Not Starting (SOLVED, I Think)

[bobsnewdirection]

hi, my name is bob, been lurking for a while, i bought my mighty max a few months ago and have slowly been getting it up and running. its a 1990 2.6 4speed auto, i got mine off a farm in nj with only 36000 miles on it! after plugs, wires, new air filter(didnt have one,just a rag stuffed in it) oil change and a lot of cleaning, its ran great. this week it doesnt want to kick over now. gonna do a fuel filter if it doesnt rain tomorrow. any other suggestions as to stuff i should look at?

[camoit]

Did you put a cap and rotor in it? You might have got some water in something.

[bobsnewdirection]

i did do a cap and rotor, that was prob 6 weeks ago. it was running fine until last weekend. changed the fuel filter today,didnt seem to get any better. if i step on the gas a little bit, it starts up. i looked at the cap n rotor i installed, and that looked good.

[bobsnewdirection]

so its completly dead now. my dad thinks it could be an ignition module. any thoughts on that? he better be right cause its stuck out front of his house now! the truck cranks strong like it wants to start, either no spark or fuel? im hoping to get it back to my house tomorrow to try n work on it some more.

[Fordubishi]

Easy way to check spark. step 1- Remove spark plug wire from spark plug. Step 2- insert screwdriver into boot. Step 3- hold screwdriver about 1/2" from any metal of the engine. Step 4- have someone crank the engine. Step 5-look for spark between Screwdriver and engine, if no spark then the module is probably shot. CAUTION: HOLD SCREWDRIVER BY HANDLE BECAUSE IF THERE IS SPARK YOU'RE GOING TO GET ZAPPED!!!!

[bobsnewdirection]

thanks! ill be trying that tomorrow.

[bobsnewdirection]

so i has no spark, i took it to a budy of mine that has a shop, he has tried multiple things including coil, key tumbler, ignition mod, and im sure more that he has said. he thinks its a bad computor, or a short in the wiring. it has no spark and no fuel pressure. its killin me.

[camoit]

crank or cam position sensor is the first thing I would go to.

[bobsnewdirection]

im new to all of this, could u elaborate more please. i was a few days from ordering a complete lowering kit for the truck, guess its a good thing i didnt. ive seen some people have had the computer rebuilt, how much does that cost? i got a estimate from a shop for $600.

[PowerRam348]

here is a remanufactured computer for $354 http://www.usautoparts.net/catalog/?N=10108+4294963733+1607+11921+4294964709. this site has a lot of things for mighty max's and d-50's. i would definetly check your cam and crank sensors first before buying a new computer. hope the link helps.

[bobsnewdirection]

how do i find that?the crank sensor that is. my mechanic says there isnt one on the truck. i think im starting to piss him off

[bobsnewdirection]

and thanks powerram348, thats a lot less then what i was told.

[PowerRam348]

your welcome. check for a cam position sensor like camoit said. if you want to find a lot of links to most anything for our trucks look in the links section. let us know what happens.

[pennyman1]

If its a 2.6, it don't have a cam sensor or crank sensor. Is it carbed or fuel injected? if carbed, the computer controls the carb only. 1989 was the last year for the 2.6; if it is a 2.6, its been swapped; more likely its a 4g64 2.4 l - look at the tag on the firewall.

[lush90]

I used Foreign Auto Computer Repair in Zephyrhill, FL after they were highly recommended by a local Mitsubishi shop. He has been using them for years. With 2nd day postage, they rebuilt mine for a '90 3.0 for $215. and I had it back within a week. I've also called them for advice on a couple of other trucks and found them very helpful. I would definitely use them again.

Foreign Auto Computer Repair
37216 Chancey Rd
Zephyrhills, FL 33541
(813) 788-7671

[bobsnewdirection]

to pennyman1, u are correct, it is a 2.4, not a 2.6. it is fuel injected also.
and to lush90, that is an even better price. im glad ive been askin. so is there a crank sensor on a 2.4?

[joey_crandall]

the cam/cranks sensor is colled a photo optic sensing unit its inside the distributor. thats how it was on my 3.0 mighty max.

[bobsnewdirection]

i dont have an extra key to the truck and its at my friens shop, im looking for the ecu part number anyone know it? 1990 2.4l fuel injected auto 4 speed. ive been looking and came up with 3 different part numbers, trying to make sure i get the right one. md143273, md144743, and md155029. i think the last one is correct, but im not 100percent sure. i really cant wait to get my truck back to start lowering it.

[camoit]

Theres no marking on the computer box?

