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[LiL Bastard]

Well today I just purchased a single cab 89 Mighty Max. I'll get pics of it up asap. It is in decent condition. Has the infamous lifter tick at idle. 5 speed swap has been done by previous owner. Runs good, once I get it home I'll start to really get a feel for what I bought.

Plans for the truck at this time are unknown. I'll probably just drive and use it as a daily till I figure out what I want to do with it. I'm sure I'll find some mods to do and things to fix, add some comforts, since it is a basic single cab, not even A/C.

Anyways I got some reading and researching to do.

[DroppedMitsu]

Welcome to the site, glad to see another mighty max owner.

[LiL Bastard]

Well I got it home and discovered a few things. All ways test drive before you buy. I broke that rule because I bought it on my lunch brake. I was looking for a Mighty Max for a long time and I finally found one and I knew it was comming home with me. Ow well my own fault. On the way home the truck died. It stalled at the light and not enough juice in the battery to restart. So I push it to the side of the road and jump start it off the Jeep, keep driving off the alternater. The gas gauge does not work, I ran out of gas. Oh well.

So finally I am on my way home and it won't go past 3500 RPM, starts to brake up really bad. So I make it home and throw it in the parking spot. I think I know what the problem is. The vent from the valve cover is t-d to a small open filter and a vacumn line from the carb. It has a massive sucking sound and propbably is a giant vacumn leak. I only looked at it for a few minutes. I've never seen a set up like that before. I had to go to bed and get up for work. I am at work now and have pool league tonight, so I won't get any real time with it till tommorrow before work. I want it on the road next week as soon as I get this issue sorted out.

Also no speedometer probably since it is a 5 speed swap. I'll look into that later, first I need to sort out my battery issue and the not wanting to rev issue.

[pennyman1]

The speedo issue is the cable - the 5 speed and auto are different ends at the tranny - it screws in but the cable end is smaller for the auto and won't engage the gear.The valve cover vented through a filter is ok, but plug the vacuum line to see if that is the leak. There is more that could be wrong, but I need to know if it has the stock carb or an aftermarket one like a weber, and what motor it has.

[LiL Bastard]

Thank you for the info about the speedo cable, I figured I needed to find a manual cable. As for the valve cover vent, I knew that was okay, I got confused why someone would T a vent and a vacumn line together. Also I need to figure out what engine it has and what carb it has. If I take a couple pics you could probably identify the engine. Or I'll see if the info is somewhere on the truck. Right now I just need time to play with it and see what is what.

Another thing I got to check is it has EL Cheapo gauges added. I read somewhere here that the temp sensor has a affect on how it runs. I don't know if that is just for a certain engine w/ carb or fuel injected. But I'll check to see if they just didn't cut the wires to add the temp gauge. I also read that there is a box in the engine compartment with vacumn that can leak and is important.

If it still don't run right then it will have to wait till I can get it in my garage and do a proper diagonsis. Compression, leak down, timing, fuel pressure, search high and low for vacumn leaks, ignition, yada yada.

If the carb is stock I'll check for signs of tampering, I've read that the stock carbs are really finicky, and don't like to be messed with. If it has been messed with I'll just have to go the Weber route and do a electric pump. I assume no worse than doing a Weber on a 22R

[LiL Bastard]

Now all I need is time and I'll get it right.

[LiL Bastard]

Well I had a few minutes today before I went out. I plugged that vacumn line, it does run better, it is a line that goes down below the carb. I didn't have time to see exactly where it went. The stock temp gauge still reads, the after market one is plugged into the top port with it's own sender. It appears to be all factory, sticker on the hood says 2.0 liter. It still breaks up around 3500, I wonder if the auto and manual have different timing. It goes good till 3500 then breaks up and doesn't want to go any more. I only had time to go around the block once.

[camoit]

fuel filter..

[LiL Bastard]

Not a bad idea, I did run it out of gas. I'll go do that and let you know if it helps.

[pennyman1]

On the 87 up motors with the stock carb, that box on the fender tells the computer how to adjust due to engine load, etc. Open the box up and check all the hoses are good - a leak in there will cause that kind of power loss - had an 88 2.6 ram 50 sportcab that the hoses went while I was going to Columbus OH from Pittsburgh - not a fun drive, especially with a full load of engine blocks and parts from conquest motors. You may need to trace the vacuum lines to see what else was rerouted when the fool tied the vac line to the breather - this problem is why he sold the truck I'm sure.

[LiL Bastard]

Most likely. I'll start checking those hoses and get back to you. Also I left my camera at work, so pics will come on Monday or Tuesday at the latest. Even though I am having these minor issues I still think it is the cleanest Mighty Max I have seen in a really long time.

