Bragging rights over. 3FE quit and won't restart (1 Viewer)

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Spook50

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Spokane, WA
Driving my kids back to their mother's house tonight, made it up the big hill to within two blocks of her house and when I accelerated it said absolutely not. When I pushed the clutch in it stopped completely. No wire with me to run a diagnostic so having it towed to my house so I can troubleshoot it later. I can hear the fuel pump running, ignition diagnostic on the Mallory box is good, and the pump and fuel filter are both less than a year old.

Will be doing real troubleshooting tomorrow and Sunday. Hopefully it's an easy find & fix. So maddening the one time it finally happens is on Christmas.
 
Perhaps it just failed when Santa flew over...like happens with UFOs. Good luck. Merry tomorrow.
At this point a full on abduction and probing would be preferable to tonight's experience. Especially with as obsessive over maintenance as I am. Makes my skin crawl.
 
Loose wire
Possibly. Roadside troubleshooting with kiddos in the back after dark only gives me a chance to check for obvious big causes.

Crossing my fingers it's something easy. Hell even NOT easy would be okay as long as it's not the damn fuel pump. What a chore.
 
One of mine did that once,it was a loose wire over by the brake master cylinder,don’t remember which one .too long ago. It’s going to be some thing simple.
 
I’d check fusible link first.
It's definitely on the list. I couldn't get too good of a look last night so it'll be checked later today.

One thing I did manage to check last night was the diagnostic LED on my Mallory box and it showed everything at least upstream of it was good, so that tells me the pickup in the distributor, ECU and igniter (which is triggering the Mallory) are all working right. Coil and cap/rotor are two possibilities that I'll look into.

Right now I'm just spitballing until I actually get into it and look after I get back home. Coming up with a list of possibilities to check out.
 
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Have you verified spark at the plug and fuel at the rail yet? Also I’m assuming it stopped running but the starter still engages and spins the engine?
 
Have you verified spark at the plug and fuel at the rail yet? Also I’m assuming it stopped running but the starter still engages and spins the engine?
Yep, though haven't had a chance yet to check spark or fuel yet. Didn't even sputter out. Just flat stopped like I had shut it off. I've been wanting to get a fuel pressure gauge anyway so I guess this will prompt me to go ahead and do it.
 
Well no fault code, but the coil (Mallory 29440) ohmed out at 11.04KΩ on the secondary winding, where Mallory specs it at 11.3KΩ. I don't think this is the problem, but I'm trying to find a tolerance so I can verify if it's actually good or not per their specs. If I cant find that, I'll do a live test of the coil to ensure it's putting out spark.

Meanwhile, it's break time so I can go get some fuel for my diesel heater because the temperature's dropping!

While I'm out I'll be picking up a fuel pressure tester since I have yet to verify (or eliminate) the possibility of fuel starvation. I suspect NOT, because it didn't sputter at all and just flat shut off but I want to be sure. The local Vatozone has an Innova 3640. Having never really dug into my fuel system beyond maintaining the surge damper and replacing the fuel filter & pump, I need to figure out how I can connect it up and properly test my system. Open to any advice in that department!

Sure wish I had my truck in the garage :mad:
 
Did you try starter fluid? That will decide if it's a fuel or spark issue.
 
Did you try starter fluid? That will decide if it's a fuel or spark issue.
I haven't actually. Talk about a "well duh" thing to be reminded of. Wish that would've occurred to me while I was out grabbing the fuel pressure tester. My GF had to give me a ride so if the snow lets up I'll see if I can convince her to take me out again to get some. I am suspecting spark though, so that'll help me confirm yes or no.

Cap and rotor look more worn than I would expect, but not so much that it would've caused a sudden stall, and no damage I could find. Going to order a new OEM pair though and swap it in when it gets here regardless. The ones on there now are Standard brand, which have a good reputation (used a lot of their stuff on my old Plymouth with no complaints), but they're the only non-OEM part I have that isn't some sort of upgrade over stock.
 
Was it raining or snowing when your truck died?
 
Was it raining or snowing when your truck died?
Neither at that point. Snow kicked in while waiting for the tow truck at 2200 on Christmas Eve.

My poor baby...
20211224_221510.jpg
 
Oh you have GOT to be effin kidding me....

Banjo.jpg


For anyone who doesn't already know, that's the banjo fitting for the fuel pressure tester, broken off in my fuel rail at only hand tight with a glove holding a socket (not using the ratchet) to grip it.

This just gets better and better.

I need scotch.
 
Is that a Toyota part? I’m not familiar with the 3F-E.
The broken fitting isn't. It's meant to be threaded into place instead of a bolt where a banjo fitting normally goes (in this case the rail outlet for the cold start injector). Instead of a hex head there's a schrader valve for connecting the test gauge.

Going to try to order an OTC one in hopes I can get it here by tomorrow afternoon. Not holding my breath the way my luck has gone with this though.

Just looked at the box the tester (rented) came in. OEMTools. Chinese crap. Imagine my shock.
 
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I have an OTC fuel pressure gage kit. Works well and seems pretty robust.
 

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