background: 1987 runner with 22re. for the last couple/few weeks, occasionally it's been hard to start when cold but not all the time. by hard to start, i mean it'll try to start, stumble stumble then die. if i give it some gas right as i'm starting it, usually it'll start after the second or third time.

ok, i drove up to my wife's work yesterday morning, and everything was fine. it was raining out, and i think i might have hit a few large puddles on the way -- don't know if that's helpful in diagnosis. a few hours later, i went to leave, and she started up fine. but as i tried driving off, every time i gave it gas, it started stumbling. so i parked it and turned it off. i restarted it, and it ran great for about 20-30 seconds, then started stumbling and died. during those 20-30 seconds it runs as it always did. if i give it some gas when it first starts stumbling, i can keep it going a little while longer but not much. after that, if i give it gas, it stumbles and i can hear a clunking in the air box around the air flow meter.

so i pulled the air flow meter off the air box, started it up and gave it some gas while watching the flapper inside which moved as i gave it gas.

i am at a loss, and this is my daily driver so i really need to figure out what the heck is going on and fix it. so any help would be GREATLY appreciated!

-greg t

 

buddy of mine had a similar problem, started slow, then idles, then when trying to accelerate engine wont rev, clunking fromt he airbox. could be starved of gas, came to find out that when corndick, excuse me, cornfed suspension worked on it they just dropped the gas tank down which kinked the main fuel line. check your fuel pressure. just a guess, could be and is most likely wrong, but give it a shot

 

i thought about it being starved of fuel ... got any idea how i can check fuel pressure in the middle of a parking lot? that's where i got hung up and started trying to diagnosis the air system.

 

doh :pat: mmm, if you have the time... buy/make a fuel pressure gauge. cant really think of any other way to do it. if its low check your fuel lines, fuel pump etc.

 

i'm looking through the FSM, and it shows a way of checking that there is pressure but not how much. i reckon i'll have to call around and see if anyone has a gauge.

 

I think you have 2 seperate problems here...

The hard starting is probalby related to the cold start injector or the time switch for it.

The stubling is most likely water in the distributor or in the plug ends of the wires where they hook into the disributor. Try blowing them out with compressed air and using some dialectic (sp) grease in the boots.

 

Thank you for confirming my first thoughts from yesterday! Tomorrow, I'm going to pull the cap and rotor and check them out along with the plug wires and plugs.