MilesAway1980

The cap and rotor are new. The rotor is the screw in style, so it's solid. The coil's something I thought of so I tried a newer performance coil from my truck that I know is good and it still didn't start. I could try a new coil, but thought this was a good test. The coils also tested out the same with an ohm meter. Should I still try a new one? Anything else that may come into play? Some relay? The ECU? Also, the fuel pump and fuel filter are new but how can I test them?

Thanks for the responses everyone. Tapped the starter and the distributor turned like it should. Also, the spark plug wires are the same as they were when it was running and are how you labeled them. (Thanks for that FNG, it's always good to double check.) Followed this write-up, it was really helpful. http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/...ht=timing+belt Pulled the covers of the timing belts and checked them. The belts looked good and everything looked like it was lined up just right. When the driver's side cam mark was straight up, the passenger side cam mark was straight down. Then, when I pulled the little cover of the engine timing hole, the 3 hash marks were lined up with the pointer. At this point, the distributor was pointing 180° away from cylinder #1. I turned the crank clockwise until the timing marks came up and the pointer was pointing to 20°. At this point, the distributor was pointing directly at the #1 cylinder. Unless I'm missing something, it seems like the timing belts are lined up right, and the distributor is pointing where it should be. Correct? What next? I'm not sure what the next thing to check would be. Thanks everyone.

Thanks for the reply and for the link to the write-up! I appreciate it. I'm glad you posted that over here because I forgot to set it up for email notifications over on Nasioc. I'll check the distributor when I get home tonight. Hopefully that's it since it doesn't seem like too difficult of a job to take care of. Would I still get spark on the spark plug if the distributor wasn't turning though?

Hi All, I'm working on a 1987 Subaru GL with a 1.8 FI motor. It's my friend's car, so I don't have a lot of experience with it, or Subarus in general. She said she had been having issues with it not starting lately, although it would eventually start and then be fine for a few days. Yesterday, she was leaving my house and while backing up the car quit and died and wouldn't start again. The engine cranks but won't start. It doesn't even sound like it's trying to. I started looking things over to see what it might be and it looked like the ignition was in desperate need of a tuneup. The battery cables were corroded, and the terminals were cracked and split. The spark plugs looked like they hadn't been replaced in a long time and looked like they'd been burned (they were white and ashy), and the distributor cap and rotor were very corroded. So, I replaced the spark plugs, plug wires, battery cables, distributor cap, rotor, and the oxygen sensor. The engine still wouldn't start. I pulled one of the spark plugs out and grounded it to the frame and cranked it and it was getting spark. The fuel pump and fuel filter were recently replaced, and while cranking the engine, I could smell gas, so I assume it was getting fuel. I don't know how to check on a fuel injected engine (I mostly work on carburetors). I also tried the coil from my truck since I knew it was good and it didn't make any difference. What could it be? Thanks for any help. This is my friend and her fiance's only car, so they're pretty stuck without it.