i just got an '82 22r 2wd pickup. pretty much completely stock with approx 90,000 on the odo.
it was driving great for the first month and then seemingly overnight, it lost a lot of power.
i have to put the pedal to the floor to get the car to move from a dead stop.
idles fine and starts up no problem.

i changed the very old dirty air filter and sprayed some carb cleaner while blasting the throttle - nothing changed.
i changed the distributor cap but am waiting on the rotor to arrive - nothing changed.
i put a sea foam canister in the fuel tank and drove for about 45 minutes - a little more power but still awkwardly lurching from a dead stop with the engine revving hard.

any recommendations on where to start?
or other threads to read here?
i've been reading around for weeks but finally felt like posting since i have an actual issue.
I haven't come across a thread that describes what i'm talking about so decided to post.

 

Maybe clogged catalytic converter? Bump it with your palm, it shouldn't rattle.

 

Sounds like you could be down a cylinder. Here are some test ideas. Run it with a vac gauge on it. Google vac gauge chart for interpretation. Check plugs for consistent coloring. Do a comp test. Ohm out the plug wires. Look for consistency. With the radiator cap off, look for bubbling in the coolant. Spray around the carb base and associated vac lines with carb cleaner or even water to see if idle changes indicating a vac leak. One of these tests will turn up something…head gasket, burnt exh valve, bad plug wire…If the cat is plugged, the pipe and cat will get very hot when you try to drive it. Good luck, report back.

 

just had this problem with my 89, it was the MAF sensor.
Try tapping on it with a mallet to see if the gate is not opening correctly.
you can take the MAF sensor off but leave it connected, start the truck and have a buddy throttle up. look to see if the gate is opening properly.
you can try to take it apart and throw some lube on the gate so it swings open.

 

Cat isn't rattling when i bump it.

i started my engine with the radiator cap open to check for bubbling and noticed a clicking from the first spark plug so i stopped the engine.
I pulled it out and will replace it - along with the other 3 for good measure tomorrow.
if that stops the clicking, i'll run it again see if the radiator is bubbling. Then check the vacuum hoses.

i have a Chilton manual and i'm not seeing where the MAF is. I suspect my '82 has a different air intake system than your '89s does?
can somebody confirm that?

 

The 22R is carbed, so no, no MAF, throttle body, or anything like that.

Not only replace the plugs and distributor cap and rotor, but the plug wires as well. Including the center conductor. They're just as important, and they do break down over time. Sometimes you can detect a bad one (or more) by simply looking at them at night, with no lights on. If they're bad, or going bad, you'll see a small lightning storm under the hood, with the truck running. You can also hook your timing light's inductive pickup to them just above the thick part where you grab to pull them off the plugs. Good wire, good flash out of the timing light. You can check all 4 that way.

Next, make certain that the head's ground strap is in good shape. It goes from the lifting hook at the rear of the head, one of the bolts that hold the hook on, to the firewall almost directly behind the valve cover. Make sure both end's ring terminals are nice and clean, no corrosion. Make certain as well that the bolts that hold them on are clean. Lastly, ensure the threads the bolts screw into have no corrosion, paint, etc. in them. Ohm the wire end-to-end. It should be very nearly 0 ohms. Make sure there's no cracks in the insulation. It gets brittle, and can crack open, or peel off...

Since the head gets it's ground from the body, make sure the ground cable from the body to the battery terminal is good. All the previous warnings and cautions apply. If you have a regular, lead-acid battery, be sure to check where the cable attaches to the terminal clamped to the battery.. The acid vented from the battery can get down inside the insulation, corroding the wire strands until they break. No visible indications whatever. That's why you should remove both ends of the cable, and ohm it out. Flex it when you do so. The strands can make contact with each other inside the insulation, but when you flex the cable, it shows up as increased ohm values. Makes sure BOTH ends are clean, and free of any hint of corrosion, etc etc.
A lot of people just strip the cable and bolt the strands down onto the terminal. Drives me nuts. It should have a good quality copper ring terminal crimped onto it, and meltwall heatshrink down onto the ring terminal, and up onto the cable's insulation, to protect the whole cable.

