So, for a little while now, I noticed my truck would seemingly lose power for a second and return to normal, generally while cruising. Kind of as if you were to step on the clutch part way and immediately let off, but over the course of about a second or less.
So the whole truck would jerk slightly a few times and then be on its merry way.

Fast-forward to today: this morning, truck was normal, drove across town and back before work, let it sit for approximately 9 hours, and then upon departing my humble workplace, I noticed the aforementioned sudden and inexplicable power surge/loss was back with a vengeance.

Now mostly occurring while applying decent throttle, it steadily got worse, more chugging and jerking more often, but I had to hit the bank before heading to my mother's so I could question the mechanical know-how of my stepdad, who isn't even home this weekend it turns out.

So, in my infinite wisdom, I went got gas, grabbed food, hit the auto store and got some stuff to do a tune-up, assuming I was having a spark problem (or lack thereof), and then I was going to head home. I made it about 2 miles before the chugginess was bad enough to warrant me pulling off in an empty parking lot and diving in the engine compartment.

Four hours later, she's tuned up, but now when I try to start, she turns over but never fires unless you push the throttle to the floor, which then it is barely even minimum idle, and then it starts a popping noise which sounds like it is coming from the air box, but I assume its more aural feedback from the intake side of things.

Now, I am pretty sure I have done one (or more) things needlessly that made my situation worse, but my question here is "WTF do I do to fix this debacle?!"

My situation has gone from -$300 in the bank to Pay Day to dead truck.

Words of Wisdom from the Yota Gurus is greatly appreciated.

(Sorry for ranting.)

 

Sounds like you crossed up some plug wires during the tune up. Id go back and check them.

 

As far as I can tell, the distributor goes 1-4 from the top left (marked 1) clockwise, and the cylinders go 1-4 starting at the fan end back to the cab end.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

 

No i think your right falx.

You just need to make sure you've got those plug wires right.

Does it feel like a spark issue, or fuel?

When its cutting in and out, what do the rpms do?

 

I bet your fuel filter is clogged. I've had this problem a couple of times with my toys and it sounds like what you are describing. Check to make sure you are getting adequate fuel. If not, it's an easy fix. Just make sure you get an OEM filter to never have to worry about it again.

 

That was my guess.
Fuel filter if your rpms die in and out when it jumps around like that.

 

When my throttle position sensor began to malfunction, I had similar symptoms, mostly when applying lots of throttle when passing other cars on the freeway going around 60-75mph, but sometimes at slower speeds. I'm not saying definitively that this is your problem, but you might wanna look into it once you get the truck running again.

Regarding getting the truck running, that just gonna be a process of laboriously going through everything you did and rechecking your work, maybe even going so far as to put the old part that was working back in just to see if it still works.

Been there many times myself, that's one of the reasons i hate working on my truck, because i always manage to break something else in the process of "fixing" it.

 

Well, I am planning on doing the fuel filter today or tomorrow, depending on how my kamikaze weekend works out. I was also thinking I need to check the resistances on my fuel injectors.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong but I think he started the work on it after it began giving him problems.

 

If your going to do that you might as well send them to Witchhunter Performance and get them equalized and cleaned.

 

You put the plug wires on the distributor in the correct firing order, right? should be 1-3-4-2, not 1-4 . . . .

 

Yeah, you're correct, but from my understanding, he's got two problems. The original surges and power loss that caused him to do the tune-up in the first place, and the the no-start / faulty start problem that arose post tune-up.

My suggestion was aimed more at diagnosing the original problem, assuming his current problem turns out to be a bad plug wire or distributor cap or something simple like that.

 

Wow, I'm dumb. Fires right up.

 

glad I could help, figured it was just something simple.
I'd be willing to bet you'll remember that for the next plug wire job, any time I do wires on an engine that I'm not familiar with I do them one-by-one

BTW, how's it run since the tune-up?

 

Well, it doesn't. It started right up once I put the wires in the right order, but I figured I'd do the fuel filter since I have it, and she doesn't want to start and stay running.

 

i would check your tps (throttle position sensor) it could be malfunctioning causing the issue

 

An update, after Googling, I shorted B+ and Fp, and she runs. I checked resistances on the afm, which are all within spec, so I may need to find a cor tomorrow.

Edit:
New COR, no bueno.

Edit2:
Replaced the AFM to no avail.

Edit3:
I went and saw my cousin, who's a Yota fanatic and Yota mechanic, and he seems to think I have an electrical/wiring issue between the AFM and the fuel pump.

It runs great with B+ and Fp shorted; without it, it flutters and sputters, but still kind of runs.