subedew

It's alive! Well, until the next disaster:rolleyes: Thanks to all for your ridiculously prompt help.

Yes, thanks MF, you will help me tommorrow.

Thanks already...wow, aint forums grand... good advice and a great link FLOW, Pictures = many k words for sure. I'll try and line her up right this time

First time posting here, thanks in advance to any who take the time to reply. I have an EA82 '86 gl wagon 2wd 3at spfi. I lost power suddenly on an on-ramp, the car would still crank but with a horrible ratcheting noise...after getting it home and tearing the front end down a bit I found the driver side timing belt was loose (off the cam gear) ? don't know why. Okay, now the attack of the newbee subaru mechanic...I oriented the cam gears 180d. apart (pass side mark up. driver side down) and put it together. Well, it started to my suprise, but a test-drive revealed no power (running on two cylinders?) and smoke from under the hood after a short drive ( 1/4 mi.) Clever guy that I am, I tear into it again and because it is EASIER to get to the pass side I rotate the pass side cam gear 360d. and put it back together THEN I think...what did that accomplish? Well, it started...??? huh? and seemed to idle smoothly, but the test drive again revealed poor power and smoke after a very short drive. So...what have I done? I really hope this is a timing /crank orientation/overzealous guy with no manual/ issue . BTW the belts were new 10k mi. ago replaced by a competent subaru mechanic (car has 103k mi.) Oh, the pass. side belt was still in place when I set it up initially so at least it was still oriented correctly then. Have I now arranged both cams 360d. out of phase with the crank? Do I even know what I'm talking about? Somebody straighten me out wouldya please? ....Thanks no, it didn't overheat...