Shuttering and dying after mud (1 Viewer)

[Steve569]

So I got a little too brave and got stuck in a pretty deep mud hole, nose down water filling the cabin. And once I got pulled out I notice the belt came off to the ac pump. But seemed to idle fine, and I couldn't get the belt on so I left it off.

I noticed my battery was not charging so the car would die, but once I scraped the mud off the belt tensionor the battery held the charge.

So to get out of the area I was in i have to drive up a very steep hill when I tried to drive up it seemed to lose power. So I had to drive around the mud hole nearly tipping.. Oops. On flat ground it shifted and the power seemed normal.

But about 30 mins later hit started sputtering on me and died. Intake seemed clean and dry, oil did not seem to have water in it. So jumped it and kept driving. As the day went on I would shift from 4low to 4high, no pin mod, but the center lock would not disengage. And also the power loss seemed to get worse. The worse is the last dry hill I went up I was doing about 2000 rpm, it would not go any higher, but I was just crawling about walking pace.

So I stopped running it for the day and towed it to a lot and left it for about a week. I had to jump it and give the starter a smack to get it going but it seemed to idle fine.

But when I would put it in D it would die. So I ended up shifting to 1 to get it rolling then up to drive. And I did well for awhile. Ran long enough to air the tires up and get to my gfs about. 10 miles away but the last 2 miles of the trip I started losing power and it would die on me unless I put in in N and gave it gas. But the last little hill up to my gfs more power loss and I had to crawl up it. And it did not seem like the coolant was heating up.

I tried working on it this weekend and I couldn't even get it started. Even tho the battery was strong. And I just have no idea where to start guys.

 

[JohnVee]

Check engine light? Running rich code? Some of those same symptoms happened to me after taking a little salt water bath. Getting ready to work on it now. I'm suspecting some issues with some grounds. Cleaning the MAF helped greatly with the shuddering and wanting to die. Now it idles fine but runs rough as hell for awhile while driving until it warms up.

 

[Steve569]

I was thinking of cleaning the MAF(I know on the 80 it has a diff name) no check engine light tho as far as I saw. I am hopping something just got knocked loose as well

 

[baldilocks]

How high was the water in the engine compartment? How long was it submerged? There is a good reason this site is called IH8MUD.

 

[Steve569]

It was at the bottom of the head lights. But the truck was angled downward so not the whole truck was that deep. I will up load pic when I get home. I would say about 20 mins. I don't care for mud either, I like the off roading where I actually go some place. But the off road park I went to was huge and had a ton of trails. The mud was more just random in spots.

 

[Bardiya]

Check the distributor and leads for water or moisture.

 

[Steve569]

I did pop off a few of the leads at the distributor, the seemed clean and dry. But it is coated in mud pretty well. But it started raining so I didn't crack it open

 

[baldilocks]

What happens when you turn the key? Do you get all the warning lights including the CEL?

 

[Fj81]

There is a video of a guy on youtube with an fzj80, up in Gorman, CA. He hit a mud hole and his truck cut out. Ended up being moisture in the Dizzy.

 

[Steve569]

I believe I get all the lights when I turn the key. Looks like I need to bust that dizzy open

 

[mct75]

TPS

 

[baldilocks]

^^^^^ this was my first guess based on info you provided in post #1.

 

[Malleus]

If you're planning on swimming in the future, I would recommend some dielectric compound for all the sealed switch connections, such as the distributor.

If it was really underwater for 20min, you're likely looking at a thorough cleaning anyway. That might just solve your problem.

 

[izzyandsue]

Dielectric grease on all connectors is great prevention. Silicone spray on the outside could work as well. If the motor was running when you got in the water, the fan blades could have picked up a lot of water and soaked the engine too even though the water level was below the components.

This is the video mentioned above from Overland Bound

 

[Steve569]

Finally getting to it, thanks for the replies and the link! That definitely looked like my engine at the time but its been drying for awhile now so when I took the cap off there was not really and wet mud. One plug did seem to be pretty muddy also the cap had this strange scrape in it.

 

[Steve569]

Still not cranking tho. The battery seems good, but jumping also didn't help. Could the starter be full of mud?

 

[BruceFZJ80]

Might be that water got into the spark plug tubes, I'd pull the wires off the plugs and see if its wet and muddy in there but LEAVE the plugs in. if you find a mess use an air compressor to get the water out and dry the area as best you can.

 

[Steve569]

Thanks! But the plugs were clean. Back at it again today.

 

[Steve569]

So I just pulled the starter and jumped it on the ground to check operation. It would spin but not extend. So gave it some love to get it to extend, then rejumped it and had it working as it should.

But when I got it back into the car it would not turn over. So what time for a replace? It is the 2.2kw start so I don't wanna go smaller does anyone have rebuild kits?

 

[Steve569]

So I am now inspecting the injector 6 wiring and the harness by the EGR valve. Does anyone have and idea where this broken connector goes?