legacy777 wrote:You should be able to replace the control unit with just unplugging it and putting in a new one.

-Solved- I was able to pick up the control unit long with some relays this past weekend at my local junkyard. changed it out during my lunch break and it works again! thanks again for the help on finding the fix

Welcome

I recently traded my '90 sedan for a '90 wagon. It has an aftermarket stereo, and the dimmer doesn't work. Furthermore all the dash lights come on with the Accessory, regardless of weather the headlights are on or off. Upon duggin' around a bit I found that someone had Jerryrigged the Illumination+/- wires by the stereo to the Acc and Ground in the same way SiCkSTi04 described. I also noted that the glove box light would only work with the Illumination+ hooked to Acc, but once I hooked the Illumination- to ground the glove light went out and the dash lights came on...it's even stranger when I reversed the polarity...the illumination control unit is weird and finicky lil' device.
So...

WHERE IS IT LOCATED?

Thanks,
Stephen

It's just to the right of the stereo. This diagram gives you a general location.

http://www.surrealmirage.com/subaru/fil ... tion05.jpg

Legacy 777 strikes again!
You awesome Josh!
Thanks.

You're welcome.