misledxcracker

I'll go check the fuses now. Will this tell me if I have a bad circuit somewhere or something? And where do I check for the voltage being supplied to the ECU?

What's really baffling me is that one spark from the coil upon shutdown... Why would it do that, just spark once like that yet not spark at all when cranking? Also, if it makes any difference, any time I disconnect and reconnect the CAS plug from the main harness, it throws out a spark.

CEL is functioning normally to my knowledge, with no connectors plugged in all I get is a 6. I connect the black connectors, I get a 13, I think it was. I'd love to know how to check ECU power, I can do so tomorrow morning, gotta run off to work here in a while

Fuses all look great, and I replaced the fusible links with some nice-looking newer ones I grabbed from the SPFI wagon at the junkyard. Yeah, the battery is on the low side for sure.

Okay, I have roughly 11.80V going to both sides of the coil... without disconnecting anything. Can't try starting it at all until tomorrow, complaining neighbors Bad 2nd CAS? This is getting very annoying :-\

I'm trying to figure out how exactly I do that.... Last time I went prodding with the DMM, I fried a fuse

Crap! I knew I forgot something! The timing belt is not broken! I have no timing covers, and my driver's side T-belt is fine. The rotor spins, it looks nice, I even took the danged distributor apart and cleaned it all out pretty (not a millimeter of bushing play!) Again, and to cover the third or fourth timing belt related reply, it's not broken nor stripped! Gary, I replaced the CAS in the original disty, from an SPFI disty. You can get the CAS out of Isuzu Troopers and Mercury Villagers too, tripped me out anyway! Very surprised how simple it is to disassemble one. Cougar, how do I check the pulses? I get 12V when I check the negative side of the coil, but not the positive. Maybe I'm doing something wrong? Can the ignition relay or ignition switch possibly be an issue?

A V12 with Lucas ignition is one of very few excuses to throw a 350 in somewhere where it wasn't intended. I know that's not the only good candidate however A Legacy? That's even worse than a Z

A 350 in a Z, that's just terrible IMHO. A 350 in an old Jag I can understand (to an extent) but come on now, a Z?

1987 XT MPFI EA82, non-turbo A little background: Car dies on me at random. Had it towed home... next day I got it running, albeit a little rich and misfiring a bunch. Then randomly one day later on in the week I go to try and start it, and it runs great! I'm driving it around, she got a little hot so I decide to turn on the heater to dissipate some of the heat.... and wow, whaddaya know, the minute I turn on the heater, the car dies completely. Have not been able to get it to fire since. There is no spark while cranking... I pull the coil wire off the disty cap and put the lead near a ground, get no spark whatsoever while jumping the starter with a screwdriver and the key on, but once I take the screwdriver off the starter it sparks once. I don't get it! Cleaned, checked, replaced the CAS in the disty to no avail. (Amazing how easy the distributors are to disassemble!) Also replaced the coil and power transistor to no avail. Checked the wiring from the ECU to the coil, the power transistor and the CAS. Everything seemingly checked out... Cleaned pretty much all the grounds, even added a good one from the coil bracket to the negative battery terminal. Cleaned up the coil bracket really good as well. On there nice and tight. I'm clueless on what to do now... ECU? I'm really hoping not.... Not exactly the easiest ECU to find in the world :-\ ECU is throwing no codes. Threw a crank angle sensor code at one point, virtually worthless though as replacing the thing didn't do a thing. This is fun!

Honestly, I've never had a problem with cheapie remans from the local store, and well, I did have quite a problem putting them on But I still say if you can afford it, yeah, go OEM and re-boot, i have used Empi before, they are good quality. MWE seems to be a good product but I've never used them myself.... Get well acquainted with your CV axles

Nice, yesterday I go to randomly start the car, and whaddaya know, the thing runs AWESOME. Drive it around a little bit.... cool, we're in business! I had taken off the fan shroud to take off the drivers side timing belt cover, and forgot to put it back on, so the car was running a tad hot. Figure OK, I'll crank the heater to help dissipate the heat.... ....And the minute I turned the heater on, the car died. Will not start whatsoever now. Please someone help me out here, else I'm going to gladly hand this thing over to the junkyard...

