legacycentral bbs

Tonight, I was leaving home and my '91 SS stopped running about two blocks down the road. I thought it ran out of gas (because my gas gauge doesn't work) but I put a couple gallons of fuel in and it still didn't start. All the lights come on like normal, it cranks like normal, and doesn't start. It doesn't sputter or anything. Similar to a broken timing belt.

My friend came over and after we got it home we checked:
Spark,
Fuel pump,
Timing belt, (cover is removed)
& ECU codes.

The ECU codes are 23 and 49. These apparently are MAF errors so we swapped our MAF's because he has a '91 SS as well. My MAF works in his car and his doesn't work in my car. Could a short in the MAF circuit make the car shut down completely? That doesn't seem likely to me.

I'm not sure what it could be. I'd love to hear a few troubleshooting ideas to try. It's acting like the timing belt is broken, but I can see that it isn't. I'm stumped.

Thanks.

Do you have spark?

Yeah. Checked it with a spark tester and also pulled a plug.

Is it possible for the timing to change if the belt isn't broken?

Yeah if the belt jumped a tooth.

It would definitely be worth checking to make sure the marks on the pullies and crank gear align with the proper marks.

Good advice. Easy to answer if it's possible or not........just look.

Confirmed. My timing is WAY off. How did this happen? I was driving about 35 or 40 and not doing any extreme acceleration.

Can anyone chime in to let me know how this happened and what I need to do (while it's apart) to make sure it doesn't happen again? Thanks.

Did you reinstall the tensioner correctly? How are your idler pullies?

Tensioners do go bad. Even if they still feel like there OK, if its leaking its fluid, it wont work correctlly.

I just bought the Legacy in June so.......
I haven't taken out the tensioner so I'm not exactly sure if it or the pulleys are working correctly other than looking at the belt. (the belt looks almost new)

Is there a way to check the tensioner? Or, when this happens, should it be replaced?
Thanks.
Gabe

just can everything and do a full timing belt job. the belt may be stretched, cheap, who knows

the tensioner is fairly expensive but there are plenty of bad stories on this board about failures, it seems prudent to change it at the second belt change (or 100k+ miles)

The fluid inside it dampens the spring action. If its bad, it will still be hard to push in, but it will go in, and back out quickly.

Sure enough, the tensioner went bad. I replaced it and all the belts and it started up right away. Runs great.