Ohm check the igniter and coil. Both cold AND hot. They frequently will drift out of spec when they get hotted up in a running engine. You can use an electronics heat gun to simulate a hot engine condition. Don't use a paint stripper type heat gun, though, They're way too powerful. There's only one set of ohm values listed in the FSM. If there are any times the values are out of spec, they bad. Even if they drift out when it gets hot, they're still bad.

Make sure the vacuum lines are all routed correctly, and aren't cracked, etc.

Check that the EGR valve isn't clogged where it goes into the intake.

Hope something in all my rambing is some help...
Pat☺

 

2ToyGuy & olsonchase :: Thanks. No MAF on this car, that's what I thought.

so,,,

1. i changed the rotor.
2. i checked the plugs for consistent wear:
- first one had "regular wear" according to my Haynes
- the other 3 had a small bit of oil on the threading.
3. i opened the radiator and started up to watch for bubbles. no bubbling after about 3-4 minutes... should i have watched longer?
then i closed the radiator back up and,
4. tried to throw it in reverse to see if the rotor and plugs helped, still no power but the clicking i heard before had stopped. i figure i should still change the plug wires?
then,
5. i sprayed/doused the vacuum hoses around the carb in soapy water (i watched a guy use Simple Green on youtube). the idle didn't seem to change but every once in a while made a sort of minor burping noise which could be regular it was so subtle. i did notice what might be a really light hissing noise but i am not familiar with the usual sounds of this engine since its so new to me.

it seems i need to try a few more things suggested by 2ToyGuy and Melrose 4r:
- compression check
- ohm check the plug wires, igniter, and coil
- check the head's ground strap

it looks like i'll get some new plug wires tomorrow, O'reilly's didn't have any today.

last thing, i am thinking of changing the fuel pump because it seems my Haynes manual is sort of pointing to it with the issues i am having.
- the oil on the spark plugs.
- Haynes Manual also points to lack of power due to faulty fuel pump.
- i also noticed oil around the bolt on the head to the right of the screw-cap for where the oil goes in...?
does that make sense? or should i try all the above suggestions first despite the fact nobody has mentioned the fuel pump yet.

 

Lots of recommendations but I didn't see a single person tell you to change your fuel filter.
The mechanical pumps on these trucks are really great and if your truck is even turning on then I can almost guarantee it's not the pump.

In my experience, stumbling or low power is often a lack of fuel. Clogged fuel filter or an old failing carburetor. Maybe clogged lines or a clogged pickup in the tank but less likely this or the pump.

Dirty air filters should be changed but still flow a lot of air and don't suddenly become the problem overnight. Similarly with plugs and wires and spark. When those quit working the motor completely fails to operate.

 

o great. thanks.
i'll check the fuel filter. it was literally an overnight problem.

 

Assuming it still has the factory AISIN carb on it, the accelerator pump diaphragm will eventually wear out. This would also explain being able to idle but stumbling when trying to accelerate.
99% of the gasoline you buy now has ethanol added which wears out old carburetor rubber pieces like the diaphragm. It could be working one day and not working the next day.
90K on the odometer is low for a 22R but 40 years is a long time for pieces of rubber soaked in gasoline to hold up.
Hope you figure it out!

 

Alllriiight.

i changed the fuel filter and got new spark plug cables.
nothing.

i tried throwing it in first just to see what would happen and then it occured to me that maybe is something is wrong with the transmission, so i threw it into every other gear and took my foot off the clutch and the engine just kept running.
what does that mean!?!!

 

It sounds like you have a clutch problem.

 

Check your shifter bushing on top of the tranny. Also check the proximity of your #1 plug wire to the dipstick. I had one plug wire rubbing on the dipstick and was intermittently shorting out

 

Seems like youre doing good with troubleshooting.
just so you dont get a false negative, I never have luck finding vac leaks with carb cleaner etc. Ive sprayed the heck out of some engines and found nothing until I made a mini smoke machine and this always works.

 

and yea, whats going on with the clutch?

 

thanks everyone.
clutch is out. brought it to a mechanic to do that fix.
unfortunately, i haven't the time to do it myself with the full time job and other responsibilities.
I'll keep reading around as i had been for months before posting.

 

new clutch, resurfaced the flywheel.
on the road again.