[LiL Bastard]

So I've been playing with it lately. Some really interesting things caught my attention. I checked the hoses, I found 1 of the open, so I ran it to a open nipple. Also found a unplugged line that was to the dizzy, so I connected that. Also a metal tube on top of the carb was capped off, so I still had the issues after I connected the other lines, so I took the cap off that tube and now it runs really good. Revs in all gears, doesn't brake up at all. Pulls cleanly to 4k and above. So I am on my way to go get a SMOG check. Also I got pics. I'll post them with the results when I get back.

[LiL Bastard]

[LiL Bastard]

[camoit]

Some one killed the air cleaner top. I hope you don't live in the snow. If so find a new top to keep the carb from freezing in the cold. Get us a picture of the plug on the carb you pulled off. I want to see what they plugged up.

[LiL Bastard]

I failed SMOG today. My HC's were way to high. So I came home to check my timing. I could not find a timing mark on my pulley. I cleaned the whole pulley. Okay time for plan B. Pulled no. 1 plug, cranked it over till it was as close to TDC as I could get it. Made a timing mark. Timing was way to high. Reset it back to about 8* BTDC. Sounds way better, runs way better. I'll know tommorrow when I go back to get it checked again. I still want to check my plugs. I'll know more after I go get it checked.

Also I got the only dual shift D50 !! And don't make fun of my super high flow air cleaner !!!

[LiL Bastard]

SMOG is really pissing me off. I am going in the right direction but, I am running out of ideas. HC's are way to high.

1ST TEST
IDLE SPEED CO 8.86% 1.20% IS PASSING
HIGH SPEED CO 4.68% 1.20% IS PASSING
IDLE SPEED HC 395 2.20 PPM IS PASSING

2ND TEST
IDLE SPEED CO 8.01%
HIGH SPEED CO 3.46%
IDLE SPEED HC 457 PPM

She is still way to high. And it is just pissing fuel. One thing of note is, both tests the rpm pickups had a hard time getting a clean signal. I don't know if that means I got a really weak ignition, or it may be the equipment. But it may help to explain why my HC's are so high. Is that a common problem, weak ignitions?? I haven't read anything about that being a problem. Are there even any ways to make the ignition hotter??

[crvtec90]

The city hasnt done emissions testing here in years.....I hope they dont bring it back. You might have to find a local shop to help you tweak it to pass. One thing I noticed looking at the pic is that little air filter on the front of your valve cover. That should have a vacuum line on it....not that air breather/filter. That is the pcv valve (positive crankcase ventilation) . There should be a white label on the bottom side of your hood that shows all the vacuum diagrams. Weak ignition? The parts stores sell a spark tester that is adjustable. You could try to use it to see how strong a spark you have. Make sure you have quality plugs,wires,cap, and rotor. Preferably NGK in my opinion.

[Rickdees]

I had an 83 chev pickup that had high HC's, I bumped up the plug range to hotter plugs to pass, then came straight home and put the original back in. My 86 ram 50 2.6 I can smell it won't pass, no doubt about it!

[LiL Bastard]

Failure is not a option. I'll get her right, it just may take me a couple tries and a lot of frustration. I looked for over a year to find a clean unmolested truck. And now that I got her, she is not going to stay parked in my driveway. I found other MM's but they were all either rust buckets from the East or they were someone's amatuer attempt at bagging.

I'll try the hotter plugs. Is there a coil upgrade that will work the rest of the stock system?
Also my exhaust is coming off this week. I am going to get a aftermarket cat. Weld it up and try with a fresh cat.

As you can see from the #'s, I got a long way to go. Any other ideas ??

[DroppedMitsu]

You can run a MSD Blaster 2 coil on there, I used to have one on my 2.0 before I swapped engines. Matter of fact I have it in my garage and have no use for it.

And as crvtec said that filter at the front of your valve cover should not be there, needs to be a pcv valve and a line that runs from it to a spout on the top of the intake manifold

[LiL Bastard]

Thank you for the info about the PVC valve. I'll correct as soon as I get this SMOG thing sorted out. Right now I'll leave it as I don't want any more crap in my exhaust.

[camoit]

On my first gen with the Mikuni Carb I found a plug in the side of the carb. It had a flat screw diver slot. It's about 8mm in size. I removed it to make a LARGE vacuum leek that was undetectable by the shop. It would hardly run or move but it would pass with flying colors. It was found right above the butterfly.

[LiL Bastard]

That may be why that PVC was T'd like that. Now I got the timing better, I wonder if I put that vacumn line back on ?? You see where the filter is, well that was T'd. So it went from the valve cover to the little filter to the vacumn line. Just sucking in air. I'd have to drill and tap my exhaust manifold for my wide band. I don't know if letting that much un metered air in will lean the hell out of my mix. That would be 1 way to lean this thing out. Problem is without setting up the wide band I don't think I'd feel comfortable letting in that much air. But if I hook up the WB, I could use that as a kind of fuel management. Let the stock carb piss fuel and just change the size of that leak, I could probably control my mix. I don't know, I'll have to think about that one.

[camoit]

It might just need the float lowerd.