[bobsnewdirection]

i havent been to the truck for a week. grandma passed away and ive been doing family stuff. i wasnt sure if there was a number that someone knew. i went to the shop today, said its the comp. getting a new one at the end of the week hopefully.

[bobsnewdirection]

got back to the truck, got the computer # and ordered from foreign auto repair. they had the best price and good warranty. 18 month and $300 for the comp, then $50 return when i give them my comp. i should have it between mon-wed. thanks lush90 for sugesting them. the price was way better than anyone else i contacted.

[joey_crandall]

Any updates?

[bobsnewdirection]

computor was supposed to be here yesterday, post office left me a letter that i needed to sign for it, i went there and they cant find the box. im hoping they show up today with it, ive been waiting at the house, im not missing them again.

[bobsnewdirection]

found the computor at a different usps store, cant believe they had the wrong address to there own building. gave it to my friend, he said ill know if thats it tomorrow. im working so im leaving it in his hands. hope i get good news.

[bobsnewdirection]

so after putting the rebuilt ecu in, it started right up, ran for about 5mins, and is now doing the same thing it was before. i think we fried the new ecu.

[lush90]

Call the guys at Foreignautocomputer repair before you do anything else and see if he can point you in the right direction. He might be able to tell you what they repaired on it when you sent it in, which could tell you what to look for.

[bobsnewdirection]

i got one from them, havent sent mine in yet. i dont know if the rebuilt had an issue, or if my truck fried the new one. now i have 2 shot ecus at the shop. i was convinced this was gonna be it and id be back on the road.

[camoit]

Ask crandell what he has found on his. He found some plug or grounding thing, something like that. He went through like 5 ecus.

[bobsnewdirection]

so i may have good news. the truck still has spark and power to the fuel pump, it may have a bad fuel pump now. it ran for 5 mins or so when we put the ecu in, then died, we thought it killed the ecu. checked it today and it has spark, but no fuel so it sounded the same. im getting closer.

[joey_crandall]

the wires that went to my cps were backwards, like someone pulled the wires out of the plug and installed them wrong. have you checked to see if you can get fuel through the pump jumper. its a single whit wire under the dash around the fuse box area and it just has a blank male plug in one end. and yeah i had mine rebuilt 3 times.

[bobsnewdirection]

i didnt know there was a jumper. i will try that tomorrow. did you have to pay each time the comp was rebuilt? mine says it has a 18 month warranty, im not sure if theyll fix it for free if i killed it.

[bobsnewdirection]

so its been a while since my last post, the new ecu seems to be good, my friend thinks its the distributer now. we ordered that a last monday, it was supposed to be in by fri, still no word on it. im hoping this is the last part im waiting on. dying to get it back

[camoit]

You said it was getting spark right??? If so then I would look at the fuel system. Start at the relay and work forward from there. Use the jumper and make the pump run. That will reduce one thing from the puzzle.

[bobsnewdirection]

its back! so it needed a new computer and it needed the distributer rebuilt. what a pain in the ass. i had to move a fridge and pick up 2 christmas trees last weekend. not easy with a chevy blazer. glad its back, soon as christmas is over i might be able to get to lowering it.

[bobsnewdirection]

i read on here somewhere that when something is fixed, to close the thread, how do i do that?

[camoit]

i read on here somewhere that when something is fixed, to close the thread, how do i do that?

That is in the for sale section. Other threads just stay open, so someone later on can ask more questions.

[joey_crandall]

hey the second time the guy thought it was something he did, so he warrenteed it, and the time after that he did it for free for some reason. so all in all it was still $300 bucks for the inspections and repairs when he could have charged me $900.

[bobsnewdirection]

well its dead again. died on me on my way home from a christmas party at midnight. i did make it to central jersey and all the way back minus 1 mile so its not the worst place to be. is started chugging like it was running out of gas, i had more then a half a tank in it, then it stalled and wouldnt kick over. it shouldnt be the fuel filter because i changed that 2 months ago, it prob only has 300 miles on it since that. gonna try to see if its the fuel pump, im hoping its that and not all the stuff i went thru with the computer.

[bobsnewdirection]

got it back home, im going with its the fuel pump. i banged on the tank and it started right up. i guess soon as i have some cash again, it will be running. for a truck with so few miles, im suprised im having these problems. my last mighty max had 150000 and i never had any more issues then it burning thru starters every 2 years

[camoit]

So now you need a fuel pump? It wasn't making any noise when you turned the key, or tell you shook it around? Not just a loose connection or somthing?

