I've spent some days searching and troubleshooting and need some help with ideas for what could be wrong and how to check. I'm getting a bit desperate for something else to even check.
Rig Details
If you want to be even more confused, read the background of this issue. It almost seems to be 2 separate (but related?) issues that happened on consecutive days.
Background
So a few weeks ago I took my entire family (3 little kids and my wife) camping. We were dragging a tent trailer way up into the mountains. 3 hours from my house and about 45 minutes of pretty serious climbing (4 wheel low dragging a tent trailer up a mountain) the entire electrical system just blinked off.
There wasn't an obvious issue (fuse, loose battery, etc) so we setup camp right there by rolling the trainer off the side of the road and having a passer by pull the truck off the road. We were really luck to break down where we did.
I spent the evening troubleshooting the truck. I happened to have a jump start battery pack with me and I was able to start the truck with the jumper pack. The second I took the jumper battery off the engine would die. My assumption at this point was that I had a bad alternator and/or battery. So the next morning I got up and threw the trailer battery into the truck, jump started the truck engine w/ my jump pack and started to drive out. I was thrilled! (we had no cell service and it would have been a lot of work to get the truck and trailer out of there).
So, we get down off the mountain to the flat dirt road and it's hot and dusty, so I look at the voltage gauge and it looks ok (it's a bit above the 12V line) so I decide we can run the AC for a minute (against my better judgement). We rolled up all the windows and I cranked up the AC.
All was well and good for 10 minutes or so, but then the engine died. There were still dash lights, so this was a different failure from the previous evening. We coasted for about a mile and came to a stop and the truck hasn't run since (~3 weeks ago). I had a couple friends show up with a flat bed and haul us away...
So now the truck is sitting in my buddy's back yard (45 min from my house) and I go out there and work on it a few times a week.
My wife thinks that the truck is mad at me because we just bought a 2001 Sequoia...
Thanks in advance!
Rig Details
- Owned for 3 years
- 1992 FJ80
- 3fe
- Engine swap 30K miles ago (previous owner ran w/ out oil)
- ~150K miles on engine and chassis
- Radiator
- Speedometer cable
- Starter
- Engine will crank but won't start
- Doesn't seem to be any spark
- No check engine light when key turned to on
- Just the other night I noticed that most of the circuits work just fine, but there are a few dead circuits
- Won't come on
- Headlights
- Blower motor
- AC (light doesn't come on)
- Dash lights
- Works fine
- Hazard lights
- Marker lights
- The battery that was in the truck when it initially broke down was completely dead (leading me to believe that the alternator had failed) so I have charged the battery back up and it is strong as ever but the truck just cranks.
- Went through every single fuse I could find and test for continuity - All of the fuses that I'm aware of are the under hood fuse box and the fuse box under the steering column. There is power to both fuse boxes.
- There are a lot of mentions of fuesable links online, but I can't seem to find any of these "fuseable links"
- http://www.sdsysdesign.com/tlc/images/Strife/3FE EFI Diag.pdf - Found this troubleshooting guide in other ih8mud threads and followed it.
- 1. Check for +12 VDC on brass terminal screw in under hood fuse box. This terminal is located directly to the left of the main fuse and is a Phillips screw head.
- There is + 12 VDC on the brass terminal screw
- 2. If no +12 VDC in fuse box, then check fusible links off positive battery terminal. While the one in the picture is not stock, the links are going to the stock locations. 2 to the black plastic junction box and one to the connector.
- 3. If +12 VDC in fuse box and no CEL, then suspect EFI relay/fuse and associated wiring and contacts. Many have said that the wire from the EFI fuse to the EFI relay is undersized and is the root cause of all these problems. I’m not sure about this. At 2500 RPM I measured 6.25 amps across the load side of the EFI relay contacts. I believe the cause of the problem is related to the heat of the manifold combined with poor crimps on the connectors in the fuse box. Over time these connectors can become corroded and cause issues.
- I'm not really sure what to do with this step - I would like something more concise to look into.
- 4. Check for +12 on pin 8 (B+) on the CHECK CONNECTOR mounted on the right side of the fire wall. If +12 on pin 8 and still no CEL, then EFI circuit OK and problem is with ECU or related wiring.
- There is no +12 on pin 8 (B+)
- Coil/Ignitor was out of spec according to guide, tried a new one and it of course didn't solve the problem (since the check engine light isn't coming on = the computer isn't coming on)
- 1. Check for +12 VDC on brass terminal screw in under hood fuse box. This terminal is located directly to the left of the main fuse and is a Phillips screw head.
- Have tried a few parts as noted on other threads:
- New EFi relay
- New coil/ignitor
If you want to be even more confused, read the background of this issue. It almost seems to be 2 separate (but related?) issues that happened on consecutive days.
Background
So a few weeks ago I took my entire family (3 little kids and my wife) camping. We were dragging a tent trailer way up into the mountains. 3 hours from my house and about 45 minutes of pretty serious climbing (4 wheel low dragging a tent trailer up a mountain) the entire electrical system just blinked off.
There wasn't an obvious issue (fuse, loose battery, etc) so we setup camp right there by rolling the trainer off the side of the road and having a passer by pull the truck off the road. We were really luck to break down where we did.
I spent the evening troubleshooting the truck. I happened to have a jump start battery pack with me and I was able to start the truck with the jumper pack. The second I took the jumper battery off the engine would die. My assumption at this point was that I had a bad alternator and/or battery. So the next morning I got up and threw the trailer battery into the truck, jump started the truck engine w/ my jump pack and started to drive out. I was thrilled! (we had no cell service and it would have been a lot of work to get the truck and trailer out of there).
So, we get down off the mountain to the flat dirt road and it's hot and dusty, so I look at the voltage gauge and it looks ok (it's a bit above the 12V line) so I decide we can run the AC for a minute (against my better judgement). We rolled up all the windows and I cranked up the AC.
All was well and good for 10 minutes or so, but then the engine died. There were still dash lights, so this was a different failure from the previous evening. We coasted for about a mile and came to a stop and the truck hasn't run since (~3 weeks ago). I had a couple friends show up with a flat bed and haul us away...
So now the truck is sitting in my buddy's back yard (45 min from my house) and I go out there and work on it a few times a week.
My wife thinks that the truck is mad at me because we just bought a 2001 Sequoia...
Thanks in advance!