Hello all,
after lurking these forums for a while, I have finally thrown in the towel and joined! First off, a big thanks to ih8mud and the members that provide so much information and knowledge! I have learned so much from these forums and feel much more confident when dealing with my cruiser.
Before you begin, there is a TLDR version at the bottom of post. Sorry for the lengthy text, just trying to explain my issue as best as I can. Any feedback,information, and comments are greatly appreciated!
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On to the problem...
I use my LC as my daily driver (not offroading unfortunately. NOT YET at least) and normally drive around 125 miles a week. Up until 3 weeks ago, everything seemed fine besides my leaking valve cover gasket. Most of my attention was focused on that until I noticed that my truck started losing power/drive while driving to/from work, especially on upward slopes.
It doesn't happen all the time and it occurs during different speeds. At first I thought it only occurred when driving on the freeway but then I started noticing it at low speeds. Sometimes driving on the freeway feels great - then next thing I know, I feel the loss of power kick in and my truck struggles to reach 50 - 60 mph. On a few rare occasions, I noticed some white smoke coming from above the DS wheel. After talking about it with my dad, we were thinking it was just oil burning from the leaky valve cover gasket (there is also a strong burning smell at times, which this theory would explain).
After researching on these forums, I was leaning towards something to do with the fuel pump or filter, sensors, spark plugs, or the distributor. As far as loss of drive was concerned, these seemed to be the things I read about most.
Some of the other symptoms that I started noticing (besides the loss of drive) were:
1.) my brake pedal was acting up - sometimes the pedal had to travel a longer distance towards the floor for the brakes to engage (which was normal) and sometimes the brake pedal felt very stiff and required little distance to engage.
2.) When taking my foot off the gas pedal, the truck seemed to slow down very rapidly. Acceleration was slower than normal and decreasing speed happened much more quickly. ( it almost seemed like I was riding the brakes constantly - like they were always engaged)
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THEN, this happened! Driving home from work on friday evening, everything feels great. Hit some traffic and slow down to about 10 mph for a little while. Once I get out of traffic, I try to get back up to speed ~65mph and I can't get her over 40 mph. It
sucked! I threw on the hazards and had to pull off on the next exit. I stop in a hotel parking lot and the thing is smoking like crazy. See videos for more details/evidence.
After a nice conversation with pops ~15 min, I decide to try to make it back home which is only about 4 miles away. Pulling out of parking lot feels fine. Hop on freeway and I get it up to 65/70 no problem.
Currently, she is sitting in the alleyway behind my house, waiting to be worked on
After researching the forums since Friday night, I have definitely decided that a front axle rebuild is in store, along with possibly replacing the rotors and brake pads.
I'm coming to you guys for help because I just wanted to see your thoughts on if a front axle rebuild/rotors/brakes would fix my problem with the decrease in power/drive. I understand that the smoke, grime, grease (seen in videos/pics) is most likely from faulty axle seals/bearings/gaskets/etc. but does this cover the loss of drive issue?
Could the loss in drive be from something to do with the brakes being stuck? Is that why my brake pedal feels stiff/soft at different times?
I will definitely hit up "The One" they call CDan (insert bowing emoticon here) for the rebuild kit and possibly the rotors, 100 series brake pads.
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TL;DR - Loss of drive/power (can't reach normal speeds). Need to perform front axle rebuild. This will fix the grease/grime problem around my knuckles but will this fix a loss of power? Brake pedal stiff at times and soft at others. Sometimes feels like my brakes are constantly engaged somewhat.
after lurking these forums for a while, I have finally thrown in the towel and joined! First off, a big thanks to ih8mud and the members that provide so much information and knowledge! I have learned so much from these forums and feel much more confident when dealing with my cruiser.
Before you begin, there is a TLDR version at the bottom of post. Sorry for the lengthy text, just trying to explain my issue as best as I can. Any feedback,information, and comments are greatly appreciated!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On to the problem...
I use my LC as my daily driver (not offroading unfortunately. NOT YET at least) and normally drive around 125 miles a week. Up until 3 weeks ago, everything seemed fine besides my leaking valve cover gasket. Most of my attention was focused on that until I noticed that my truck started losing power/drive while driving to/from work, especially on upward slopes.
It doesn't happen all the time and it occurs during different speeds. At first I thought it only occurred when driving on the freeway but then I started noticing it at low speeds. Sometimes driving on the freeway feels great - then next thing I know, I feel the loss of power kick in and my truck struggles to reach 50 - 60 mph. On a few rare occasions, I noticed some white smoke coming from above the DS wheel. After talking about it with my dad, we were thinking it was just oil burning from the leaky valve cover gasket (there is also a strong burning smell at times, which this theory would explain).
After researching on these forums, I was leaning towards something to do with the fuel pump or filter, sensors, spark plugs, or the distributor. As far as loss of drive was concerned, these seemed to be the things I read about most.
Some of the other symptoms that I started noticing (besides the loss of drive) were:
1.) my brake pedal was acting up - sometimes the pedal had to travel a longer distance towards the floor for the brakes to engage (which was normal) and sometimes the brake pedal felt very stiff and required little distance to engage.
2.) When taking my foot off the gas pedal, the truck seemed to slow down very rapidly. Acceleration was slower than normal and decreasing speed happened much more quickly. ( it almost seemed like I was riding the brakes constantly - like they were always engaged)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THEN, this happened! Driving home from work on friday evening, everything feels great. Hit some traffic and slow down to about 10 mph for a little while. Once I get out of traffic, I try to get back up to speed ~65mph and I can't get her over 40 mph. It
sucked! I threw on the hazards and had to pull off on the next exit. I stop in a hotel parking lot and the thing is smoking like crazy. See videos for more details/evidence. After a nice conversation with pops ~15 min, I decide to try to make it back home which is only about 4 miles away. Pulling out of parking lot feels fine. Hop on freeway and I get it up to 65/70 no problem.
Currently, she is sitting in the alleyway behind my house, waiting to be worked on
After researching the forums since Friday night, I have definitely decided that a front axle rebuild is in store, along with possibly replacing the rotors and brake pads. I'm coming to you guys for help because I just wanted to see your thoughts on if a front axle rebuild/rotors/brakes would fix my problem with the decrease in power/drive. I understand that the smoke, grime, grease (seen in videos/pics) is most likely from faulty axle seals/bearings/gaskets/etc. but does this cover the loss of drive issue?
Could the loss in drive be from something to do with the brakes being stuck? Is that why my brake pedal feels stiff/soft at different times?
I will definitely hit up "The One" they call CDan (insert bowing emoticon here) for the rebuild kit and possibly the rotors, 100 series brake pads.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TL;DR - Loss of drive/power (can't reach normal speeds). Need to perform front axle rebuild. This will fix the grease/grime problem around my knuckles but will this fix a loss of power? Brake pedal stiff at times and soft at others. Sometimes feels like my brakes are constantly engaged somewhat.
I am a full time teacher so I kind of lucked up having Thanksgiving break to sort of diagnose and research the problem. It doesn't help that my gf and I are heading north Tues. afternoon towards Yosemite and Mammoth which will use some of my precious funds 
