legacycentral bbs

So left my house around 3:30 a.m. on Saturday morning to head over to Spokane for the Rally-X Lee posted a thread on. Car was cruising along nicely with no issues at all. About 150 miles into the trip it just died. So i pulled over to the shoulder, somewhere in George, Wa. Engine was dead. So i started the motor again and it was misfiring/sputtering real bad! Popped the hood to see what was going on. Was jiggling vacuum lines to see if something came loose. On my jiggling quest, i bumped the ignition coil harness (3 wire) and car instantly died. Fired it up again and it was idling again, went to the same wire and jiggled it and it died again. Repeated the process 2 more times, and while repeating this process, i would pop off each plug wire @ the coil to check for spark, which i had, and got the same result. Popped the coil off and looked on the underside, at the wires and they looked fine. Connector looked good as well. So i was inspecting the harness side of the wires, down towards the main loom (between the intake runners) and it looked fine as far as i could reach/see. I went to fire it up again, and this time it wouldn't start. So i checked for spark again, and this time there was none.
So maybe i tore the wire apart while inspecting, somewhere in the loom, i do not know, but i wanna say i doubt it. So for the next few hours, i worked on trying to get spark again, but couldn't succeed. Upon inspecting everything, i noticed the cam position sensor wire had some minor breaks at the connector part, and was real brittle and i was looking at it, one of the 3 wires broke. So i snipped off both ends of the connectors and crimped the wires.
Now i couldn't even get the car to crank anymore. So this is where i stand. Disappointed, and frustrated and angry at the stupid thing for screwing me when i put so much effort into making the rally.
I had to get the car towed home, which I'm not happy about, and its now in my garage on jackstands ready to get fixed, with your HELP people.
Anyway, where do i start? I got a testlight and a crappy multimeter.

1. What kind of signal should i get to my cam sensor, with key on, and to which wire?
2. What kind of signal or test should i run to the coil wires?
3. Do i need to run any tests on the igniter as well? And what kind?
4. What setting should i put my multimeter on and what should it read.

I got some extra coil packs at home, but since i cant even get the car to crank anymore, i cant test them.

Ok so Reddevil said it could be a dead battery or alternator over on NASIOC. I put the battery on the charger, and while waiting for that, i pulled my starter and took it apart to clean it, in case the no crank was the starter although i could hearit click when attempting.
I reinstalled the starter and cranked the car, and success on cranking it! . So I'm thinking i must have killed the battery by cranking it while trying to figure out my issue. So, one step forward. Now is still don't have spark. I've tried 2 other ignition coils, and still nothing.

i am thinking your timing belt broke or skipped a tooth i assume you cel is on after cranking? i suggest you pull the codes.

With key on, i checked for codes and are as follows; 11-17, 22, 24, 31, 49. I'm willing to bet i got most of these codes trying to diagnose the problem. disconnecting sensors and all...

Anybody got the FSM on which pins i should test on my ECU to see if i'm getting a spark signal there? Or a FSM on trouble shooting a no spark situation?

Florin, you need to find Josh's files. The one you need right now is 1992_Subaru_Service_Manual-Engine_&_Wiring.pdf

Once you have that -

Cam Sensor, p.191/335

Ignition System, p.181/335

That should get you on a good start. It would be helpful to clear the ECU and try to crank it again to see which codes are relevant and not a result of your initial troubleshooting.

but to clear my ecu, don't i need to drive the car at 40 mph for 1 mile? Or should i just disconnect battery for a few hours?
I looked on his website but i couldn't find the fsm's. I will look harder.

