Rampage

Yes. Both wheels up or down.

To find out if it is the sway bar links, remove both of them and go for a ride. What shape are the bushings in where the sway bar mounts to the frame? I've seen them wear and the bar hits metal. Are the inner and outer tie rod ends tight? When you apply the brakes the front wheels want to turn outwards which would tighten up a loose tie rod end.

Just a thought. Check with DMV. Don't know how it works where you live, but here in Pa. we always have to write the current mileage of the vehicle on the vehicle registration for the license plates. They might have a record of the VIN and reported mileage over the years.

I tried a Gates belt once. It split and broke apart in 3 months. Never again. I have had good luck with Dayco and Subaru belts. Mitsubishi probably. They make good stuff. The 84 Dodge Rampage I used to have had a Mitsubishi engine and it worked good.

Maybe someone will chime in on what brand to get. The only time I ever got a new tensioner was with a full timing kit with water pump. That was a long time ago. I compress the piston on the tensioner real slow, so as not to damage it. About an eighth of a turn at a time on my 10" C-clamp. The FSM has a pressure rating on compressing it.

Wow,,,,,the video,,,,,that is a first for me. I have to use a big C-clamp to compress the piston and it goes slow, even one that has 300K miles on it.. That is why it jumped timing, for sure. Glad it is non-interference. Well, one good thing about it is the belt is not covered with engine oil, so no leaky seals. Did you find any ball bearings at the bottom of the rear cover? The tensioner pully looks funny. Maybe it's the angle. Also, I noticed that the idler pulleys are single bearings. See how the bearing is at the center of the pulley. I only use the ones that are dual bearings. Some guys add grease to the bearing with a needle, so maybe that is why the white grease.

Our 95 and 97 EJ2.2 will do exactly the same thing when the MAF sensor is bad. Happened a couple of times. Get one from a yard. The last ones I pulled myself cost me $25.00 a peace.

A new timing belt has arrows pointing in the direction of rotation (clockwise) because of the different number of teeth on each side of the crank. There are white lines for each cam sprocket and the crankshaft. Looking at the first picture and turning each cam sprocket and the crankshaft gets them into position for the belt to go on. The marks wear off, that is why the second picture show marking the belt. But you can only mark the belt that way if the timing is correct. If I am going to reuse the belt I take the belt off and count the notches and mark them like in the second picture. But usually I just put a new one on.

Simple, once the timing marks are correct slide the tensioner to the left using a screwdriver on the right end and tighten the two bolts then pull the pin. In case the marks are worn off the belt, see pic.

I normally do plugs cold or warm. Freeze Off is another good product. It is a little thinner than PB Blaster and I think it smells better. According to the following from a dictionary, does it mean the aluminum expands tighter onto the plug, or looser from the plug with heat? "The coefficient for aluminum is 2.4, twice that of iron or steel. This means that an equal temperature change will produce twice as much change in the length of a bar of aluminum as for a bar of iron or steel".

Make it work for now, then fix it later. Hopefully, the plugs come out easy. When you start to remove the spark plugs, go slow and see it they bind and start turning hard. If they do, let it sit and spray some PB Blaster around the base of the plug and let it sit for several hours. Turn the plug in and out until it frees up. In case you have not read it on the forum yet, use "real" NGK plugs. Your car has a bit to go to catch up to our 95 Legacy RHD at 472 k miles. Rust might retire it this year or next. I would like to see it go over 500 k.

Keep an eye on the overflow tank. Don't remove the radiator cap until it is cold and has pulled the coolant back into the engine. Remove the radiator cap and inspect the check valve on the bottom of it. Make sure it is clean so it will seal properly. That way the cooling system will be held under pressure by the rating of the cap 9 or 13 lbs. or whatever yours is.

With the end covers off, turn the crank and line up the cam timing marks, then try to look at the crank timing mark. You may have to remove the pully to see it. Sometimes the marks are a little hard to see. Get the FSM here. The pic is from the 95 Legacy. http://jdmfsm.info/Auto/Japan/Subaru/

Another thought is the Pedal (return) Spring. May not be bringing the pedal all the way up.

The TCU gets RPM and other signals from the ECU, vehicle speed sensor, TPS, MAF sensor (if it has one) and then decides when to apply or remove voltage to the Lockup Solenoid that operates the valve to send oil pressure to the torque converter for lockup or unlock. That is a lot of parts and connectors to check through. As stated above, swap the transmission with a known good used one. They almost always come with the torque converter attached. Measure the diameter of the bolt holes on the torque converter, just incase there are two different ones like I found on our 95 Legacy. On the bellhousing above the starter is a sticker. The first 6 digits MUST match on the replacement. It is best to have the 7th digit (engine) match also.

If only you could program those modules to work the way you want them to.

So, you got to see a geyser too.

Just a thought. That could be the torque converter going out and back in to lockup. Maybe it is not going completely into lockup or taking too long and seems like it is slipping. Start out a little faster than grandma and count the gears. When you are in 4th and the RPMs are around 3k or a little above let up a little on the throttle so you stop increasing speed. You may have to let up a little more and you should see the RPMs drop about 1k when the torque converter goes into lockup.

Keep an eye on the level in the radiator (when cold) and the overflow tank. After driving it and turning off the engine, when you open the hood and the overflow tank is FULL, it is time for head gaskets. It will give you some time of filling the tank and sucking it back into the system when the engine cools down. Then, when the head gasket leak gets worse it will start pushing the coolant out of the (full) overflow tank and their will not be enough to fill the system if it is sucked back in. Also, what will happen over time is when you turn the engine off and it cools down, is if the intake or exhaust valves are open on the cylinder where the head gasket leak is, the cooling system will suck in air instead of coolant from the overflow tank. The tank will still be full or almost full after the engine has cooled down. Been there and seen it a few times. On one car I filled the cooling system with water so I could test it. I left the radiator cap off and when I started the engine, the water blew out of the radiator and hit the hood and splattered everywhere. That was a really bad head gasket leak.

Slow flowing coolant would cause the engine to heat up and the fans to continue running and the head gasket to blow. Question, when the engine warms up, do both fans turn on low speed, or just one fan. I have had good luck with Fel-Pro head gaskets and new bolts on our 95 and 97 EJ22. You can do a compression test with all sparkplugs removed. Or, this is easier and quite impressive. Test for combustion gasses in the cooling system.

Owners manual and other stuff. Legacy and Outback are listed together. https://jdmfsm.info/Auto/Japan/Subaru/Legacy_Outback/1990-1994/ You should have posted in the other forum since you have a 90 Legacy. 1990 to Present Legacy, Impreza, Outback, Forester, Baja, WRX&WrxSTI, SVX

Are the backlights for the instrument cluster on? The Park Switch will turn on the parking lights, but not the instrument cluster lights. You said Tail Lights----. If it is just the rear, is the third brake light on? This would be the brake light switch stuck on which would also tell the cruise control that you are braking so it would not work.

Sounds like a good idea. That is one reason I like the alignment racks that you drive the car on and the car weight is on the wheels when you tighten those bolts.

I don't remember having to change the gap on NGK plugs for our 95 and 97 RHD 2.2s. So, you probably won't have to use the blade bits.

Pull the wire off the coil and see if either connection looks burnt or corroded.