gbarkman

I missed that step--turning it one full turn before timing the second belt. Did that and it worked great. Thanks!

So we replaced the timing belts etc and timed them as per our Haynes manual--the marks on the camshaft gears aligned with the marks on the inner belt covers with the middle valve timing mark on flywheel (I believe these are the 3 marks on the flywheel spaced about ⅛" apart with no numerical markings) aligned with the pointer on the bell housing. Then I timed the distributor to TDC (according to the timing marks on the flywheel) with #1 cylinder (front passenger side cylinder) on compression stroke. So far so good. However I can't get the car to start--it almost started once but sounds like something may not be timed quite right. We do have spark. Any ideas of what I should check next? Sure appreciate all the good input!

Thanks for the heads up. I will be sure to torque them to the proper torque

So... we just got at the driver's side timing belt which failed. The belt on the passenger side and the tensioner look great. However the tensioner on the driver's side seized (I can't turn it at all and it looks like it overheated) so it looks like the timing belt got hot as it was "drug over" the seized tensioner until it failed. So its of to buy some parts and then reassembly

Thanks to all of you for the good input on the coolant leak. I am just getting back at the project after a good Christmas and will check it out. Thank!

Thanks a bunch for all the good advice. Do you all suggest I also change the water pump while I am at? On a scale of 1 to 10 how important would that be. On another note, I have been consistently losing coolant but do not see evidence of an external leak. Any ideas?

Thanks all for your replies! I just checked the distributor rotor while cranking. It doesn't move. Sounds like the driver side timing belt is broken. We'll get on it in the morning and let you all know how it turns out. Much appreciated!

Greetings. I am new to the forum and relatively new to Subaru. A few months ago my 18 year old son and I became the proud owners of 2 Subarus--one of them a 1987 turbo 4WD GL10 wagon (MPFI)-- a fairly high mileage car that has some rust on it but my son loves it, especially since we live up in the Inland NW, and we enjoy working on it together. A few days ago my son was on his way home when the car quit. We pulled it into the garage and checked for the obvious. When we checked for spark, there was none. I also noted that after a fair bit of cranking there was no indication of any fuel (wetness) on the spark plugs. I have a Haynes repair manual and have used that to do some troubleshooting. The coil checks out ok and there is battery voltage at the coil. However I don't have any spark generating, even right out of the coil. So I went to a local salvage yard and picked up a new distributor unit. The distributor is a crank angle distributor (no vacuum advance). My vehicle is a turbo but the distributor I picked up is out of a non-turbo vehicle with a slightly different part number. On-line it looks like the 2 part numbers cross reference. I installed the distributor and timed to #1 cyl. Still no spark. I also just noticed that I do not have much fuel pressure to the fuel filter. I hear the fuel pump kick in momentarily when I turn the ignition on but I only get one shot of fuel when I crank and then no more--not sure if that is another problem or related. I checked the ECM for any fault codes but unfortunately during this process the battery went dead so I disconnected the battery leads to clean them before charging the battery--all that to say is that I canceled any codes that might have been stored. Does anyone out there have any ideas or past experience with something similar? I sure would appreciate any thoughts. Thanks in advance!