At random I am hearing a weird chirping/high pitch sound from the distributor and/or the 2 wires that go down to it. When this happens, my truck will not respond and eventually dies. First thing I did was clean up all the wiring with new connectors and heat shrink. Took a little drive and it happened again today. I am really not to sure what is going on here.

 

kinda sounds like the section that triggers pickup coil is going bad but hard to tell. have you had the dist. cap off to check the rotor etc etc in it? also try taking the dist out and check for play in the shaft.

EDITED TO CLARIFY THE PICKUP COIL PLEASE READ AGAIN

 

The coil is an MSD and it has maybe 1500 miles on it. I'll have to double check the connections there. I have not pulled the cap yet, but I am going to pick up a cap and rotor today and try that. What else should I be looking at in there?

 

no no not the ignition coil, the pickup coil inside the distributor. when you pull the rotor off you can see 4 fins that are a part of the shaft that rotate to trigger the pickup coil, kinds sounds like they might be rubbing. could also be the rotor tip came loose somewhat and hitting the cap contacts as well. which is more likely the cause.

 

If the bearings in the distributor are bad the shaft can move around inside, or the pick up coil could be out of adjustment, or even bad. Check it out and adjust or replace as needed.

 

Missed the "pickup"

That is certainly a possibility. I am going to throw a new rotor in and cross my fingers, if that doesnt work I have a spare distributor that I'll throw in.

Thanks

 

Hopefully found my issue. One I pulled out is on the left.

 

that'll do it.

 

Good news, nothing like a 5 dollar fix! Thanks a lot. Wiring is so much fun!

 

yeah but that wiring is worth dealing with.

 

The only stock wires in the entire truck are the 2 going to the distributor, and the harness going back to the tail lights.

 

Found the real issue, somehow the wire on this post was arching off the coil.

 

glad ya got it fixed, how'd you end up finding it?

 

Had someone look under my hood when I tried to start it, and you could see the arching. The truck was running fine when it was cool, I think that by driving it for a little while it got hot enough and arched enough to make the truck miss, back fire, and sputter out. Of course it was a non Toyota part that failed, I should have started there.

 

haha, yup I do seem to remember you ruled out the coil as the very first thing.

 

But of course!