legacycentral bbs

Update:

Brought it to a shop and they found a service bulletin claiming the Knock Sensor
had an update and that the wiring inside can be an issue. My neighbor works at
the shop so I got a good deal, but he said it could retard timing and stuff and it
seems to be running good now. I'm hoping that's all it was

Nada. Worked for a bit then ran like crap again. Anyone got an ECU for a 90 Legacy AWD for sale?
Not sure if it matters, but it's a wagon. I guess that'll be my next try.

Sorry to piggy back your post but did not see the sense in starting another. My car did the same thing last night. Was getting on the highway, car was running fine. Jumped on the gas and it just died. Bogged down and sounded like it was flooded. Tried starting it, starter will crank but car will not even try to start. Any ideas? Heading home now to see if I can figure it out.

If the engine won't start, I'd suggest checking to see if you have a broken timing belt. You can remove one of the end covers pretty easily to see whether the belt is broken or not. However, you would need to remove the center cover to check that the belt has not skipped a tooth.

I think starting with the belt is a good option so at least you know that's good and can continue troubleshooting from there.

Was just doing that. Timing belt is shredded. Nothing really left of it. Now the question is, is the motor trashed or can I replace the timing belt and be on my way? Pulled the passenger side valve cover and everything looks alright on that side.

If you have a 2.2 that's pre-97 it's a non-interference engine and it'll be fine. Just throw
a new timing belt on there and make sure the hydraulic tensioner is still working good.

Also, check the bearings on timing belt pullies and the gear. A girl locally had one where the gear ball bearings seized and shredded the belt.

http://main.experiencetherave.com/subar ... ddedtbelt/

All the bearings are spinning freely. But I am still replacing them, along with the water pump since I am in there. Just seems to make sense to do everything and be on the safe side. Car has 263,000 miles on it and not planning on getting rid of it anytime soon. Hardest thing now is trying to remove the strands that wrapped around the crank pulley. Thanks for all the help guys.

Good idea. May as well do the front main seal too since it's only a couple bucks.

Good call on the seal. Did not even think about it. Since I have no belt to mark and not sure new belt will have markings on it or not, do you guys know the tooth count between each mark?

One more quick question. The marks on the outside of the cam sprockets are the correct marks right. Took notice each sprocket has an arrow pointing a different want than those marks. Just want to make sure I have the right marks. I printed out the scans so will double check those as well.

The new belt should have marks and if you get cheap ones it should
be at least close to the proper number of teeth, although I've had
them be off before. There should be two marks. One that's just a
straight line and the other should be an arrow. You'll want to follow
the lines. Point them straight up. I think...been a loooong time since
I've had to do timing, but there should be a procedure for it around
here somewhere.

Belt does have the marks and the lines on the cam sprockets are the ones I thought I should use. Just wanted to make sure. Have you ever had a crank sprocket not want to come off. When the timing belt shredded it wrapped around behind the sprocket, so I need to remove it to get everything of it, plus will do the front seal as well. I even tried a puller and it did not even budge.

Yep. Here's what I did. I got this crappy little gear/steering wheel puller with two screws
on a bar and the big screw in the middle. You dont want to use a standard gear puller
because you can break the little teeth marks off of it.

This one:


I didnt want it to tear the living crap out of my crank bolt since mine
was pointed at the end. Take the big screw out of the middle. Screw
the two smaller screws into the screw holes of the crank gear. Then
push the bar up against the crank and pull it back along the screws
really fast. Keep doing that until the gear backs itself off.

Just for future searching purposes, the crank gear has threaded holes in it so you can use the pullers. This is the kind I've used before.

http://shop.advanceautoparts.com/webapp ... %7CGRP2083

Also, you can align the timing marks on the cam sprockets to the marks on the timing belt covers.

Car is back together and running great. Thanks for all the help. My crank gear and the new one I got did not have the holes threaded in them. Used 7mm bolts and they threaded themselves in just fine and that way I was able to use the good puller and finally get it off.

Good deal!

Glad to hear you got it back together.

Good deal, man! I'm glad it's back and running

Now...does anything think the ECU could be a likely
candidate for my issue? I'm not sure what all could
get messed up before the fusible link goes and since
I'm not getting any codes I'm suspecting the ECU could
very well be the problem, since it wont tell on itself after
all. Does this sound plausible?

I think it's plausible. Like you mentioned, it's difficult for the ECU to tell on itself if it's not working properly. So if you know of someone in the area and can borrow an ECU to test, that'd be the best route.

Unfortunately there's not many Legacy's in Florida and the one's
I've seen are FWD To be honest, I'm not sure where the ECU
is even located in these cars.

The ECU is located under the dash on the driver's side. If you remove the panel below the steering wheel it will be on the left side.

http://www.main.experiencetherave.com/s ... cuhide.jpg

There's not really a difference between the AWD & FWD ECU's. You would just need to find a JECS ecu.

I've seen that before A long time ago back before
i knew anything about cars. My friend was hooking up
the diagnostic cables and I had no clue what he was
doing haha Thanks a lot, man!

So what does matter in picking the proper ECU to
use from another car? The year and whether it's
Automatic or Manual?

Pretty much you just need to match the sensor & ECU type. There are two different types, JECS & Hitachi. JECS uses the black plastic MAF, while Hitachi uses the silver aluminum MAF.

In 92, both the MT & AT used the JECS ECU. When I did my swap I discovered there are some differences in the 92-94 ECU's. The injectors are slightly different.

If you have a 90-91 MT, you need to find a Hitachi ECU
If you have a 90-91 AT, you need to find a JECS ECU from the 90-91 MY's
If you have a 92-94 MT or AT, you can use the JECS ECU from the 92-94 MY's.

If you download the parts book from me you can look and see the different part #'s for the various ECU's and get an idea of what will work.

Found the parts book. Thanks so much,
man. I mean it

You're welcome.