everything you're using now is original to the vehicle, no parts have been swapped?

 

are you positive the distributor is lined up properly? it needs to be exactly right, if it's one slot off it'll do exactly what you're saying.

 

are you sure the timing belt marks are lined up dead on? they can not be one tooth off.

 

you may have a vaccuum leak somewhere? have you tried spraying starter fluid around the intake manifold and hoses?

 

have you adjusted the timing properly...keeping in mind the car needs to be at operating temperature with connectors plugged in at the ECU in the trunk. either the green or black plugs need to be plugged in when adjusting the timing, i forget which ones, i think it's the green ones but someone here can clarify.

everything you're using now is original to the vehicle, no parts have been swapped?

 

are you positive the distributor is lined up properly? it needs to be exactly right, if it's one slot off it'll do exactly what you're saying.

 

are you sure the timing belt marks are lined up dead on? they can not be one tooth off.

 

you may have a vaccuum leak somewhere? have you tried spraying starter fluid around the intake manifold and hoses?

 

have you adjusted the timing properly...keeping in mind the car needs to be at operating temperature with connectors plugged in at the ECU in the trunk. either the green or black plugs need to be plugged in when adjusting the timing, i forget which ones, i think it's the green ones but someone here can clarify.

 

yeah its all back to original at this point. I double checked the belts 1st thinking I was a tooth or something off but they're dead on. I'll double check the vaccum idea tomorrow

 

its the green ones

 

Bill

Just before the battery went completely dead in my Legacy the tach started jumping around. Wondering if you have an electrical problem as in not getting enough voltage to the ECU and/or distributor. Thinking that power amplifier attached to the coil bracket takes 5 volts from the ECU. May be worth while to check this. I would also replace the coil and coil wire if this was my problem only because I have extra ones.

 

edit: Just for jollies put a load on the battery and see how much voltage it is outputting. Recall the ECU will "die" around 10 volts.

Just before the battery went completely dead in my Legacy the tach started jumping around. Wondering if you have an electrical problem as in not getting enough voltage to the ECU and/or distributor. Thinking that power amplifier attached to the coil bracket takes 5 volts from the ECU. May be worth while to check this. I would also replace the coil and coil wire if this was my problem only because I have extra ones.

 

edit: Just for jollies put a load on the battery and see how much voltage it is outputting. Recall the ECU will "die" around 10 volts.

 

one thing I did notice was the power amp (under the coil right?) was pretty hot. Is it supposed to be?

 

Bill

one thing I did notice was the power amp (under the coil right?) was pretty hot. Is it supposed to be?

 

Bill

 

Don't know about that but thinking it shouldn't be. But for a few dollars it and the coil can be swapped with a j/y part.

Evening all

 

Yesterday, I finished a weekend job that only took 10 months to fixed an over heating/loosing coolant problem on my XT (EA82 non turbo). Pretty sure its fixed...we'll see with a bit of driving. Fault found was a hairline crack in the exhaust port of one of the heads which, by the wonderous words of our fellow Ru lovers, pointed towards my probable source of coolant loss out the tailpipe and why I couldn't find a visable leak. Head gaskets showed no sign of failure after 60k miles (originally replaced at 92k).

 

Here's my problem. I have a miss. Not just a "skip" kind of miss, but a "shut down the whole dang thing" kind of a miss. Watching with a timing light, you can see the marker jumping around which makes me think I have some kind of distributer/timing issue. It will just barely idle when this happens and usually dies. Wait a minute, and it will start again and begin the whole process over.

 

I went thru all the connectors, unplugging and re-plugging all that I removed thinking I had a bad connection (which I may still have) but I didn;t find anything loose and it still does it after this process.

 

thoughts?

 

Bill

 

Local wrecking yard had a special on today...fill a wheel barrow for $100. 1 distributor, 3 starters, 2 fenders, a hood, a BUNCH of stuff for my bug and the MG later I got home. I stuffed the "new" dizzy's in the hole and the car runs fine. No miss/idle or run up problems so it must be something with the pickup.

 

Thanks for all the help and directions/ideas.

 

So...I have an extra distributor for sale......it came out of an 88 GL Wagon That I bought BEFORE I learned they were different from the 87.

 

anyone need it before I toss it on ebay?

 

BIll

pm sent!

yeah I know...you'd think after all this time passed it would be fixed. But it ain't. I have narrowed things down a bit however. I borrowed a friends XT and we put my dizzy in his car. He drove on it for a month (it took that long to catch back up to him) so it ain't the dizzy. So now I'm lookng a open loop/closed loop issues. Car runs fine when cold, starts this miss/bouncing tach crap when warmed up. Runs fine if you keep the rpms below 1800, above 1800 and the above miss/bouncing tach problem rears its ugly head. I considered the TPS but can that really have an effect on the tach/firing? Same for the AFM...

 

ideas gang?

 

thanks

Bill