Well the 2uz swap may happen sooner than I planned if I cannot figure out what I broke!
I took the 80 on a local Christmas Tree Run with the Hgh Desert Cruiser club and this happened.
So at some point one of the battery hold down “J” hooks came off freeing the battery to bounce around.
While it bounced about it appears it started contacting the hood and welded the loose end of the battery hold down bar to the bottom of the hood. The continual contact of the terminals to the hood also started both the positive and negative winch cables on fire. The positive battery terminal also partially melted and the cable end came loose killing the truck at which time I could see smoke coming from under the hood. I sprang to action and pulled the hood release to see what the smoke was from and found the winch battery cables a blaze. I huffed and I puffed until the flames went out. Wow almost burned my Cruiser up?
I removed the winch cables, reconnect the positive cable, and used a bungee to secure the battery. After that, to my surprise, the truck started but not with out a few quirks.
It would not drive with the lights on and the few times I tried it would cause the check engine light to come on and the truck would start to sputter erratically and die. Turn the lights off and it would start back up just fine. It was getting dark so I drove it home without lights with one club member following me and one in front using their lights the rest of the way out.
I go the cruiser home and swapped out the fusible link with a new one hoping that it could be the problem, nothing changed. I also checked the battery and it is holding 12plus volts just fine and the alternator is charging as it should. I checked the fuses and everything checks out. I am not sure where to start digging next.
- It starts just fine as long as the light switch is off.
- With the 80 in Park the engine idles just as it did and revs up to high idle using the throttle pedal just as it did before.
- This morning if I put it in gear and turn the lights on the check engine light comes on and the rpms get erratic until it dies. It only takes a second or two.
- This morning I put it in reverse and it kept dyeing with the check engine light coming on.
I am not sure what to check from here. I would like to try and solve this before I do the engine swap but if is going to be costly I would rather sink the money into the 2uz swap.
Any ideas?