13B-T Not Starting??

[cult45]

This September I'm shooting a film about two blokes in Western QLD who foolishly go off the beaten track, are ill-equipped and wind up at the mercy of the elements. Not such a good thing when you're in the middle of that kind of terrain.

Part of the story - as much as it kills me - is that they wake up one morning to find the Landcruiser doesn't want to fire. I'm fairly pedantic when it comes to accuracy in film and attention to detail and so I want a problem with the 13B-T that would stop it from firing. I'm thinking something that can't be fixed on the side of the road, perhaps something that requires parts? Parts that you wouldn't normally carry. And not something cliche'd like a flat battery.

We will be using my BJ74 for the shoot and will be shooting about 45 mins west of Bowen on a friends cattle property - about 10 000 acres. A place called Pretty Bend. Tough country, dry as fxxx, dusty as s*** and no water for miles. Great location.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Hulsty]

Catastrophic fuel pump failure or to a less extent block fuel filter or the shut off lever bumped, head gasket leak, filling the cylinders over night and kicking a rod out when you crank it or.....

 

[roscoFJ73]

Use a jeep instead.You can just scream "its fxxxed" and everyone will understand without much need for an explanation. LOL

Maybe hire Huslty as your Technical Advisor.

An alternative scenario
Stupid driver puts a hole in the tank and overnight it drains out leaving them with no fuel.
When they go to their jerry can,they find stupid passenger has filled it with petrol.
Big arguement with each blaming the other for their predicament.

 

[cult45]

The two MWB experts are back..

Thanks again guys, I'm heading towards a fuelling issue for sure now. And if I could afford to hire Hulsty I'd have to have enough budget to pay myself first! This gig's borrowed, stolen and lent all the way

A bit further down the road I may hit you up for some more details if that's ok. You'll both get Technical Advisor credits [so I'll eventually need you actual names] and if the film turns out any good I'll send you a copy.

'Use a Jeep..' Haha

 

[Hulsty]

ahahahha sounds good to me I have plenty of other odd ball ideas on why it wouldnt start, if there was a vac line swap at the shut off solenoid everytime you started the car it would shut down after ~2seconds once it built vacuum and closed the intake shutter (learnt from experience hahaah)

 

[Radd Cruisers]

I'd say shutdown VSV is not working properly. And as Hulsty says, if you're getting a crank and run for two seconds, then a shut down, it's the VSV.

~John

 

[Mark W]

This September I'm shooting a film about two blokes in Western QLD who foolishly go off the beaten track, are ill-equipped and wind up at the mercy of the elements. Not such a good thing when you're in the middle of that kind of terrain.

Part of the story - as much as it kills me - is that they wake up one morning to find the Landcruiser doesn't want to fire. I'm fairly pedantic when it comes to accuracy in film and attention to detail and so I want a problem with the 13B-T that would stop it from firing. I'm thinking something that can't be fixed on the side of the road, perhaps something that requires parts? Parts that you wouldn't normally carry. And not something cliche'd like a flat battery.

We will be using my BJ74 for the shoot and will be shooting about 45 mins west of Bowen on a friends cattle property - about 10 000 acres. A place called Pretty Bend. Tough country, dry as fxxx, dusty as s*** and no water for miles. Great location.

Thanks in advance!

Starter solenoid (contact) failure.

Not an uncommon problem, and while sometimes it can be coaxed into working with a firm tap on the solenoid, other times it requires parts that most don't (but should) carry in the glove box.

It will sneak up on you without any need for mistakes made during maintenance. It is a simple failure of a component that is not easily bypassed in the field by a savvy wrencher.

A real McGiever could come up with a work around I expect.... so a burnt up and destroyed starter motor due to a worn ignition switch which kept the starter engaged on it's last startup would be a bit more catastrophic.

Neither of these problems call for the characters to be idiots to suffer the breakdown or be unable to repair it.


Mark...

 

[cult45]

In an odd turn of events now Toyota Australia is keen to sponsor my film - so far discussions are about support vehicles [for equipment] and money. Of course they won't come on board if the bloody truck breaks down now will they?

So what type of catastrophic failure do the Technical Advisors now suggest other than a failed Toyota part? So far my ideas are two staked tyres but only one spare [though I'd consider driving on the bare rims if I had to - so this is not my best choice], a busted clutch [once again you can drive it clutchless like a crash-box]..

What about a large rock punctures the tank and all the fuel drains out? My tank has a bloody bash-plate under it, do they all?

A sized bearing? Could this stop you from getting out of some tough country?

