90 Loyale no spark, died on freeway

[WoodsWagon]

My first subaru was a hand-me-down 86 GL 3door coupe. It had died suddenly, and after trying all sorts of things to diagnose why the fuel pump wasn't turning on, my dad gave it to me. I pulled the distributor cap, cranked it over, and noticed the rotor stayed in the same place. $20 for a timing belt later, I had my first woods beater.

 

The first thing to check on any EA82 that suddenly dies is the drivers side timing belt. The replacement interval was only 60k miles, and they rarely go much beyond that.

[idosubaru]

Yeah scoobied

 

P. S. I'd count this as strike against Roulunds Rubber timing belts. This one was replaced before. This isn't OEM and that means its less than 45,000 miles old. 

some folks say EA82 belts are notorious for breaking prior to the 60,000 mile interval even when eveything is "perfect".

 

the ebay kits are great - all new pulleys and belts for $80 or less.

[Gloyale]

Gloyale,  If you reread my reply, it was clearly stated that it was for what I might do, "if I had already determined that the left side timing belt was not broken".  I am not suggesting that the timing belt is not broken.  I also do not own a 90 model year loyale, and am unfamiliar with the differences between the 90 and my 86 GL10.  It is not my responsibility to know those differences, nor what modifications someone has done to his vehicle.  As far as your opinion that my sharing of knowledge about how I might approach a similar situation that has happened to me many times, and Zek wasting his time by either reading about it and/or looking at his vehicle as a form of preventive maintenance, I am troubled by the tone of your entire reply.  You appear to be in attack mode, which is completely uncalled for and inappropriate for this message board.  In the future, I will just report you instead of spending my time explaining all this.

 

I did reread your reply.  You misquoted your first sentence.  I'll post it for you here:

 

 

If it was an 86, I would be looking to install another distributor after

determining that the left side timing belt was not broken.

 

I took this to mean that you were determining that the belt was broken.  I can now see another interpretation.  I must say though that the way it's worded makes it sound like the determination that the belt was fine was a conclusion you had already made.

 

Which brings me to another point.  The "tone" of my response.  Do you see my post count?  do you know how long I've been on this board helping advise newbies on how to keep there subarus going?  Do you know how many threads I've read about broken belts?  I started here as a Newb too, that was in 2005.  See my point? 

 

My tone is a direct one.  I certainly don't intend any disrespect.  I just don't want to waste my time or the posters time so I get straight to the point and I call em like I see 'em.

 

I like the fact that this board is respectful, and I meant no disrespect.

 

That said, I stand by EVERYTHING in my first post. 

Edited April 24, 2013 by Gloyale

[88wacaroo]

I"m With Gloyale on this stuff of trying to help Fix stuff...On Ea-82s When they die like that IT"s Mandatory to check The Drive side Time Belt 1st-Always!! I"ve Seen So Many Guys on Here With the Same Problem Time And Time Again And The 1st Thing they do is Tear Apart the Electrical Aspect of it instead of Taking 5 Minutes to check the Timing Belt 1st!! It Takes More than 10 Minutes to do The Electrical Part of Checking it anyways....I think most of why people dont check the Time Belt is they think it"s a Major Pain in the A** To Do Or They Don"t Want to Get Dirty HaHa... I just think Looking at the Belt would be 1st Way Before anything else....Look at Other Cars-When they Die Thats the 1st thing Shops/People look at is the Time Belt...Oh Well Just My $0.2s worth.....Peace

[NorthWet]

I think this topic can be closed, actually.

I think that this is great advice.  The OP is happy with the advice, the problem is resolved and he thanked everybody for their assistance.

 

Please, no flame wars.