DaveT

Double check the timing pulley positions. With the flywheel on the middle of the 3 lines, one cam timing mark should be up, one should be down.

It's not stuck in 4WD. It's lost it's default front wheel drive. Check the axles and hubs, to see if one is spinning without moving the wheel. Must be checked in 2WD mode, not 4WD.

Which model year type of car?

I've often used 90 loyal for driveline parts searching with good luck. For 86 through 93 EA82 engine powered wagons. Latest parts buys I went to NAPA. Wheels, idk. There are threads on here about what wheels can be modded and others on how to drill hubs for other wheels.

I've had good luck with some universal silicon ones from amazon. For my EA82.

The OEM bolts are flange head bolts. No lock washers. Never had one get loose. Do not over torque them. The springs are re usable, as long as they are in good condition. I should have wrote in my earlier post to push the tensioner in the direction the spring moves it. But also, it should move freely. Don't hold pressure while tightening it, it's just to make sure the spring moves it far enough kind of thing.

When setting the tensioners - Put the timing key on the corresponding cam pulley at the mark on the cover [top]. I made an adapter for my torque wrench to put the factory specified tension on the belt. Make sure the tensioner moves down to the belt, then tighten the tensioner bolts, while holding the torque on the cam. The belts should not wiggle a lot on the slack side when all is set. Another double check - do the tensioners have the springs on them?

Auto parts stores have fuel pressure test gauges. The one I have also can test vacuum. A brass T that matches the hose ID, some clamps and a piece of fuel line. Carb fuel pressure should be single digit number of psi.

Before doing anything that involved, I'd tee in a fuel pressure gauge in the line to the carb.

I've gone through stretches where I worked on my cars a fair bit, then years when I barely had to do anything. All EA82 wagons since 1988.

You check for air in the cooling system by squeezing the upper radiator hose sharply. Listen for the gurgling, and the giggle pin in the thermostat - which should be OEM or the higher end Stant unit. Any air is a bad sign. If you recently opened the radiator cap, there will be some air. But to decide if it's a small amount from that or a bigger problem, What to do is check for air each morning before the first drive cycle. Note the sounds. Note the coolant level in the recovery tank. IF everything is right and tight, the amount of air should reduce each cycle, and coolant level should reduce a little to make up for it. If things do not follow this, then there is a leak somewhere. Something I have experienced more than once is this - engine runs over normal temperature due to low coolant level. This causes anything from a tiny nearly in-detectable leak from a cylinder to the cooling system in the head gasket. This leak can also be much quicker / bigger, if the over temp is worse. Notice, I did not write overheat. That's a whole other level of bad. What ends up happening is that exhaust gasses get pumped into the cooling system, pushing coolant into the recovery tank. And eventually, enough non liquid airlocks the water pump. I've gotten away with running an engine with the tiny leak anywhere from 6 days to 6 months - but every time it gets run low on coolant, it accelerates the failure, and eventually you can't get a few miles before the coolant is pushed out.

Any air in the cooling system is bad. It doesn't take much to collect in the water pump and stop the circulation of the coolant. This is bad for head gaskets. My experience with older engine models you don't get away with this condition not leading to a headgasket up reseal.

Sounds like you need to adjust the cable at the fork on the side of the bell housing. If the pedal end was messed up, and they adjusted it to work like that, it might not be releasing now.

Replace all 7 cooling system hoses. +1 on the OEM axels. +1 on the CTS. +1 What everyone else wrote. More things to be aware of with these- The shaft that drives the main oil pump in the 3AT should be good for close to 200K miles. IF you get close to that, replace that shaft before it fails. If you want one of those shafts, start looking now. I've run Amsoil synthetic ATF in the 3ATs since 1988, and have had very few problems with them. Check that front diff gear lube at least 4 times a year. Running the diff dry causes a lot of problems before the noise gets loud enough to alert you. Mine turn 4000RPM at 65MPH on the highway, not a problem. #1 thing to maintain is the cooling system. Radiator condition, not corroded, not blocked, etc. These engines do not like to run with air in the cooling system. Well, they run, but when the temp goes over normal due to air, the head gaskets get damaged or outright fail. The alternator will wear out a brush around 150K miles, like clockwork. And you can only tell if you happen to be idling in the dark with everything off, and notice the alt and a few other red dash lights dimly glowing. If it develops the click - no crank problem, adding a relay in the starter solenoid circuit is the fix. Start collecting parts, as many are NLA. Others are order and wait.

Look up it's crash test ratings? Slightly different thing - How are you going to keep it running? These are approximately 30 year old cars, not many mechanics that know their idiosyncrasies are around, parts are not easy to find, many are NLA. Are you looking for a project, or a daily driver? I run a couple of 30 year old Subaru wagons as 1 daily driver. Yeah, 2. When one has a problem, I can have time to fix it while driving the other. I also have a LOT of spare parts from the other ones I've owned that I saved when the bodies rusted away.

If it still runs, get it up to normal operating temperature. Them go after the fitting, and the intake manifold bolts.

Heating the manifold. You want it and the holes to expand more than the studs. It might be too late now, but I have discovered that if you run the engine up to normal operating temperature, then shut down and immediately go after the bolts you need to remove, it is surprisingly effective.

In my experiences with a number of EA82 wagons - If you run low on coolant, and over normal operating temp, the head gasket/s get damaged. How fast they fail to the point of unusable varies widely. From immediately, to a few months. From the first time, every low coolant over normal event accelerates the failure. Check for air in the upper hose and level in the tank before every drive until you know the system is staying 100% coolant, no air gurgling. Do not open the cap to check the coolant in the radiator, squeeze the upper hose, and listen for air gurgling, and the jiggle pin in the thermostat.

I had one with that configuration. Made the slot longer, got the next shorter belt.

There are at least a few connectors in the path.. the pins can get loose or loos their springy ness and make poor contact. If you find a melted connector, both ends likely need replaceing.

I figure a +/- 30 year old CTS doesn't owe anyone much.... It's an electronic sensor that gets a thermal cycle every time you run the car. The one I had fail since 1988 made for random crummy running & drive ability. It wasn't out of the range limits so I had no ECU code.

Is there a particular type of silicone hose to look for - I was looking for some a while back, and was having a hard time finding any that stated that it could handle stuff that can be found in vacuum lines - oil vapor, fuel vapor, etc... Or am I just being too picky? I know, fuel isn't typically in there.

The engine harness combines all the wiring on the engine, goes through 2 connectors to the harness on the body. That goes into the passenger compartment. .. kind of behind the fuse box. Iirc, when I found the broken wite, I was using an ohm meter on the wire - one lead on the ECU connector, one on the sensor connector. Wiggling the engine harness turned up the area if the break. I got lucky.

Definitely check the wire and connectors. I've seen wire break inside it's insulation inside the harness.

To read the codes that are currently flagged - just leave them unconnected. If the CEL is on, the codes are being flashed on the LED on the ECU, which is bolted to the bottom of the steering column. You have to remove the plastic kick panel to see the hole where the LED is hidden. Long flashes are the tens place, short are the 1s. If there are more than one code, they are flashed sequentially, and repeated.