Gloyale

Vacuum leaks can cause poor idle too, and if no one has changed the vac hoses they probaly are all hard and cracked. IMPORTANT. if you are replacing vacuum hoses on these cars you need to know there are tiny little brass plugs with small pinholes INSIDE some of the vaccum hoses. These are important cause they send just a small amount of vacum to certain parts of the system. When you change hoses, cut the new one to length, then cut the old one up into sections small enough to look all the way through. If there is one of these plugs in there, remove it and simply push it up inside the new hose and install. These plugs are differnet sizes so make sure you go one at a time. They are identified as "orifice" on vacuum diagrams. Not all the hoses have them. But I check every hose just to make sure. BTW:Also you can adjust the choke, you just have to drill out those rivets on the choke cover and tap threads for bolts. Then you can adjust the idle cam and bi metal spring. But if it's starting good and the choke opens after warm-up probably not the issue.

I thought of this while looking at another thread about emissions problems. That thread was about the carb system but I wanted to share another side of the emissions story. Timing. I had a '86 carbed gl that I had to put through testing 5 times till it passed. All the tuning I did to the carb helped and brought it close to passing but it still failed. In the end it was the mech. advance weights, under the pickup on the distributor. Timing at idle was fine, and advance for acceleration was good. But it was not returning to the unadvanced "idle" timing during slow down. I noticed by simply revving the engine with the timing light on and watching the advance. it was staying advanced for a good 10 seconds or so after returning to idle, coming down really slow but erradic. I disassembled the disty and lubed the little cams and inspected the springs. After that it passed by a good margin. Maybe this should be a reply to that other post but this is a little unrelated so i wanted to put it up seperate

Hmmm... unless your car is from CA or is a 2wd it will most likely NOT have a feedback carb. I say most likely because someone could have put the wrong carb on it in the motor swaps. Look at the sticker that has the vaccuum hose diagram and read the fine print. If it say's california in that fine print then you should have a feedback carb and ecu, o2 sens, etc. The shop probably had a generic service manual that doesn't specify that the feedback carbs where only on the CA cars and some early 2wds. No feedback, no O2 sensor or ECU. The ECU would be bolted to the bottom of the steering column if it has one. If there are just 3 unused studs there and no box it probably never had one.

I bought that tool from a company that makes them in north Cali. Found it on ebay by searching for "subaru tools" I think the company was called "zmack" tools. It was $17 dollars plus $6 shipping. They also have really cool "on the car" wheel bearing presses for removing/installing the front bearings. That is like $300 dollaRS:( using a punch works too. Removal is easy this way but tightening properly can be a little tricky but doable.

The third seal is the shaft seal or "main". You have to remove the TB pulley from the front of the pump. You can use a cut open piece of rubber hose to pad the jaws of some channel locks or a vise to hold the pump rotor still and then loosen the nut that holds the pulley on. Don't nick or ding the pump rotor!

Doesn't JECS make the ECU's and the TPS, MAF, other stuff? The hitachi carbs are insane to work on. their distributors are good though. they are way better than DENSO!

I have had problems with the starter circuit as well. like was said already, If you jump 12 volts to the little spade on the starter and it works, you've got a problem in the igniton switch and or wires. a real easy fix is to run a wire from a constant 12v source(preferably fused, like from the fusible link box) to a button inside and then back to the starter spade. If you use a piggy back connector you can actually plug the factory wire back on there. this is what I did for 2 of my old gl's. When turning the key to start doesn't work I just leave the key in the "on" position and then hit the button till it starts. comes in handy for relieving fuel pressure and other times as well. Test your battery so you can rule that out.

I know I have a good working rotor assembly. It came out of a pump I ruined by over tightenig the pressure sensor and cracking the pump body. Better to use plumbers tape to seal and not turn so tight. I found out the hard way. If Subaru has any they are like 150 bucks. But I heard a rumor they don't sell em anymore.(just a rumor) I haven't seen any aftermarket. Pm me if your interested. I am in Kenosha, WI so it wouldn't cost much to ship. you would still have to reassemble with your new seals. I use a piece of old rubber heater hose cut open to wrap around the rotor while holding with channel lock pliers to remove/reinstall.

If there is any chance that the wire loom going to the MAF has gotten hot? If so I have seen the shielding on the wires melt through and contact the inner wires they are shielding. This causes a short to ground. If you have a pinout of the ecu connector you can test continuity. Disconnect the MAF and the ECU connectors and check that you get continuity from one end to the other on each wire. You'll need a long jumper to connect to the MAF end and bring it into the cabin where you can check ecu. check that there is not continuity between any of the wires and the wire that is for the shield. There is an intermediate connector under the passenger side kickpanel. If you have a short, use this connector to repeat test to isolate short to engine bay or under dash.

Ahh, I get the socket thing now. I always braced it between two pieces of 2x4. I put a tiny nick on the pump rotor one time. I de burred it and thouught it was so tiny as to not matter much but it did. I got about 20% lower oil pressure. ended up haveing to replace the rotor. Maybe put a rag in the bottom of socket?

