Hey everyone. As some of you might know i just drove 380 miles out toe Carlisle PA for the Import Nationals and then 380 miles back home. Well when i got home i turned the car off and helped my friend unpack his stuff. When i went to start it 5 minutes later it wouldnt start. No clicking, no cranking, nothing but silence. So i went inside and fiddled around on the computer for 10-20 minutes then went back out to try and start it again. It started on the first try like nothing had ever happened. Anyone got any ideas? Oh yea i have a pushbutton start too.

Something could have rattled loose after all the driving?

 

Don't you like how the Sube quits after it brings you back to safety? I drove 120 miles and then the subaru died a couple blocks from home. Turned out that I forgot to remove the pin on the idler pulley (ej), after a timing belt job and drove 120 miles with the damn thing bouncing.

Sounds like the problem I had back when I had my '81 wagon. Turned out to be a bad ignitor in the distributor. Ordered just the ignitor on eBay but turned out to be the wrong one for my distributor, ended up swapping out the whole disty with one from an '84, problem solved.

I would check the connection on your fusible links for starters.

Since you have pushbutton start, that kinda rules out the flaky ignition switch problem. The other thing I would check is the starter solenoid. If you run a jumper wire straight from the battery to the soleniod terminal, it shoud crank. I've had a bunch of starters acting up because of the soleniod getting stuck in the end cap and the contacts getting worn out. The starter I have now, some mornings I have to hold the key in the start position for 5 seconds before the soleniod plunger will break loose and then the starter will work.

Fixed it. Turned out that that long trip combined with NAPAs crappy fuse holder did it in. I took a test light and determined that power was getting to my positive terminal on the starter but not past the fuse. The fuse was good though so i took it out and tested both sides of the holder. Both sides were dead. Then i wiggled the wiring around a bit and got power to the battery side. So i went to autozone after work and bought a new, better fuse holder and rewired it. Problem solved. Starts fine once again.

Good job. Keep these EA81's on the road.