Sounds to me like you had already found the problem at the coilpack connector, dig deeper there.

the only thing I'm afraid of digging deeper into, is to where the harness meets the main harness loom. To get to that, i need to remove my intake manifold off. I will do it if need be, i just wanna make sure that is where the problem surely lies. So that's why i need to know what tests i can run on that harness and ECU pins. I looked on Josh's web site, but cannot find the FSM pdf. If someone has a link, or can look up on how to test and where to test for my no spark situation, I'd appreciate it.

http://www.bbs.legacycentral.org/viewto ... 12&t=14485

I concur with Mike, you already found the problem. You need to test the continuity of the wires going from the coil pack to the ignitor, and then from the ignitor to the ECU. You will put your meter on ohms or the omega symbol and for testing the ignitor to ECU run you'll need a length of wire to put in the correct pin at the ECU and run it out to the engine bay so you can reach your multimeter. You should have 0 ohms on the two trigger wires If you do not, or if it's intermittant, you definitely found the problem. The third wire at the coil pack (should be middle pin) is 12v.

Check out the factory manual, it's got all the info you need.

thanks for chiming in Josh. I was hoping you would. And thanks for the link i will check into that. Real quick, before you sign off, here is what i did so far tonight. I traced the coil pack wires to the main loom, and saw that it continues to behind the battery. So i yanked it out to get access. I found the big connector that contained my 3 wires. I tested them for ohms, and each one had ~2.5. So that means there isn't a break in the harness right? Also, as i was finding the 3 wires, the yellow one ended up being 2 on the battery end of the loom. And they both actually had continuity. Weird? There was a 3rd wire that was almost identical, but the brown dots were doubled at the same gab so i hope its not related, even though its so close. I checked that one too just in case, but nothing on that. Does that make sense? Here is a picture of the 3 yellows (pins side).

I notice in the wiring diagram it says to refer to the Super Multiple Junction. I cant seem to find it. Is that a separate download?

Josh, you posted a link in this thread http://bbs.legacycentral.org/viewtopic. ... 77&start=0
I'm wondering where that came from. I tried to find the exact page in my newly downloaded fsm but the 2-7 FI page 39 is not the same. So i guess what I'm asking is, is there another pdf file I missed?

The SMJ is just is just where the engine and body harness meet. It's bolted together....just assume that is fine.

You really want to use the troubleshooting section in 2.7. There are a few stuff like the coil pack and ignition system that precedes the "troubleshooting by trouble code section" Go to page 54 & 55. Do the tests on those pages.

The scan in that other link is from the 90 legacy manual, which only has non-turbo stuff.

Ok, I've done all tests on page 54 and am now on pg 55. I'm at step 4 where i am to test input signal at igniter. I made a little cut in the no. 5 and 6 wires.

I grounded out to the body (master cylinder bolt on firewall). With the engine cranking this is what i get


Now at the top of the page its says I'm to get a min of .1V. So does this mean something is wrong? I get same reading on both 5 and 6 wires.

While I'm sitting here frustrated, i thought id try my spare ECU, since this current one has a bunch of codes from all my tests, as in codes 11-22, 24 31 49. No I'm not sure what codes were on the spare, or if it even remembers them, since it has been out of the car for 6 months, but i hooked up the spare and cranked it to see. It didn't start of course, but it did throw code 11 (crank angle), and that's it. So how do i or can i test that sensor? Or should i check my timing belt, in case it jumped a tooth or two?

if you read the top it was the first thing I suggested pretty much 99% of threads I said it was timing belt it was always a timing belt. As long as your sure your cam and crank sensors are good don't trip over the timing belt!! When was it last replaced anyway?

Check the t-belt.

Instructions to test the crank sensor are again in the manual, simple resistance test.

Sorry but I have a hard time navigating the manual. Anyway, after 4 days of troubleshooting, I FINALLY figured it out. It turns out it was the crank sensor wire, right at the connector. So it looked fine upon a quick inspection, but when looking at it really carefully, one of the wires was broken all the way trough. Boy what a headache and finally relieved. I went to the junk yard and bought a harness of a n/a car, so it was in much better condition. No turbo heat to bake everything. I ended up replacing both cam and crank wires. Thanks for the help guys. Rob over on nasioc helped a great deal as well.

Glad you got it figured out.