I agree the rings are important. I would get a new pulley from a wrecker if you can't get the old one secure. as to using a different bolt for 10 more ft/lbs? Since it's always the threads in the aluminum block that strip, not the hard steel bolt, I don't see how you would get "10 more ft/lbs" The block would just strip. Of course Bgd73 seems to live in Bizarro world were physic don't apply. I say use the bolts that subaru spent R&D money to decide on. It is a really good idea to chase out the threads carefully with a tap before you reinstall the bolts and don't torque em too much. I'd say 20 ft/lbs is about tops even though the book calls for slightly more, I've seen too many strip

2wd cars were classified as "passenger cars" by the transportation dept. 4wd cars were classified as "light duty trucks" and it does make a difference in for emmision controls in many cases. california or otherwise.

Put the nut back on the threads so it is just even with the shaft end. Tap gently with a soft face mallet. Make sure your not dinging up the pump rotor piece on the other end in the process of trying to hold/brace it. Not sure what you were gonna do with the 32 mil socket? Also it's good to do the camshaft seals and front main seal at this time as well

That shop rag thing is the risk right there. Could be anything gettin stuck in there. And the time I changed my T-belts on the side of the highway was in Oregon, just north of that pilot station on I-5. I used to live in Corvallis:) go Beavers!!!

Get a MAf, a distributor, an ecu, and an intake manifold from an SPFI and go to town. Oh and get the y pipe with the o2 sensor as well. Way better gas milage too:)

I never take an old subaru anywhere unless they specialize in them cause I've seen too many mis-diagnosed Sube's. Shops always wanna do the head gaskets or put in new lifters(funny cause there not "lifters") when all you need is some oil pump seals or some new vacuum hoses.

I've had 3 of these Ea82T's and all of them idled slighly low after a warm restart. 2 where the early stlye85-86 set up and the other is a 89 and they all do it. Not so much as to cause a stall but idle is around 500-600 when it should be 700-800. Idles fine after runnig again for a few minutes. Not saying you don't have a problem Just that a little bit of this is common in my experience and doesn't affect driving unless it is so bad as to stall.

I have owned 9 and worked on dozens more belonging to friends and customers. I know they can be difficult in some manners but I personaly don't see risking it just to "save time". I work on cars for clients so I can't take shortcuts. perhaps on my own car, but then again why risk it?

Uhh, I'm pretty sure the Carbed cars Did not have reed switches but it is a cinch to get one from a spfi or mpfi car. Anything fuel injected. You can swap the whole cluster. The exception to this would be 2wd carbed cars and california carbed cars which use the "feedback" carb. They also have the reed switch and those would work too.

Is this on a 2 or 4 wheel drive? I had an 85 4WD and it only had one vac hose, from intake mainfold. hitachi carb?

I've done mine by using a swivel adapter for my socket wrench. You also have to undo the engine mount nuts and loosen the pitch stopper on top. Then you can hoist or jack up the engine just an innch or so to get the angle. You need to have a little extra cleareance anyway to get the pan down over the oil strainer/pickup tube so you might as well. If you enlarge the access holes and manage to get it unbolted the pan will still be stuck unless you lift it off that crossbar just a little

I've had so much snow pack up in the front of my engine that it stopped my clutch fan and the alternator, PS pump with it. I hate to think what it would have done to my timing belts. Also, I can remove the covers, replace belts and reinstall covers in less than an hour. I've done it on the side of the freeway. I don't know why everybody hates this job so much. But obviosly the uncovered belts work fine for the most part. Preferencce thing

Also make sure that the threads in your heads for the stud are still good. Lots of times if the stud comes out, it takes alot of aluminium with it. It is sometimes nessecary to use a slightyly larger stud. I think either 3/8 or 7/16 standard studs work. Whatever is slightly bigger than the stock ones. This leaves you the option to drill out and go one bigger to the next metric size if it strips again. I've had do do this countless times, but I still can't remeber which size of the top of my head. Just make sure when you tap out the new threads not to drill any deeper than the original hole or you'll hit an oil passage.

Hey I'm not on here to insult people, and I make mistakes too. I don't think I read your addmission about the disty till after I posted. I also didn't know the site picks the title so I apologize. But seriously, If you don't know the old cars don't post about them please it could be ttroublesome for others. There are plenty of threads about the newer models. and your too late, Santa hooked me up.

Sorry, I guess I should have said "you don't need to worry about that now" The guy is obvoiusly still trying to figure out the code reading and I thought it would be easier for him to start with U check and read. Also Read memory will output all the codes that d-check does from the history. I have FSM's for all years 85-90 so I'm not talkin outta my butt. I was trying to offer a simple way for this guy to check his problem. (and explain that there are 2 coolant temp sensors! lol) I concede that D-check is useful but I think you have to have a real good grip on the basic modes and how to diagnos with them first