90 'Runner , 22re , 15k on complete rebuild...

My big crawler shut down on me in traffic yesterday , I was able to push it off into the bike lane . I was creeping along in traffic and truck shut down , but I still had 12.8 volts at battery (I have a voltmeter right at my eyesight)

Pushed it onto a side street and got under the hood . Truck cranked strong , but it would not turn over . Just then my girlfriend happened to drive by , so she joined in the fun . G/F was trying to crank the motor while I was under the hood . I was literally just jiggling wires near the ignition coil and distributor .

And then , voila , it starts , just as a tow truck pulls up to see if he could help .

So I get back on the road , determined to get home , and truck does it again, instantaneous shut down , not a sputter .

I repeat , jiggle wires , curse my misfortune , and truck starts and I get it home .


Some things I have looked at already (but will probably look at again today):

-Four engine ground wires
-Checked resistance of AFM with multimeter
-Looks like solid contact on battery
-EFI fuses look good , all fuses look good

So any thoughts fellas?

ECU ? Throttle Position Sensor ? Raccoon nest in glove box ?

I'd really appreciate any help .... thanks in advance .

 

When it dies, what does it do? Is it a slow stuttering then dies, or just a complete shut-off?

Two things come to mind:

1. Distributor and/or cap and rotor. Distributor might have rust or just old and failing. Happened to me. Cap and rotor could be worn and not longer making contact with the posts to send spark. Also happened to me.

2. VAFM is not sending the signal to the fuel pump, causing the pump to turn off. Inspect the wires going from the VAFM to the ECU. Make sure there's no damage. You already checked it per the FSM so there's not much else here.

 

Mine was a bad hot wire connection feeding my ignition coil. Wasnt obvious just a hit and miss connection. I would think its a connection. Good luck

 

It went from fine to dead in about 2 seconds both times ....

No engine light , I have not looked for codes yet ...

So weird , I just drove my truck on a 5,000 mile round trip to Canada , no problems what so ever . Then on my 3 mile work commute it dies ....

 

Sounds exactly like when my dizzy failed. Yeah, check all wires with a multimeter (checking resistance) from the battery to the dizzy. A visual inspection of the cap and rotor and dizzy will tell you if it's still good or not.

 

What's the resistance between the (-) battery terminal and the engine block or intake manifold? Should be essentially 0 ohms.

 

I'll check negative resistance and engine block ...

At home last night , after the double break down on the road , I idled the truck for about 20 minutes , idled just fine , started right up .

All these suggestions are very helpful as I really have no idea how to chase this problem ... I hope it's not ECU related .

 

Not unless you dumped your truck in a lake lately! Actually, ECU problems aren't as bad as you would think. They rarely go bad anyway so used or reman'd ones work great. But don't worry about that just yet.

 

Im with Gamefreak odds of ecu is pretty slim. Im thinkin wires somewhere.

 

had a bad coil on my 22R and it would do the same thing yours is doing. Be driving along fine and then just die. Sit on the side of the road for 10-15 mins and start up again. Replaced the coil, never happened again.

 

Thanks YotaBuck , good to know , can I test the coil with my multimeter ... ?

 

I did just do a bunch of repair and welding work on the driver's side frame near my MSD ignition box ...

https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f116...better-275720/


I hope I didn't fry anything , but I was sure to disconnect the battery every time I got near my truck with a welder ...