Thanks in advance Advisors..

PS. This is movie land so until the cheque's in the bank or the support vehicles are in my possession it don't mean nuttin.

 

[Hulsty]

siezed wheel bearings, flat tyes, rims cracking and failing, anything you can imagine really

 

[Clint79]

Id say driving at night , passengers asleep and drivers is also quite fatigued, driver falls asleep while driving vehicle vias of the gravel track or road, plows through the scub ,tree branch or stake through the radiator,so its not Toyota fault its the drivers lol.

 

[stayalert]

The two MWB experts are back..

Thanks again guys, I'm heading towards a fuelling issue for sure now. And if I could afford to hire Hulsty I'd have to have enough budget to pay myself first! This gig's borrowed, stolen and lent all the way

A bit further down the road I may hit you up for some more details if that's ok. You'll both get Technical Advisor credits [so I'll eventually need you actual names] and if the film turns out any good I'll send you a copy.

'Use a Jeep..' Haha

I believe the budget description....Last photo I saw of this guy he had socks but no shoes!

 

[Behemoth60]

In an odd turn of events now Toyota Australia is keen to sponsor my film - so far discussions are about support vehicles [for equipment] and money. Of course they won't come on board if the bloody truck breaks down now will they?

This actually makes it much easier... I thought about this long and hard, and could not imagine anything that would happen suddenly that would prevent a half-way prepared bush mechanic from at least limping the vehicle back to safety.

But here's an interesting idea... Microbial Contaminated Diesel fuel.
Perhaps in desperation they fill up from a smelly old barrel of diesel fuel, and then the engine sputters and dies.... the filters clog up, the injectors clog up, the fuel doesn't flow.. It might start, may idle terribly for a few seconds, and die. Our hero's are smart enough to have a spare filter, which they put on, and get another 2 miles down the road, but that one is clogged too... black-green goo fills the fuel lines. The engine is contaminated with algae. It won't run no more.

 

[Traveller]

Perhaps an electro magnetic filed from a passing ufo?

Sent from my iPad using IH8MUD... fun starts where the road ends

 

[tim753]

The new common rail cruiser toyota donates as a support vehicle would probably make a better star for the movie...

You fill up at a less than reputable servo, the next day the fuel pump or injectors grenade on your 1VD-FTE

BJ74 saves the day?

 

[cult45]

The new common rail cruiser toyota donates as a support vehicle would probably make a better star for the movie...

You fill up at a less than reputable servo, the next day the fuel pump or injectors grenade on your 1VD-FTE

BJ74 saves the day?

Haha! Nice.. Although Toyota still wouldn't sponsor it. At this stage I've rewritten the script with dodgy outback fuel as the cause, thanks to Behemoth60. It's so much neater plot-wise and can be 'fudged' from a practical filming perspective.

Billy wrestles in the engine bay and POP, yanks out the fuel filter. He holds it up to his face, the black-green residue inside means only one thing: contaminated fuel. Billy looks worriedly at James.

'I think we've got a problem..'

 

[cult45]

Oh, that reminds me, from a practical shooting aspect, how would you fudge this? We are shooting literally in the middle of the outback and I don't want to take some irreversible action and need to tow the truck into town after the shoot.

We want to have some shots of the characters cranking the engine and it not firing, so is there a simple thing that can be done and undone to allow us to portray this 'breakdown' accurately and then drive outta there after the shoot is done? Anything really as long as it's simple, can be done with basic tools, is reversible and will allow the engine to crank over without actually firing.

Cheers!

 

[tim753]

When I leave my 12HT parked in a dodgy part of town I put an elastic band around the stop lever of the fuel pump. You can crank till the battery is flat and it will never fire. Does the 13BT have a similar stop lever thingy (see picture)??

 

[Hulsty]

Sure does!

 

[cult45]

THanks heaps tim753 for that, and Hulsty for confirming. I haven't sighted this - been too busy writing! - but will check it out and use this method on the shoot.

 

[Behemoth60]

When I leave my 12HT parked in a dodgy part of town I put an elastic band around the stop lever of the fuel pump. You can crank till the battery is flat and it will never fire. Does the 13BT have a similar stop lever thingy (see picture)??

In addition to the above, a bit more drama might be found in letting the engine run out of fuel... open the bleed screw and let it run until it runs out of fuel, then when it dies, close the screw and start filming. It should run terrible, if at all. It might fire on one cylinder, sputter cough and die. Eventually it just wont fire. When filming is done, just bleed the fuel system back to normal, and drive home.