daddydongo

another update. its dark now and my work days over so i decided to try and take it for a ride. at first it started fine although it still had the idling problem but after a few stops and starts and before id even got halfway down the first block(remember i bought this to learn manual on) i couldnt get it to move forward. the gas pedal would be anywhere from all the way down to just barely pressed and it would still die on me when i let out the clutch. it just really wanted to die and almost nothing i tried could get it to change its mind.

i did yes! when i changed the oil i did everything so there are new spark plugs and a new filter on the beast. on another note i was able to hear it run for the first time in a month just now! ive never heard a sweeter sound in all of my life. there is another problem though. it dies slowly after a few seconds at idle. i think it had this problem every now and then during the one day i had it running before this whole ordeal. i havent done any research yet on what it might be. just thought id update here first and then dig through the forums. thanks guys! this is awesome! edit: i should also add that the reason its now running is that i temporarily ran some 16 gauge wire parallel to the wire from the battery to the starter. this obviously wont last for long. just until i figure out what gauge wire i should use. anybody know?

Finally some good news! I ran a wire from the positive terminal to the large terminal on the starter. After turning the key it turned over easily! So what now does this mean? Is it a bad ground or a bad ignition switch or could it be either? Any way to test?

so earlier today i found a good deal on another starter and bought it and put it in. a new starter didn't change anything so i tried chopping off the old melted connector and put a new one on. no luck. im almost positive it isnt anything in the starter now as the chances of two starters having the same problem are slim. could it still be the starter contacts? i havent had a chance to have someone bang on it yet.

yeah thats the one going to the ignition right? its plugged in but the spade part on the starter is a little bent. could that have something to do with this?

so i finally found a half inch driver to fit into my 22mm socket and the engine spun over freely. i also tried jump starting it to see if it was the battery and it made no difference in the starter movement. still just one click. any more ideas guys? thanks for all your help so far!

yeah this is definitely the same subaru! thanks again for the sentiments guys! anyways i watched some videos of people dealing with hydrolock and they all just pulled the plugs and turned the key. i just pulled the plugs and tried to do the same but my starter still wouldn't budge. just one click per turn of the key coming from the solenoid. is there something im doing wrong? shouldnt the starter be able to turn over the motor if the plugs are out? wouldnt it just push out the gas as it turned over? and gloyale i dont think it was leaking from the charcoal canister although i could be wrong as i dont know exactly where its located. the gas was dripping off the oil pan coming somewhere from the engine.

thanks man i appreciate it. weird how small this large community can sometimes be.

yeah man that actually is my car. how do you know it?

thanks for all the great advice guys. id never heard of hydro-lock before. ill definitely get out and try and to clear the engine once this shitty weather clears up. no use getting the gas out of the engine if it just gets replaced with water. just making sure, you guys think that its gas from when the engine flooded that's hydrolocking the engine? it would make sense giving the engines history but im just curious, cant gasoline be compressed? if so wouldn't it just compress to the point of ignition and cause knock but then go back to normal after the excess gas was used? or is it just that the starter cant compress it to that level all by itself? not really crucial questions im just interested. thanks again guys

so first off i should just say im new to both this forum and the subie world. ive only had the constellation on my grill for a few frustrating weeks and im already drooling over rallying videos and gold rims. of course my vehicle, a 1989 subaru RX, is from before all that and that is ok by me. anyways on to the real talk. i dont really know too much about working with cars or specifically with electronics. ive done some work on motorcycles and enjoyed it so im trying to do all the work i can by myself on my new subie. now there have been several mistakes made that have brought me to the point im at now, the first of which being i bought it out of an impound lot for $500. it was running fine and had had a recent engine rebuild and i only planned on having it for a month or two to learn stick and tool around in during the winter. i drove it back the first day and it did great until the battery died at a gas station. alternator was working fine and the battery was very old so i bought a new one and asked my brother to put it in while i went to work. this was my second mistake. he put it in backwards and four hours later i came home to a gallon of gas under my car. turns out the fuel pump relay was stuck open and the running fuel pump flooded the crankcase spilling onto the ground. i got a new relay changed the oil and, still not realizing the battery was backwards, tried to start the car. obviously nothing happened so i took the battery out to be charged. when i got it back i realized my brothers mistake and put it in the right way only to have the same thing happen to me when i turned the key. nothing. no lights or dash or starter. nada. so i swept through the fuses, finding nothing and eventually wound my way down to the fusible links. sure enough the black one was toast so one trip down to the junk yard later and i had a new black fusible link and lights on in my car. i apologize for the massive block of text but i just want to give as much background as possible because this is where my current problems start. even when i had lights all i got from the starter was one click. so i checked the battery. full charge. pulled the starter thinking it might be the solenoid, it passed all of the tests at o'reillys. the terminals are fine and everythings plugged in and i just dont know what to check next. thanks for reading through my whole life story. any advice will be greatly appreciated. -jack