Cougar

I would seem that the mechanical tie between the key lock and the door latch has come loose or broken. You will have to get in the door panel to see what happened. Hopefully something just slipped out of place.

While waiting for your response I got out my manual and it only shows one pair of wires going to the injector. These tie to pins 43 and 48 of the SPFI unit.

What were the readings of the two coils? Edit: As far as the light switch is concerned. If the lights are staying on while the vehicle is off then you really do need to check that switch position on top of the steering column.

Great! Things should be going good now. I'm not real sure what the resistance of the injector coil should be but I seem to recall it is around 70 ohms and if you have a reading close to that then I would think that the injector is most likely ok and then check the signal to it. I assume that this engine only has one injector and is not multipoint injected. If you want to check the voltage getting to the injector then you could remove the lead and check the DC voltage while trying to start the engine. Not sure what the meter will read as this will be DC pulsing signal but I would guess around 5 volts. Did you check your light switch on the steering column?

Did you read my post #11 Subpennyman?

Please Standby, Owners Are Checking Their Vehicles.

It seems that the injector is not opening for some reason then. This could be because the signal is not getting to the injector or the injector is bad. Do you have a multimeter to check this out and know what to check for?

So the ignition is ok then. You may have a bad fuel pump. One easy thing you can do is to see if the pump is running is to turn the key to the run position and listen for a slight hum from the pump motor as it charges the system. This will only happen for a couple of seconds. You may have to try to start the engine and then turn the key off and then to on and listen if the pressure is up already.

To see if the problem is being caused by the wheel you could exchange it with a front wheel to see if that changes things.

I can try to scan it a send it to you. Do you know if the engine is getting spark?

Along with the new headgaskets I would replace the thermostat. It has to be stuck closed as Grossgary suggested for the radiator not to be warm. This also may be what caused the headgaskets to fail but that is hard to say for sure. You may want to replace the radiator also at this time if it is not real clean.

I have a drawing for an '88 model that may be close to your model. One thing that can cut the fuel delivery is the lack of spark. Have you checked that spark is occuring while this problem happening? As far as your parking lights staying on I would check the light switch on the top of the steering column to see it that is on.

I would check to see if you are getting voltage from the switch using a test light. I don't think there is a relay for this but I'm not sure.

I am a little confused about the dash lights. Are they on even while the light switch is off? Or do they go out when the switch is turned to the head light position? You may be able to make things work by placing a jumper wire from the battery ground to the head light switch ground. If that makes things work then there is a bad ground connection somewhere in the switch connection or the contact to ground.

I have been there myself Tim, many times, so don't feel bad, your not alone. Glad you got it going. I wonder what caused the fuse to go in the first place? This may bite you again later on.

This is how you learn, and sometimes it is the hard way, but it helps you discover how things work. You may have pinched a wire when you pushed the case back together. You really don't have much to lose now, I would go back inside and look things over. This is a motor really but they can generate a voltage also if you crank the shaft and have a magnetic field. Make sure no wires are touching the case ground. It shouldn't be too difficult to fix this. You should be able to get a used one at a salvage yard if you can't get this one going.

I have a manual for an 88 model and it shows that fuse #12 is what ties to the seatbelts but it also supplies many other things that you don't want to cut power to if the wiring is the same. You may have to monitor the current while pulling fuses to find the path that is pulling the battery down. When you find the right fuse the current will drop. I would look for trouble if the current draw is more than 80 milliamps with everything off, as if parked.

Sorry I can't say for sure where it is but it sounds like you are on the right track Tim. Have you checked the fuse for this also?

The connectors may be different but other than that I would think things should work.

Since you state that the ECU does not give a code when the O2 sensor input is removed I would think the input has been bypassed somehow. I could be that it may take some time for the code to be generated but I would think that pulling the input would send an immediate alert to the ECU. As far as the intermitant hesitation goes I would tend to think there may be an ignition or fuel issue causing this. Replacing the knock sensor may help with this but I would check the ignition first.

From your description it sounds like your thermostat is stuck, open. The engine is designed to run in a temperature range that the thermostat helps keep it at. From your mileage statistics and emissions testing it seems you are doing pretty well regardless of the possible thermostat problem.

I very much doubt that the diodes are causing this but it could be the brushes as was mentioned or also the regulator, rotor, or stator. I would suspect the regulator the most. At any rate, it seems you are going to need another alternator unless you pin it down. If you have more than 80k miles on the unit then I would replace it with a remanufactured unit.

The owners manual should tell you what they are. I would go with NGK platinum plugs. I think Subaru engines work better with these.

I think Oddcomp was talking about the front shaft seal. This would have to be replaced to fix it.

The problem with the alternators may have been due to the poor connection to the battery. This would cause the alternator to work harder. A good test to do while there is a good load on the battery and the engine running aound 2,000 rpm is to check the voltage drop between the alternator output and the positive battery post. If things are good, you should see less than 0.15 volts drop across the wire. You can also check the ground wiring the same way.