hooziewhatsit

try some seafoam in it yet? Both straight through the carb and in the fuel tank? Worth a shot if nothing else To test the vacuum advance in the disty... take the cap off, unplug the vacuum line, attach a clean vacuum line to the disty, and start sucking (and stop laughing :-P) If the mechanism moves and holds, I think it's safe to say the vacuum advance works.

have you checked for spark yet? The ideal way to check is to pull one of the spark plug wires and put in on a seperate spark plug. Set that plug on a good ground, crank it over, and see if you can see a spark on it. If you don't have spark, pull the distributor cap off and have a friend crank the engine over. Does the rotor move? If not, check the screw that holds it in place. It's either the screw, or a broken timing belt. Oh yea, when was the last time this car had a tune up? (plugs, wires, disty cap, rotor)

awesome, thanks for the update. I'll let my grandparents know today. Any idea what number the TSB was, or any other way to tell the tech to look up xxx TSB? I talked to my grandfather about it briefly over thanksgiving, and he was saying that all the '06 cars, except the forester, still had the surging . Thanks again for the update.

I'd guess the coolant temperature sensor (CTS) is bad. No idea where it's located on a justy though. Would be cheapest to replace from a junkyard; I believe dealers want big $$$ for them.

I can report a very similar experience with redline 75w90NS in my manual tranny, 88 SPFI, 175k miles. There is no comparison to shifting now than before I put it in. I can actually shift now (especially when cold)! However.... I may have waited too long... I need to double clutch on downshifts otherwise it won't shift that well...

I believe you can also get to the connector on the wiring harness from behind/under the glove box. That is if there isn't enough slack to just pull it out and unplug it.

another method, if you aren't able to get your fingers into the spark plug hole to feel for compression... remove the passenger side tbelt cover. Rotate the engine until the dot on the cam points North-West (45* CCW from straight up). Put the disty in now so it points to the #1 plug. Since you say it's an '88, I assume it's fuel injected, and not carb'ed? SPFI has it's timing at 20* BTDC, and carbs are 8* BTDC. (edit: another very common problem is when people forget to turn the engine over once inbetween putting each belt on. The two cam dots should be 180* from each other)

could schlopping gear oil make that kind of sound?

that was my initial thought. Drop the exhaust at the headers and see if it will start?

I've been reading here for a while, and haven't heard anything about the ignitor being matched to each coil. I would probably only do it with some sort of written confirmation that you won't pay if it doesn't fix it? after perusing the other thread again, did you ever replace the disty and/or double check the timing on it? Also, has your tach been jumpy recently, especially when it starts misbehaving?

yup

it will have an EA82T engine in it, unless it's a legacy, in which case I don't know what engine it would have :-P I would check the firing order first. 1, 3, 2, 4, CCW from the mark on the cap. After that, I would check the timing belts (make sure the rotor spins when cranked) edit: make sure it's the right cap/rotor also

to check the u-joint, just crawl under the car and start feeling for a loose joint in the driveline. Also, check the axle nuts on each of the rear wheels. They can make nasty knocking noises if they're loose.

sounds _exactly_ like what my '85 twagon did after I checked the resistance of the fuel injectors and didn't get two of them plugged back in all the way, even though they looked alright from the outside also make sure all of the harness connectors from the body->engine are tight together. That was another problem on a different car that took a while to narrow down how are you checking for spark at the plug? To set the disty, you need to remove the passenger side tbelt cover, and rotate the engine until the dot points north-west (straight up is north, down is south, etc). Then put the disty in to point at the #1 plug.

like zefy mentioned, I'd have the shop remove both of the rear axles and take it for a drive. If the grumbling/growling continues, then it's probably a bearing. If it stops, then it's probably the diff. (btw, they can remove the rear axles by undoing the lower strut bolt and letting the trailing arm sag down, not by removing and lowering the diff, probably much quicker & easier)

During 'normal' operation, if you placed the ground lead to a DMM at a ground point on the body, and placed the other DMM lead at the injector, one side of the injector should read 12v, and the other side should read 0v (or very close to 0v). In this case, since cougar thinks the ECU isn't grounding the injectors, you would most likely read 12v on both sides of the injector. This basically means that there is either a break in the wires going to the ECU, or there is a break in the traces/transistors inside the ECU. Since you said you checked continuity in the wires, and tried different ECUs... I'm not sure what else that leaves

http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=31328&highlight=hood+latch+cable+release I've since had another hood cable break, and this method took about 10 seconds to get the hood open. good luck

to tell whether or not you have an LSD, in the event of a missing sticker, etc... jack up the rear of the car so both tires are off the ground. Spin one by hand. If the other moves the same direction, you have an LSD. If the other moves the opposite direction you have an open diff. I've also heard the easiest way to crack open the fill/drain holes is to set your wrench on a jack, then jack the car up using the drain/fill plug. It *should* eventually break the plug loose. One more thing... may be nice to invest in one of the pumper thingies that screw onto a quart of oil. Probably easier to do that than get tricky with funnels.

while that definitely qualifies as broken, it still may or may not be broken as considered by the computer. If you have an ohm-meter, test the resistance between the two terminals in the plug. It should be around 35ish ohms. If it's open (no connection, infinite resistance) then the coil is bad and needs to be replaced. You can also connect 12v to the two terminals (after unplugging it) and seeing if it 'clicks.' If it clicks, it's good, no click = broken. Just something to check before you try to repair the broken nipple...

coolant temp sensor maybe? I had a bad TPS that caused low speed bogging, especially when cold.

IIRC, when I had the dash out of my 85 twagon, there was a short stiff wire from the flapper handle to the actual flapper. You may be to contort yourself into weird positions and get a good look up under the dash to see where it is. It probably isn't connected.

for normal driving, nothing should be connected (greens & whites under the hood). Leave the ones under the dash alone. I think the reason why the CEL came on immediately instead of after a few minutes is: with the greens connected (which they were) the car does a diagnostic on each thing that could cause a code. This usually takes a few minutes. With the greens disconnected it saw immediately that the PCS is bad, and turned on the CEL. I'd probably connect just the greens, go for a drive, and when the CEL comes on steady, read the codes right then. Then disconnect the greens and head home. oh yea, and about the TPS, mine was not throwing a code for it, but after replacing it I got rid of my slow speed stumbling/fluttering issues.

the dead spot makes me think there's a problem with the TPS (throttle position sensor) To read the codes, connect the white connectors under the hood near the wiper motor, and count the long/short pulses from the LED on the ECU under the steering column. Another thing you can do is connect only the greens, and go for a drive. If the CEL comes on solid, find a good place to pull over and read the codes off the LED. If it flashes, go home and unplug the greens, the ECU didn't find any codes.

shimmying - check the brakes then get the front rotors turned. Same thing happened on my car. They didn't look warped, but getting them turned fixed it. heater vents - probably a vacuum line missing under the hood. On the passenger side rear is a little cannister. Make sure it is connected to the intake manifold and has vacuum before & after. other stuff - just start reading threads and the similar ones listed at the bottom of the page that sound interesting

another thing to know... when you're in your driveway testing/adjusting it, make sure you hit the brakes rather firmly before you let off them to see if the hill-holder works... If you barely tap the brakes, it won't hold regardless, and you'll end up doing a lot more adjusting than you need to, ask how I know...