Cougar

I doubt the sensor is the trouble. Try spraying some starter fluid into the intake to see if that will help get it going. If that doesn't work then there may be a problem with a timing belt.

The fuses in the car are there mainly to protect the wiring and not say for instance, the radio itself. A single fuse supplies power to a number of devices usually on a circuit and can carry a lot more current than a single device on that circuit is designed to handle. It is also the excessive current running through a device that will cause it to be damaged if that current exceeds the design limits of the circuit. Of course this could be caused either by a higher voltage input or the failure of something else in the circuit causing higher current to flow. Having excessive voltage coming from the alternator is a bad thing but even worse is when the diodes go bad in it and that causes excessive AC ripple voltage. That can go real high it some cases and can really kill electronic devices.

The alternator was putting out a high AC ripple voltage due to bad diodes inside it and that is what ate your devices up.

Just wanted to correct something about a statement that was made about when voltage goes up the current will stay the same. Unless Ohm's Law has changed at some point, whenever voltage is increased to a circuit the current has to go up also, it's the LAW. The higher current may not be enough to blow a fuse but it can damage electronic items that are designed to run at a lower voltage. Another thing can happen when the diodes go bad in the alternator and that is high AC ripple voltage. Not a good thing for the battery or electronics.

After you install the replacement I recommend you check the voltages of all the leads to the alternator while the engine is running and the alternator is charging. The main output wire should be between 13.5 and 14.8 volts. The wires on the back side should be about the same or slightly lower voltage. Check the voltage between the output wire and positive battery post with a good load on the system. There should be less than .1 volts there if the wire connections are good. The other warning lights you saw on are that way because they are in the alternator field circuit for testing when the key is turned to ON or RUN. When the alternator has trouble those lights can be effected also. You most likely have some bad output diodes in the alternator along with a bad internal regulator.

Accessories like the fans should never be tied to the ignition circuit. I suspect the problem you had could be due to a weak voltage getting to the coil. Especially if there was a ballast resistor in the circuit. The motor current from the fan would cause most of the voltage to drop across the resistor and leave very little for the coil. Subarus use the minus side of the coil also to run the ignition pulses.

Good deal. Thanks for the feedback.

Did you check out the leads that are connected to the minus side of the coil? If there is anyother lead tied to that point except the lead to the disty then disconnect it. Another thing you should test is the resistance to ground on any the leads tied to the minus side of the coil. Check the resistance of each while they are disconnected from the coil. A low resistance to ground will cause this kind of trouble. To be sure, I assume you are connecting the wiring coming from the ignition power to the PLUS side of the coil and the MINUS side to the disty.

Your first two pictures show signs of fresh coolant on the hoses. I don't konw how it got there. If you didn't put it there somehow I suggest you look at those areas first. You may have to look for leaks while the engine is hot and running so the pressure is up in the coolant system.

I would first suspect the intake manifold gaskets for a leak. You may have an air leak there also. By spraying some WD-40 around the gaskets while the engine is running it will change the idle speed if there is one.

I have to question your explanation on this. Fuses do not control voltage, they limit current to a safe level to protect the wiring and devices they supply current to. There is still 12 volts getting to the devices with either size fuse. The current load on the fuse will determine if it will blow or not, not the voltage. If the fans were connected to power through the coil then they would not have full voltage getting to them because of the series voltage drop through the coil. This would slow the fan speed down and cause much more current draw through the coil than it should have. If the fans were connecting up to power through the coil I then could understand what is happening because of the extra current draw the fans would have made through the coil. This is the kind of thing I was refering to in my last post on this issue. Something appears to be drawing extra current through the coil. I would be checking all connections to the negative side of the coil for the trouble.

You have access to a good crew here. It sounds like you want to tackle this trouble yourself and we will try to provide you with some good info and guidence to fix this trouble. Don't buy any parts until they are proven to be bad. From your description of the trouble I doubt very much anything is wrong with the ignition area. It could be a timing belt problem. It does sound like one of the belts may have broken. If they are ok then one of them may have slipped and made the valve timing change. You stated that fuel is gushing so checking the fuel pressure regulator and fuel pressure may be a good idea also.

Thanks for the update and glad you found out the trouble. I thought you would find a valve problem going by what you stated about the compression. By having no compression at all in only one cylinder it had to be due to a stuck or burnt valve.

