i am new to subaru but am very exited to deliver pizza in the snow this year.(geo metros just dont cut it hear) i just bought a 91 justy mpfi 4wd. but there is no spark. the guy i bought it from said it was the magnetic pickup so i swapped the distributor for another used one and still no spark. the coil has spark but not very powerfull and the ignition module has nothing. any ideas?

Fuse? Did you check them before you started replacing parts? A weak coil can also be the culprit.

Fuse? Did you check them before you started replacing parts? A weak coil can also be the culprit.

thanks, ya all the fuses are good. and the coil doesnt have the ohms the book says it should. so im trying to find a good used one. we also noticed the ignition switch will only turn the engine if pressing down on the key. could this also affect the spark? thanks for the help!

You mentioned that you got some spark from the coil. Were you cranking the engine when doing this test or did you hook the coil up to the batter and disconnect it, to make it spark?

You mentioned that you got some spark from the coil. Were you cranking the engine when doing this test or did you hook the coil up to the batter and disconnect it, to make it spark?

We disconnected it and hooked it to the battery. could the ignition send signal to crank but not the coil?

The switch could add to your problem. Find a good coil and test it. Almost any 12 volt coil will work for test purposes. The switch could have a bad connection or bad contacts in the plug. Look for a pink connector about 5 wires coming from it. Follow that up to the ignition switch and make sure the switch looks good and is solidly screwed to the back of the key switch.

At the risk of asking the obvious...

 

Have you checked to see if the distributor rotor is turning when you crank the engine? (As in: Is the timing belt broken and the disty is not turning...)

ya it turns and as for the obvious thanks for the reply any sugestions are helpfull

cool thanks im getting a new coil at noon and i hope its the problem. we also just tested it while cranking and its got a really low signal, so good luck right! we also ran for codes and got an 11 crank position sensor so that explains why the old owner said magnetic pickup and im sure the distributor i got solves that. thanks for all the help and ill let you know how it goes!

ya so i feel like an idiot! it turns out the privious owner left out some important details like he tried to change the head by himself $%^&$.:-\ the with some close inspection we noticed it has never been run with the new head. the gasket is backwards and crooked and as for the important stuff if you cant get the gasket right, well you get what i mean. so any one know how much motors are? thanks again for the suggestions. its all in good fun right

can you just install the head and gasket properly? the oil pump was turning when you cranked it, so the engine block should be fine. it never ran, so it didn't over heat. i can't imagine the head is damaged. if this is an EA 82, these motors are really easy to work on.