1988 Subaru GL starting problem

The way you installed the belt sounds correct except maybe for one thing you didn't mention. After the first belt is installed with the dot and mark in alignment, the engine has to be rotated one full turn before the other belt can be installed. If both sproket dots are pointing up, then one camshaft is 180 degrees off. Other words, to be right, when one dot is in the up position the other has to be in the down position.

I must be miss-understanding something. The books say to align the marks for the right belt. Done. Then they say to re-align the marks to the timing mark and rotate the left camshaft until the mark lines up with the mark on the cover. Done. The books don't say to have the marks opposite of each other, that is, 180 degrees off from each other. I aligned things the way you have suggested and the motor seemed like it wanted to start, but wouldn't. Now I'm really confused.

Let's start from the beginning and pretend you are replacing both belts. You know about the 3 marks on the flywheel. Rotate the first camshaft until the dot is inline with the notch in the cover. The dot on the sproket will roughly be in the 12:00 position when the belt is installed. Now rotate the engine one full turn until the pointer on the bellhousing and the center mark are inline. The camshaft you just installed the first belt on will have moved exactly 1/2 of a full turn. The dot will be roughly now in the 6:00 postion. Now move the the second belt. Rotate the sproket until the dot on the sproket is inline with the notch which is exactly what you did on the first camshaft.

If you did this the second time and didn't move the distributor the engine should start. If it dosen't I would suspect fuel fouled spark plugs.

You can also visit

and look in old l posting about this procedure. For what it is worth, I did exactly what you did the first time I replaced the timing belts.

You da man, you da man. Why oh why can't these books explain things in such clear language. I followed your instructions and it worked out fine. The car did seem to be flooded, which made it a bit of a challenge at first, but it worked. Many thanks, and a Blessing on your house.