If the design of the ignition system didn't include a ballast resistor then we have to figure out what else is causing the trouble. The only thing I can think of is the charging system my be inducing some excessive AC ripple due to bad diodes in the alternator. To see if that is the case check the voltage across the battery while the engine is running using a digital meter set to AC volts and see if there is more than .1 volt AC present. Edit: Another thought about what may be happening here is something besides the disty is tied to the minus side of the coil and drawing excessive current through the coil. Like the tach circuit possibly.

I suspect that a ballast resistor is missing so the current is too high to the primary side of the coil and burning it up. I think the voltage to the coil should be less than 10 volts when in the RUN mode. The original coil may have a internal resistor possibly. I don't know for sure.

Since both of the solenoids are having trouble and the error code is for a circuit problem the trouble is most likely with the wiring to the ECU check for power getting to the solenoids, I doubt you are getting any. If not you need to check the wiring back to the ECU connections. The resistor trick won't work obviously if no power is getting to the devices.

Since you have some pretty good pressure in one of the cylinders and zero in the other I believe that means you have a valve problem. A gasket problem would not be that low of pressure. It would be good to know what the other side is reading. If the other two cylinders are higher in pressure then you may also have a timing belt problem on the bad side. Which all this has been pointing to.

You stated that you good fuel getting to the filter and also the plugs are wet so fuel is getting to them. There still may be a pressure regulator problem that caused the original trouble. I think the regulator is near the throttle body area. Since starting fluid doesn't help get the engine running this is a bad sign. It sounds to me that the valve timing may be off somehow. I assume you didn't mess with the sparkplug wire positions. If the valve timing is off a compression check will show that up. As far as looking for an electrical problem as the cause of the pump noise I think you will be wasting your time. You should purchase a service manual for the car. It is a great investment. You should be able to find the factory set of four manuals on Ebay for less than 50 dollars. Some of the best money you could spend on the car. Here you go. Even though this set is for a 86 it will match your car pretty much. I suggest you get this set. Just the wiring manual alone is worth its weight in gold (well almost, at todays prices). http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1986-Subaru-Service-Manuals-3-Vols-FREE-SHIPPING_W0QQitemZ200417903404QQcmdZViewItemQQptZMotors_Automotive_Tools?hash=item2ea9d6832c

The TPS sensor is tied to the throttle cable and mounted on the throttle body like a carburator would be mounted. Since you can't get the engine to fire remove the disty cap and make sure the rotor is turning when you try to start the engine. If it isn't turning you have a broken timing belt. Make sure spark is getting to the plugs. If you don't have spark then check for blown fuses. You may have a timing issue causing the trouble. A timing belt may have slipped. As far as grounding the fuel pump wire I don't recommend you do that as it bypasses the safety system. If there is an accident you don't want fuel to keep coming out if the line gets severed. It sounds like there isn't a problem with that since you get good fuel output. The pressure regulator still could be bad though.

Welcome to the forum here. Hopefully we can get this problem solved for you and your son. The trouble may be with the fuel pressure regulator. You might try checking the flow to filter under the hood by disconnecting the input to the filter and see if you get good flow into can to catch the fuel. Be very careful if you do this as you can imagine the danger if fuel gets to the wrong place. Another possible problem area may be with the throttle position sensor. It may have a dirty connection in it.

Good deal. Thanks for the update.

Have you checked the fuel pump relay?

You stated that the charge light has a low amount of power to it which I assume you mean to be saying there is a low amount of voltage ACROSS the bulb. If that is correct you should measure the voltage at the L lead on the alternator instead of the lamp. There should be close to battery voltage at that point while the engine is running. As you may possibly know already, the lamp is in series with the L circuit to the alternator and when the alternator is working correctly almost all the voltage provided to the circuit is dropped across the L lead and very little across the lamp. I suspect the warning lamp circuit may be ok but it is trying to tell you something is not working correctly inside the alternator so you may need to replace it. Some of the output diodes may be damaged.

The ignition switch could be bad but I doubt it since it was most likely off when the trouble happened, thus no current would have flowed through it. Make sure the wiring is ok to the fusible link box and there are no bad connections there. If that is ok then check the connector to the ignition switch. Sometimes those terminal connections get damaged due to bad contact.

It sounds like the charger may have been hooked up backwards. That is the only way I can think of that would blow the link. Make sure the other fuses in the main panel under the hood are ok. It would help to know what model and year car you have.