87 subaru XT Ignition Problem....
Can anyone please help? I lent my XT to someone and had to drive 160 miles to pick it up. Ran for 2 years no problems - has 140K miles on it - now it seems like there is no spark coming from coil. Asked a mechanic and he said has never replaced a bad coil in 30 years. Tried new coil anyway and it heated up and just took it back to store - Doesn't matter anyway, no juice coming from negative terminal on coil when trying to start engine. Replaced cap, rotor, battery cable, a yellow wire that goes into the distributor to the negative side of coil and a black wire that goes to negative side of coil from a wire panel that has jumpers attached to side of antifreeze storage tank. The new coil was the wrong one and heated up so hot that I thought it was going to blow. Checked timing belts, rotor turns and I can smell gas when trying to start. What could it be? Don't have lots of $$ to pay someone to do major diagnostics. Before this, car has NEVER left me stranded. Please Help CHRIS kane@antisocial.com