[Fordubishi]

That's typical for electric fuel pumps.Running them low or sitting for a long time they get either rust or a varnish on them, it will work fine when cold but as the contaminants cause friction they heat up,the metal expands and you lose pressure do to increased gap between the impellers and the housing. New fuel pump should be around $40.00

[camoit]

Did you get it running again??

[bobsnewdirection]

sorry, ive been busy remodeling my parents house. i havent even looked at it since christmas morning. im pretty sure its the pump. might just give it to a shop, its cold and im busy as hell at the moment. this is the first ive been online since then. rewire at my fams should be roughed in tomorrow, might get a chance to play thurs.

[bobsnewdirection]

i got a chance to play with the truck today, it fired right up and ran great. i couldnt get it to bog down and sputter like it did 2 weeks ago. took it to my friends shop, hes gonna drop the tank and clean it out. im letting him decide if we re putting a new pump in or not. i say yes if the tanks down just do it. what u think?

[bobsnewdirection]

got the truck back. it ran fine the whole time the shop had it. he wants me to drive it til it stalls again. thats a little nerve racking, waiting to break down. cant wait for spring to actually start playin with the truck. its under snow right now.

[camoit]

yes put in the pump. Did you do it??

[bobsnewdirection]

i said do the pump, he wanted real proof that it was the pump. ill prob do it myself at this point. gonna drain the tank on sat and see if any debris is in it.

[camoit]

Proof,,, he was right there... it's electric things can just go wacky at any time.
I did rename your thread to (SOLVED Kind'a)
I hope you get it nailed down. Hell, you have checked dam near everything you can think of, except the glove box latch.

[bobsnewdirection]

your not kidding. it starts every time now so im not as concerned as i was when it was the comp and distributer. ill get it all figured out soon enough. the weather is supposed to be in the 50s this weekend so im gonna work on it, not gonna have to many days like that for a while. i like the 'sort of' also.

[bobsnewdirection]

so i drained all the gas out of the truck, there was a lot of crud in the tank. i ran a gallon thru, looked at it, saw more crap, so i ran another gallon thru. hope that helps a bit.

[camoit]

Was it rust?

[bobsnewdirection]

i dont think there was any rust. lots of sandy looking pieces. it was hard to tell if it was rusty, the bottom of the truck has 1/4 in of dirt and grim that i havent been able to remove. the gas kind of dribbled off the tank and took grime with it. the two clean gas flushes i did, i wiped a ton of scum off to see how clean the gas looked. i also put lucas gas treatment in the tank when i filled it.

[bobsnewdirection]

i ran it for about an hour and didnt break down anywhere, so its good til i die again. when it does, im doing the pump. i dont plan on driving it much during the winter anyway, my blazer is 4 wheel so a much better in the snow. ill do the pump in spring unless it fails before that

[bobsnewdirection]

drove it to work today and it ran fine, on my way home and it started to sputter. got another half a mile and it died. i had to ask a verizon truck driver for something heavy to bang the tank and they gave me a wheel chock! it was heavy and did the job. got it to the shop where the mechanic told me he couldnt do anything with it til it screwed up, it died as i rolled in the lot! happiest ive ever been about my car dying. now he has to deal with the 10 gallons of gas it has in it instead of the 2 i gave it with him last time.

[camoit]

Maybe he will change the pump.

[bobsnewdirection]

Just got it back again. Hoping to have a running truck for more than a few days. It started and ran great back to my house. Not going to push my luck this weekend because it's snowing and raining. I don't feel like walking home in that. So it got a new pump, and the tank was checked. No rust and most of the debris was cleaned out when I drained it 2 weeks ago. The screen on the old pump was a little dirty, but not terrible. I was hoping for it to look beat so I'd have a little more confidence

[camoit]

at least the screen is doing it's job. Let us know if it's fixed and I'll change the title to "Solved, I hope"

[bobsnewdirection]

I just got in from beating the living hell out of the truck! I drove it as hard as I could trying to see if it would die. It was a damn fun ride! Burned the tires at every light and whipped it thru all the twisty roads around. So far so good.

[camoit]

Glad to here it's working and not dying. Now it if can stay this way. I'll bet it was the pump.
Now that you have started posting, isn't this more fun then lurking around the net? OH are you going to start a build thread?
Now how about some pictures of the monster.

[bobsnewdirection]

I'll start a build thread as soon as I start making improvements. I'm happy it's running at the moment. It's got a kettle pep to it now! I found a pic of me and my 88 a few days ago. I'll post that and some pics of the currently running 1990.