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Sambar Guru Needed!

Discussion in 'Subaru Sambar' started by Blake Fenrich, Jul 24, 2019.

  1. Blake Fenrich

    Blake Fenrich New Member

    Hello Everyone,

    I have a 91 Sambar S/C Van. A couple days ago had it die on the highway when I tried taking it on its first road trip. It sputtered a bit and then died and wouldn't start. Upon inspection there was no oil on the dipstick. I got it towed home and have now tried:
    -Changed oil and new oil filter
    -New spark plugs

    Once I got this far the van would fire and idle normal. But once I try driving it and it is under load it will spit, sputter, and backfire and will not rev out. If it is stopped and in park it will rev out normally if you ease into the throttle. If you go to hard it will sputter and backfire.

    After this I tried:
    -Putting a wrench on the crank shaft pulley to make sure everything is turning good. To the best of my knowledge it seems like it is.
    --I cut open the old oil filter to look for metal .There was a small amount but nothing too alarming
    -- I changed the fuel filter and turned the van over to make sure there was a steady stream of fuel .there was.
    - I pulled exhaust apart at the header to make sure it had good exhaust flow .didn't change the issue
    - I pulled the intake apart to make sure it had good airflow .didn't change the issue
    - I pulled and cleaned the MAF sensor .didn't change
    - I pulled and cleaned the dirstrubter cap
    - I made sure the supercharger spun no problem.
    - I checked all fuses
    - I tried clearing any codes
    - I compression tested all cylinders at 120psi

    At this point I'm all out of ideas. Any direction would be greatly appreciated!
     
  2. David Ogden

    David Ogden Member

    You have an ignition problem, bad coil or wires or not knowing if that model has points ignition, points closed up or bad condenser.
     
  3. Maximal

    Maximal Active Member

    how did the distributor cap/rotor look?
     
  4. Blake Fenrich

    Blake Fenrich New Member

    To the best of my knowledge everything looked good in the distributer cap and rotor to me. I do know it has new plug wires on it as well .
     
  5. Maximal

    Maximal Active Member

    I would maybe try unplugging the coil and seeing if you can find a spec for resistance and see what you get, just to try and narrow it down. Seems like it's a spark issue more than anything, I don't think these are bad for chewing mass air flow sensor. The other trick you can do is unplug the mass air flow while it's running, if it seems to run better there's a chance the mass air flow is bad but I'm leaning towards Spark
     
  6. Blake Fenrich

    Blake Fenrich New Member


    Thanks for the reply .Have tried unplugging the MAF sensor .sounded very bad .so don't think it's that. Will try playing with the spark a bit next time I get a chance to work on it
     
  7. Blake Fenrich

    Blake Fenrich New Member

    Little update. I changed all spark plug wires and dielectric greased all connections, I also pulled the 02 sensor in the exhaust and cleaned it up. I also opened the distributer cap and inspected the posts. All looked in good shape to me .I electric contact cleaned the rotor and posts as well. Still no luck getting the Van to stop sputtering under load.
     
  8. David Ogden

    David Ogden Member

    Check the spark strength. Pull a plug wire slowly away from the plug and see how far you can pull it before it starts to miss, should be at least an inch and you should be able to hear the spark snap. If not the coil could be weak or it's leaking spark somewhere, I have seen rotors cause that.
     
  9. rkrenicki

    rkrenicki Active Member

    Have you checked the timing? I wonder if the belt jumped a tooth.
     
  10. David Ogden

    David Ogden Member

    In all my years I have never seen a belt jump "a" tooth. Have seen them put on a tooth off, strip the teeth off or break, that's it. That's not to say it couldn't happen.
     
  11. rkrenicki

    rkrenicki Active Member

    Well, not suggesting that the EN engines are at all the same as EJ engines.. but Subaru EJs with their very long timing belts with multiple idlers have had occasion to jump a tooth, especially on the DOHC models. I am not saying that it is widespread, but it has happened.
     
  12. Blake Fenrich

    Blake Fenrich New Member

    Update:

    Problem solved .Ended up being a bad coil .It made enoigh spark at idle, but as throttle was increased, spark dropped off. Replaced and is now running again. Thanks for the help!
     
    Ohkei Dohkei likes this.

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