Cellar

It was poring rain out this morning when I went to go to work. My '94 Runner wouldn't start. I have had problems on ocation starting it in wet weather before but this is the first time it wouldn't start at all. searched thed forums for a similar issue but all i could find were cold weather starting and the typical -check the battary, ect. The truck keeps cranking but doesn't start. No sputtering, clicking or any of the usual things. Yesterday it worked fine. I suspect it will start tomorow once the weather clears out, but I would really like to know what is causing this.

Some ideas, please!!

donomite49

spark plug wires and dist cap ever been replaced?
i have sprayed wires and cap with wd40 to help repel water.

ksti

I would check all my ground wires, sounds like moisture is the obvious problem. Also, yes check your positive battery cable. It may look good visually, but you need to check it from end to end for swell or soft deformation. Good luck.

Cellar

I figured I would revive this thread becase of an issue I had this morning.
Truck wouldn't start again. This time the wonderful click sound was all I got. After a while I pulled the cover off the starter and gave it a good whack with a hammer and she started right up.

Looks like I'll need a new starter AGAIN!!

This, however, is not the point of this thread. The failure of the starter is directly related though. On the times when I have to crank the starter for a min. or two, or three... It has taken 20min - half hour to finally get the truck started on more than one occasion. That's including trying to give the starter a break in between cranking. Hence the problem with the starter now and why I want to address this problem before I get a new starter.

Oh ya, and the truck started fine once the weather cleared out... (just looking back at my starting post)

I have looked over the wiring as much as I can and every thing seems to be somwhat ok (for an old truck). Spark plug wires were new last winter and the dist. cap checks out ok. Moisture would be obvious but where and what is being affected is the question. The problem happens mostly (although not exclusivly) while the engine has been sitting... say overnight...conditions dry the day before and rained overnight. Since my original post it has only happened once or twice. It starts out by cranking and not turning over. Then after a few times, it starts to turn over, catch and die. Sometimes it backfires a bit during the proccess, most often not. Madly pumping on the gas pedal helps it to keep going. Most often it will sputter and catch for a few seconds before cutting out and will progressively sputter for a longer time on each cranking proccess before finally reving up and stay running. Sometimes (only lately) it will almost die and sputter a bit when I first start driving off. A little throttle keeps her going. Most of the time though, she runs great after I get it running.

So... How and what could the moisture be affecting things?

Where is a good area to check...
How do I go about trouble shooting this... strike that... How do I narrow down the list of things and what order is best to trouble shoot them...?

Lets start with that and see where it goes...

Cellar

Well the starter seems to be holding out...

But the starting issue is still there...

Last week the truck started acting up again. Near the end of last week, I had the symtoms as mentioned above. didn't drive it for a few days and the other day i had the same crank but no start thing happen again. Wouldn't even catch at all. Tried again two or three times (later in the day and the next day... same thing.
The weather is finally starting to clear out of my area now so I went out to see if it would start. Someone had mentioned similar problems as I am having - it ended up being the fuel pump on its way out. So I checked the fuel pump operation. Worked fine. Figured I would give starting it a shot again and fired up no problem!!

Does this sound like an itermitant fuel pump problem?
Maybe it's on it's way out.
Any way to check and make sure before driving 100 miles and droping the gas tank?
What do you think?...

RAD4Runner

Or you have leak around your windshield and water is messing up your Circuit Opening Relay behind glove box? I think it happened to Chef.

When you start and you have the problem, do you hear the COR click or not?
If it does not, then coil is not energizing.
IF, and only IF it clicks, then coil is energizing but contact is not closing and sending power to fuel pump. there is connector that leads to fuel pump along the passenger side threshold, under carpet and under passenger side seat. Look at schematic, find that wire and probe for +12V while cranking.
Either way, problem's around that area.

Best of luck

Sturmcrow

Maybe it is not a problem for Toyota's, but I always thought that hard starting when it is wet out is usually an indication that your ignition coil is going bad. I'm surprised nobody else has mentioned that.

I believe the idea is that the humidity can get inside of a coil that is no longer properly sealed and keep it from delivering the high voltage that you need.

I suppose you could try hitting the coil with a hair dryer the next time you have this problem to see if that helps.

RAD4Runner

Another possibility and a good way to check. Moisture in the winding will cause leakage current across the many turn of wire and affect high-voltage induction of coil.

B-Fake

I would forget about the starter all together, If it turns the motor it works, that's all it does. The next things to check are; are the cylinders getting fuel/air, and are the cylinders getting spark. Check your whole ignition system, if you don't know how old your plugs, wires, cap, and rotor are replace it all. Doesn't cost much and it made a big difference in how my truck ran. Sounds like your fuel pump works so next would be to check the filter then the injectors.
It could very well be an electrical/relay thing like RAD said,but I personally hate dealing with electrical gremlins, and go for the mechanical side of things first.
Also what Sturmcrow said about the coil is likely too, and as part if the ignition system I would replace that first too before breaking out the multimeter. Again just personal preference on how I would do it since I HATE electrical problems.

RAD4Runner

Concur.

Agree, too. After all these are all maintenance items. www.sparkplugs.com had good brands and good prices. I would just buy standard/OEM stuff. Exotic materials and fancy branding would not do our simple trucks much good.

LOL! Yeah, but not really that bad unless it's intermittent. Getting used to reading the schematic will really pay off in the long run, saving you lots of money by not having to fix what's not broken. Beside you can always call your lifeline when stuck

B-Fake

That's true, I guess those are just the ones that I have the most fond memories of .

Cellar

Thanks for the tips guys. I'll be working on the truck this weekend. I have an extra coil to swap so I'll try that. I tested the COR already and it's fine, but the wire I will check. Electrical problems drive me nuts too !! I'll change the plugs too. May even change the cap and rotor.

Hopefully, it will help...