New guy with a troublesome 3VZE
 

Hey, i recently bought an 89 3VZE pickup, well it has a few more issues than i realized. I've searched the forums looking for a solution but nothing sounds quite like whats going on with this truck.

Anyway, this truck starts up a little harshly, usually requiring some throttle to fully start, but after that it runs fine, until i shut it off for more than 5 minutes after that point it will not start again, it will crank and crank and i can hear compression but there's no spark. After about 30 minutes(with the hood open, or 45ish with it closed) it will start again, not as rough as the first start of the day but its still kind of strange.

I've done the jumper between TE1 and E1 and i was getting a code 12 and 13 but i replaced the cap and rotor and that went away. now I'm getting a code 11 which is momentary loss of power to the ECM, Bad Ground?

What do you think the best course of action would be?
and no i can't do an engine swap or buy something else, sorry

Not being able to start your truck until it cools down MIGHT be something cold start related. On the pass. side of the plenum, you'll find the cold start injector. There's a wire and fuel line going into it. When you know it won't start, pull that out and put it in a coffee can or large plastic bag and see if fuel sprays. Go from there. It could also be one of three sensors along the coolant manifold.

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Alright, i'll try to check that cold start injector.

MudHippy, did replacing that VSS make the code 11 go away? or was it just wasted time?

Thanks for the replies guys

Well, i haven't checked the cold start yet but i think i may have found one problem, it died on me today in the drive thru so i pushed it back out to the parking lot and did another spark test with the coil.

Holding the coil wire near the ground at the fender i was only getting one spark and then it would quit sparking until it completely stopped cranking and was then cranked again, only to recieve one more spark.

The coil felt a little hot so i packed some snow around it thinking maybe it was a resistence issue inside the coil as it got hotter. That did nothing as far as i could tell at mcdonalds.

Then i pulled the whole coil wire off and tried to clean out the top of the coil a little bit, i replaced the coil wire into the top of the coil and gave it a few twists and turns in the socket to make sure it had good contact, then i preformed the spark test again, this time i got spark after spark, so after accidently shocking the crap outta myself, i put the wire back on the dizzy and it fired right up.

Haven't replaced it yet. I did test it, and it tested fine(big surprise...not).

Well, not sure if it will solve the issue or not but i ordered a new coil and bought plugs and wires yesterday, now i can go get them if this blizzard goes away

Hey man just out of curiosity, where do you live?

idaho

My question is: What's the story with the broken T-case?

That sounds like it might be interesting....

Well, right now i'm home for the holidays in Boise, but i'm a college student at the university in pocatello, idaho.

The broken t-case, is evidently not as broken as i was lead to believe. I got stuck in my driveway today (embarassing i know, but i thought i couldn't engage 4wd at all so it was just a 2wd with an empty bed trying to get uphill on some very slippery ice) anyway, after 15-20 minutes of trying to rock myself enough to get out, i gave up, got out, locked the hubs and started with 4H. It worked and i started to move. next i tried 4L and that worked even better. So by this time i was pretty well steamed that I thought this thing was broken this whole time, so i called up my grandpa, the PO, and he said if you drive with it in 4WD it burns the clutch up, he said the Tuning fork? was broken or needed adjusting? i dont know much about suspension/drivetrain stuff, mostly an engine guy

Oh and, i put the new coil and wires on today. Now the truck wont fire up at all 0.o i'm moving on to the Ignitor/ICM, because i'm still only getting one spark per cranking. so heading to the pick-a-part tomorrow to find one

okay, the trip to the junkyard might have proved more helpful than i thought, while the first yard i went to didnt have an ignitor i did pick up a nice looking SR5 cluster and a new EFI relay as well as a cold start injector if mine starts to act up. so then i went to the next yard and got an ignitor/coil combo for $50! my coil i bought yesterday alone cost 70! took the ignitor home, just got done hooking it up and the truck starts again! i think it might not have been getting very good ground or something.

On a different note, anyone know what my grandpa could have meant? would it be easy to fix?

Unfortunately the truck still won't start after sitting for 5 or so minutes

When it catches, does it stumble or idle well?

The engine won't catch at all, it gives one spark through the coil and nothing else.

I drove around all day today in 4h and never felt like the trans was bogging or the clutch was rubbing. Never even smelt the clutch... Beginning to think my grandpa is crazy.

Truck died at a stoplight about an hour ago, same symptoms, one spark nothing else, brand new coil new ignition control module... Please help?

Is there anyway i can use the diagnostic port to by pass the VAFM? i dont think its the problem but i want to start ruling things out.

Okay, i might have figured this out...

http://www.autoshop101.com/forms/h23.pdf

According to that, the ignitor gets it's signals from the Magnetic pick up in the distributor, it then sends those signals to the ECU which then sends a signal to the coil to produce spark.

now to find a new magnetic pick up...

Yeah thats your code 12 and 13 (again), when it wont fire up smack the dizzy around a little. Er I mean clean it and check for shorts and such.

It looks something like This. Not sure if it's available as a replacement part w/o a distributor.

Thats strange... My dizzy is alot different than that one. Mine has 3 pick ups instead of one. Ill try gently "persuading" it to start next time i drive it. Thanks for your input Co_94_PU