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1985 Subaru GL - Engine problems


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Hello all! I've been a huge Subie fan for awhile now and have had several subies myself, 92 Legacy Turbo Wagon, 2007 FXT, 95 Impreza Coupe, 88 DL and my current ones 95 Leggy (Hers), 96 Leggy (Mine) and my 2002 WRX. 

 

My brother in law recently picked up a 85 GL Sedan for a commuter car and was wondering if I could help him out on it. We went and test drove it, actually ran great and only 120k miles. 

 

He ended up purchasing it and we made the 2 hour drive home. It ran great the whole drive back, cruised perfectly at 65-75 the whole time. When we took our exit off the interstate the car started to bog down and ended up dying. 

 

The previous owner was a mechanic and said he did rebuild the carb but it may need to be adjusted. Every Subaru (and car) I've owned has been fuel injected so I do not know anything about carburetors. How hard is it to adjust the carbs and any suggestions on what else could be causing the problem? 

 

Thanks in advance!

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Not much to adjust, really.  My first thought was that the carb float might be set wrong (too high), causing fuel to slosh nto the carb throat.  Other thought was that the scews that mount the carb's top might be loose.  Another possibility, unsupported by anything that you mentioned, is that the choke is not "coming off", so that when you slowed off of the highway it closed down and chocked the engine.

 

All of these should have been accompanied by the smell of unburnt fuel.

 

And, never underestimate the bad timing of t-belts breaking.

Edited by NorthWet
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We will definitely check these this weekend, I kind of remember smelling unburnt fuel that is what lead me to believe it's running rich and something needs to be adjusted. Thank you for the quick response and info, hopefully we can get it back on the road this week!

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first step is to find out what carb you have.  stock one is likely a hitachi and you can tell by the peanut shaped air cleaner box with all the lines and plastic valves running all over the top of the motor.  it may also have a weber if it had carb problems and it was replaced, which will be a much simpler setup and look similar to a old v8 carb setup with no more than 2-3 hoses.

 

pics would be best.

 

either way if he said he rebuilt the carb I would start with the fuel system.  The disclaimer that the carb may need adjusting likely means he rebuilt it and it didn't fix the problem.  if its a stock setup theres a bunch of baffles and valves to check to find out what is going on, but first we need to know what carb.

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