sparkyboy

Check the positive cable, turn the key to on and wiggle the cable around and see if you get any action. I have had a similar problem with my 92 legacy, my 77 Camaro and my 86 GL. I suspect that is why the jump box isn't working. Your problem does sound unique as you get failure when you turn your key to on. With my issues, everything would work with the key turned to on, then I would experience a complete failure of the electrical system when I tried to engage the starter, until I screwed with the cable. Do the accessories work with the key in acc? Try to take a piece of wire and hot jump the starter with your battery charger connected (make sure you have the car in neutral!) if the starter kicks over, then it's not the cable. If you still have the problem, then remove the ignition cylinder and try to hot wire the ignition to eliminate that being the cause of your problem. Or power probe the hot side of the ignition switch, or that little box that the alternator is wired to if you don't want to take the ignition cylinder out. The same one you mentioned with the fusible links. Good luck man! Electrical problems can be a huge headache!

Good for you man!!! Electrical problems can be such a headache! Keep it up dude, cheers! My 96 has 315,000 miles so far

I remember reading a post on here a while ago where someone had a crazy problem like yours and had no indication that his main relay was bad until he tried a different one. At least you have pinpointed that your ecu isn't receiving switched power, it seems like you have tried everything but yes, the main relay should click on every time you turn the key to on. Have you tried to power probe the relay to see if it clicks every time? Then maybe have a friend test the ecu while you hold the relay open. I know it passed the bench test already. Perhaps it is something as simple as your ignition cylinder not acting right, but the damn thing should at least give you some spark if your ecu supplies voltage to the coil. It's rare but some have had problems with the main relay.

Cool ride man! Factory engine? Or is that tire on your roof because an ej engine gets in the way now?

Some say that the 96 is the best of the early ej22s because it has obd2 diagnostics and the only year of the non interference motors with the adjustable valvetrain. I have 3 early ej22s, a 92 legacy, 96 legacy, and a 95 ej22 in an 86 GL body. If you like the 80s bodies and can find one with an ej22 swap get it! Those bodies are a lot lighter so the ej22 makes that thing smash! Plus you can get the dual range transmission that you want. I love all my Subarus, my 96 has 315,000 miles, doesn't make noise or burn a drop of oil!

Cool ride man, nice find and happy wrenching!

Another picture of my 77 Camaro and my girlfriends 86 GL. Now she has an ej22! The Camaro has been slammed too, giving her the perfect stance! Two inch lift on the GL, two inch drop on the Camaro

The adjustable valvetrain started in 96. Earlier ejs have non-adjustable valves, those engines use hydraulic lash adjusters. Like montana tom suggested, starting with a compression test will tell you if there is a valve problem in that cylinder. If the compression is good, then you can move on to checking the injector or ignition. The ignition is easy to check, just pull the wire off, put a spare spark plug on and put it on the body and look for the spark with the engine cranking or running. To test the injector you will need a noid light or put a screwdriver on it and then put your ear to it and listen closely for clicking, it's very quiet, so try it on a good cylinder first so you know how a functional one sounds. These cars are some of the easier ones to work on yourself! If it turns out that you need a valve job, which is rare on these things, at least you will have new head gaskets (mandatory when head is removed, but you can reuse the bolts) and a good excuse to do the timing belt, which is always a good idea when the heads have to be monkeyed with, or if you don't know the last time it was replaced. Keep us posted on your progress! Cheers man

I remember on my 92 the cam sensor literally fell out because someone before me reinstalled it with a bolt that was too short. I had similar symptoms as you, until she stopped running entirely when my gf was driving to work. I used my old Camaro to tow her to work and discovered the cam sensor issue. Luckily I had a bolt that fit in my tool box. Plugged it back in, all good. Might be worth checking, it sounds like you could be having injector issues, which is cam sensor related. I wish I knew how to test one, but I am sure there is a way!

I would try to get spark on the factory ignition system first, then add the custom stuff afterwards. I just got my ej22 swap to the point where I can drive the car reliably, and I remember a couple of reasons for not having spark. I have some of the pinouts you might need, what year is your engine? One of the more common reason is related to the main or ignition relay. It's the square brown one next to the fuel pump relay (white and green). When you supply 12 volts to the ecu, you should hear the relay click on. I remember being at the stage you are at in my swap, the easiest way to test this imo is to get all your grounds together and ground them to the negative terminal on a battery, then find your switched power (two yellow wires, one with a blue stripe, I can't remember the other stripe color, green maybe but they are next to each other pins 15 and 16 on a 95 ej22) and your constant power (solid red, pin 50 on a 95) and give those three wires 12 volts, you should hear the fp and main relay clicking on. The fp relay is a lot louder, so you can disconnect it so you can only hear the main. I held it between my teeth, you can feel it clicking if there is noise or music playing or whatever. That's where I would start, have a friend crank the engine with a plug wire unhooked and see if you can see a spark jumping. If still no spark, test your coil and connections related to the ignition system. I have the pinouts for the 95 and 96 ecus if you need them, they are indispensable for this swap. If I am not mistaken, the ignition circuit that gets power only when cranking 8-14 volts is for cold start enrichment, ignore it for now and hook it up later once you get spark. Cheers!