Yes, it can... careful, ATF catches fire (did on a Jeep I worked on, anyway) Check your transmission fluid. Then yank the vacuum hose off of the vacuum modulator... It's on the transmission, passenger side. Hard to miss, a little round dealie with a vacuum line going into it. If there is any form of transmission fluid coming out of that vacuum line you pulled, the modulator is shot. Replace with a Napa (or OEM) modulator, very easy to do. Just don't lose or forget the pin that goes into the transmission housing! Every time I had a modulator failure (4 so far) it smoked a tiny bit at one point, but worsens to the point you could smoke out an entire intersection....

Hey John, where's the IAS and the CTS for the ECU? The MAF looks good, I cleaned it out with electronics cleaner and all the inside wires look fine

Depends on who you ask, I guess... If it were me and it came down to it, I'd just throw a Weber'd NA EA82 in it... doubt it'd be too hard with a little bit of junkyard shopping... Then again, I'm crazy and that option isn't too good of an idea in California

Okay, I checked the t-belts, and the passenger side belt is a little on the loose side, but the cam pulley marks line up perfectly, so I'm assuming they are OK. Cleaned the CTS and it's connector.... the car still acts like it did before. :-\

That's probably the only sensor I did not clean, hmmm.... I took the cap, rotor, and top cover off... no sign of any sort of moisture or corrosion, and the shaft has absolutely no play. Sprayed it down with electronic cleaner as it was a little dusty, put it all back together, seems A-OK. I'll check the bolt and make sure it's tightened down later today. Hmmm.... water in the fuel... what exactly can cause that? I'll pump some out into a jar with the help of the diagnostic connector. I managed to get it to run and stay running longer... still eventually dies, and backfires... maybe it's a misfire, but sure is loud! It only does that when you rev it up to around 3K... the check engine light comes on also, yet disappears when you let off the gas.

Hey Miles, would that also cause her to run really frickin rich? I cleaned up all the grounds (broke one, grrr) and I cleaned out ALL sensor connectors, the alternator and CTS on the radiator were both terrible... Had my alternator checked for a second time just to get a second opinion, passed. She's back together now, I'm getting codes 11, 13, and 23. Going to look them up right now... It starts, but runs terribly rich and also dies within short order, hitting the gas will keep it running SOMETIMES, but even in that event, it ends up falling on it's face. This MPFI crap is confusing me!

I've been here a little while, this is not my first Subaru (9th, as a matter of fact) and I am well aware of the PCV fix. I bought some electronic cleaner and some wire brushes so I'm going to start cleaning things up under the hood.... Took the alternator in to be tested, came out A-OK. Battery has a full charge now as well. My alternator connection (the plastic t-connector) looks TERRIBLE inside, so I'm going to take care of that, as well as the fusible link box, the grounds, the connections to the disty and coil... and whatever else I run into, I guess. Would be nice if the dang thing threw a code so I could have something to work with..... Hah! The midget has nowhere to hide under there, as my spare is in the trunk as well Maybe he's under the intake.... hahaha!

No oil whatsoever on the air filter... I really really really hope it's not the ECU

Yeah, that's my main issue at hand... I know the ins and outs of the SPFI system yet have no clue about MPFI stuff. Took me a while to figure out the ECU is in the trunk I've owned a 6 but never got into any of the electrical... MAF looked OK, but it still MAY be it.... because now that I think about it, the freakin' car started acting up like this RIGHT after I took a right turn... hmmm!

Sometimes when I get it started up, I can feather it and keep it going, but not for long. It misfires horribly while doing this, however. When it started acting up, I managed to feather it in 1st in order to get it into a parking lot and off the highway. Yeah, I don't want to screw up my MAF, looks rather unique. I'll try the TPS connection (and the other sensors) and as for the injector.... well, I have four so I guess check the connections on all of them too? Wouldn't hurt to check, I suppose. Thanks for the input! Gotta love these nerve-wracking problems

What's bothering me is the fact the CEL does come on when I can get it to run, yet the thing gives me absolutely no codes..... except that 6 (or 66)

Seems to be..... when I plug in the diagnostic connectors in the trunk it cycles... I'll look into that also, make sure it's working for sure.

Hey, would brake parts cleaner suffice? Or should I grab that CRC sensor spray... don't have carb or throttle body cleaner, as I have neither on my car