1990 Legacy turns over won't start - Chiltons bad advice

[Guest pelagic30]

Hi

 

This is a great forum !!! My first time here.

 

I recently purchased another 1990 Legacy 2.5 wagon with AT, this one with 2 wheel drive, my other one is AWD. The 2wd was running fine and then.... nothing. Would not start, it will turn over fine. I have not yet tried to read the error codes, will do that today if I can figure it out.

 

I have the Chilton book and started by doing a resistance check on the coil. Every test failed according to the book, !BUT!, so did the coil on my other Legacy (which runs perfect)! What's up with that ? Anyone seen this happen ? I am thinking about ripping out that section of my book.

 

[Guest Cougar4]

Welcome to the forum. There are a good bunch of dedicated Soob owners here and hope we can help you out with your problem.

 

I can't offer you any advice about the Chilton procedure since I don't know what it is. It sounds like you have determined that there is no spark to the plugs

[Guest Cougar4]

The last post didn't load correctly. Here is the rest of it.

 

Welcome to the forum. There are a good bunch of dedicated Soob owners here and hope we can help you out with your problem.

 

I can't offer you any advice about the Chilton procedure since I don't know what it is. It sounds like you have determined that there is no spark to the plugs; is that right? If this is correct then you should have voltage getting to both sides of the coil with the ignition on. Have checked for that?

 

Another thing to check for is a broken timing belt that drives the distributor. Check to see that the distributor turns when you crank the engine.

 

Glen

[Guest pelagic30]

Thanks Glen,

 

I have the 2.5 motor with a distributorless ignition. There's an ignitor module that does the distribution, I guess. Anyways, I found the problem. The error codes said nothing was wrong. I swapped the coil, the module, and then the fuel pump from my other Legacy. It was the fuel pump.

[Guest Cougar4]

Glad you got it going. There are no codes for telling the fuel pump is out I'm afraid. Thanks for the feedback on the fix. It's nice to hear what fixes the problem.

 

Glen