It is an ea82 car with the part time 4wd, my girlfriend just drove the car 240 miles round trip to her moms house for Thanksgiving, not a problem at all, I guess she can drive the car better than me! Cheers boys

Happy Thanksgiving! Today I had an extra treat, 240 miles in a freshly swapped 86 GL with an ej22!!

Thanks for the response fellas! I'm a little amazed that what I thought was the problem was actually the problem! Not the case at all while trying to figure out the ecu and wiring harness! I think the bungee cord will work, but I will definitely rig up a pitch stopper asap! And replace the mounts, I just reused the motor mounts and didn't even mess with the trans mounts! That's a relief indeed, I'll just drive the car easy until the next wrenching and beer session

Update: Drove the car tonight, and have been able to replicate the problem. It seems that with the clutch out and going full throttle seems to make the trans want to pop in to 4hi by itself. I let it happen a couple of times and I know it can't be good for her to do that. I can actually watch the selector lever start to move forward. It stays in 2wd if I either lift off the throttle, step on the clutch, or physically hold the lever in place. My girlfriend says that this only happened once with the old ea82. Could it be due to me not having a pitch stopper yet? It's the only reason I can think of, I don't have a lot of knowledge on these transmissions. Cheers boys!

Finally after finishing my ej22 swap enough to drive the car for long distances, (hauls rump roast btw, thanks to everyone who helped me directly or indirectly) the poor car has run into an old problem, although it has gotten slightly more frequent: At low speeds, about the speed to shift into second, the car will slip into 4hi. The selector stick moves as well, so it is just a matter of waiting to go slow enough to put her back into 2wd. Anyone have any insight into this? My manual only covers the situation where a DR trans won't go into 4lo. Otherwise no other problems with the trans, shifts into and out of all gears and ranges. I'm hoping that I just need to adjust the linkage or something of that nature. I know you guys can help, thanks in advance!

Good deal! I have personally purchased four Subarus, all for $500 or less! 92 and 96 Subaru legacies, for $350 each, an 86 GL for $450, and a 95 legacy for $200 for the ej22 that went into the 86! Whether you drive the wheels off your car, or flip her for a few hundo, you certainly got your moneys worth! Subarus are hard to beat for cheap cars! Winter is coming and you know some fool that only has a mustang will pay $1500 easy!

Wow! I'm glad that you are safe after losing consciousness twice while driving! Maybe make a deal with a friend or neighbor and trade cars for a little while until all of the chemical fumes dissipate a little. Maybe take the car in for a detail job? Perhaps some cleaning and compressed air sprayed throughout the interior will help. Sorry I can't give any better advice! I hope it works out for you. If all else fails I would just trade for a car two years old or so.

The ej22 is a very durable engine. Once I overheated my 92 legacy very badly the rod started knocking right before I shut her off in a parking lot. My heater bypass hose split, so I duct taped it to get home and got a new hose the next day. That's the end of the story, my girlfriend drives her every day. I changed the oil a couple days later. Slap a junkyard engine in and do the head gaskets and timing belt on your old engine, unless the bottom end knocks. That's what I would do! Screw using that engine for a core! Cheers Subaru engines come out in about 45 minutes :-) Two motor mounts, four trans bolts and unhooking all the little nonsense like fuel lines and wiring!

Saving your car would be more fun than saving the wife anyway! :-)

Hahaha! Yeah, sometimes the start position on the key stops working and it's easier to wire in a button than take the steering column apart :-) My Camaro has had a button for years.

These cars do wacky things with a discharged battery. When me and my chick were camping the dome light stopped working and that was the only clue we got that we had a dead battery! Thank god for hills and manual transmissions!! Hook up your jumpers again and try all the crap that doesn't work. If you can start and drive it, fo it! But don't go too far from home and turn the car off! If it doesn't start again or dies somewhere, (stay in the neighborhood!) then you need a new alternator As far as your tail lights, just wire in a couple of new sockets, these cars have a common style of socket. Or better yet, go to the junkyard and take the whole harness

I had this problem too, it was on my Camaro but it sounds like the same thing. Everything will work until I tried to use the starter, I would lose all power after the starter clicked once. I assumed it was the ground, but it turned out that it was my positive cable. I could bump start the car, have you tried that yet? If you still have the problem, try to take a piece of wire and hot jump the starter. If it kicks over then just wire in a button or switch for the starter. Make sure the car is in neutral if you have to try that!

Oh yeah just slap it on if you want, if you blow something up then do an ej swap! If you have enough to spend on boost then you can do the swap. Buy a used nitrous kit, I have seen them for $700 on CL. I saw one for $400 once! You can easily resell a kit like that

Wow! Have you considered a draw through? The gas is compressed with the air and since the carb isn't under boost, you don't have to wongleflute around with a blow through carb, in fact the carb should be tuned the same way as N/A. It's probably the cheapest too, you just need carbon seals

Your ea2ej write up is the best thing I have ever found on the internet! Could not have done my swap without it, I would not have even considered it. I want to personally thank you for the excellent information that you give lots of soob guys for free. As far as the website goes, I'll chip in for sure! But if you would rather spend the money on something else, cool! There has got to be to just post each page here and make it a sticky, and then maybe delete the thread with the link to your site, right?