Team420

91 3vze, 5 spd

I had started a thread a while ago, about my bouncing tach, power loss, and blown guages fuse... I got the guage thing fixed...turns out my neg batt cable was junk, replaced that... and no more blown fuses...
In the other thread, I stated that I was done, cuz I did a compression test, and found that cyl 3 only had 90psi... put some mystery oil in the crank, and a little atf, and now that cyl has good compression again, guess I had a sticky valve or something.
I do still have the bouncing tach, and intermitent power loss, when I first start out, it pulls good, then falls flat on its face, almost like the timing has been pulled back for some reason, there are no knocks, taps or anything different from before this started happening, other than the bouncing tach.
The tach needle only bounces while at idle, or when lightly on the throttle (lets say 1/3 or less), get on it, and the tach stops bouncing, but still no giddy up, it feels like my 93 did, when I had the code 52(knock sensor). I do have a cel code 21(o2 sensor), the sensor is brand new, and hooked up correctly, I tried a different ecu from my 93, and no code 21, but still bouncing tach, and no power.
Heres a list of things I have done to correct this issue...

plugs/wires/cap/rotor
tried several ecu's
tried 2 different afm's
pcv valve
cleaned all grounds, and used a wire wheel on my grinder to clean up the igniter/coil, and the bracket they mount to...this was the 1st thing I did.
Checked dizzy per fsm...checks out fine
Seafoam- put some in the gas tank, and used a whole bottle thru the intake
tps checked per fsm...checks out fine

I even tried the tach in another rig....worked fine...no bouncing

My tach is an aftermarket tach, it has a switch on the back to change for 4/6/8 cyl, i played with that today, and noticed... it bounces way more on the 4cyl setting, and no bounce at all on the 8cyl setting???

I'm starting to think, I must need an igniter. But I have never heard of them going out like that... all I have heard is they just stop working, and leave you stranded.... Any thoughts on that?
Also today.. twice...the truck almost died... I was doing 60mph, and it jkust cut out for a sec, I almost hit the dash, as I was still accelerating when it happened, I noticed the cel flicker, and then back to normal?? No codes other than the 21...

Any help ya'll can give me here would be greatly appreciated... The only option I have left at this point is to buy a new igniter for $300, and really cant afford to do that, and have it not fix my problem.

Thanks

Kiroshu

The fact that its not OEM toyota makes it hard to tell you anything good..... All i ahve to tell ya is go back OEM. But my other thought would have been a faulty coil. Do you have OEM toyota wires and plugs? I hope so. OEM toyota distributor/cap and button? You can try cleaning the pick-up for the RPMS in the disributor and see if that helps.

abecedarian

I had the igniter go on my 88. Started out with an intermittent loss of power where it wouldn't rev if the truck was in gear, but it would rev up in neutral. Eventually, after a few months, got so bad that the truck would die at idle and would knock when it started loosing power while revving but it wasn't a loud detonation- the brown/black smoke out the tailpipe was a dead giveaway though. It would throw a CEL when it was getting ready to die or wouldn't rev up though so... may not be your problem but if you can find an igniter to 'test' with that might help.

Team420

ngk wires and plugs. This was happening before I did the wires, and I did have the original yazaki wires on there.
Ill def try cleaning the pick-ups in the dizzy tho....thanks!

Team420

Thanks abe... I've been to every bone yard around, and cant seem to find an igniter for a 91( #125) . I have 4 for the 92+ but they have different connectors. I wonder if I could splice in the right connector for the 210 igniter?

Kiroshu

You could get a new igniter from toyota for about.....100000$ but yea.... lol

Team420

lol...I got the truck for free... well, for doing a boat motor swap for a bud... so um...yeah... not looking to spend all that much...I would buy a new 1 if I knew it would fix the problem tho.

Kiroshu

Well have tried beating on the igniter? Sometimes in small complex electrical parts like that pieces stick and freeze up. Try beating on it with a wrench or somethin it may help. Atleast it did for my 95 4runner it helped until it sold it.....

Team420

Im willing to try just about anything at this point! My luck tho... I'll hit it, and it will explode or something...lol

I'm leaning more towards splicing in the igniter from a 92+ runner... I did it for the alternator, and it works fine.... Anyone ever tried this with an igniter?

Team420

This is funny... I didnt exactly beat on the igniter, but yesterday, I went down a couple gnarly trails in search of turkey, bounced off a couple rocks, drove over a couple felled trees, and climbed some nasty boulders... on the way home, I noticed that the tach stopped bouncing, and most of my power is back...still has an intermittent miss, but def better. So ...idk if it's the igniter, or a loose/bad wire somewhere, but I'm betting its the igniter... I checked all the wires I could, and they all seemed fine.
I'll post up my results when I find an igniter.