Engine sluggish/bucking 1996 legacy

[LegacyPunk]

Hey guys! been a while.

A buddy and I recently changed the water pump on my girlfriends 1996 Legacy L, pretty sure everything was lined up when we put the timing belt back on. The car ran better at first but now its sluggish when first accelerating and seems to do a little buck/stutter here and there.

250k+ miles on it,

1. Could the timing belt be slightly outta wack?

2. Fuel pump issues?

3. Temp sensor issues?

Suggestions? tips? ideas?

any help would be appreciated, I know its one of those problems that could be a lot of things.

[Legacy777]

It's possible the tensioner may be loose or bad.

When you compressed it, did you compress it very very slowly? Also, when you installed the tensioner, did you get the belt on and then pry the tensioner to the left before tightening the bolts on the tensioner?

[LegacyPunk]

So my girlfriend finally brought it up to me and I started checking everything, timing was good, oil was a little low but not bad, nothing leaking, so I decided to just check the spark plugs. #1 kinda old rusty threads, #3 the plug wire comes out with no resistance. So I just replaced all the spark plugs and air filter, and bingo problem solved. It was just a case of a loose spark plug wire which I made sure to really click on to the plug. Thanks for replying though Legacy777,

[Legacy777]

Glad you got it fixed.