I have recently purchased a mini truck and it is very sick it has 2600 hours on it, and had been sitting a while. i have change plugs, oil and filter and air filter, checked the fuel pump and it was pumping, are there any other suggestions out there to check for. Thanks
"Very Sick" can mean lots of things... Can you be a little bit more exact on the problem? Won't run smooth?, Loss of power?, Will not idle?, Etc... I'm sure someone here can help you if we knew exactly how the truck is running.op:
The truck will idle and run it just has no power, on flat ground or pulling a hill, when pulling a hill sometimes it will smother out and have to be restarted.. It is a 3 speed and will not even pull in third gear, just very weak...
fuel filter could be clogged. carb may need cleaning also. you should also check your vacuum lines. you could try using this stuff. http://www.seafoamsales.com/motorTuneUpConsumer.htm it may or may not help. i've used it a few times on older cars and it did help some but it does not cure the problem.
Real tune up Cap, rotor, and wires. An important oversight on your part. Fuel filter, seafoam in the gas tank, fresh 92 Octane gas. All need to be done Chuck near Indy hoosierminitruck.com
I would start with changing the fuel filter and cleaning out the gunk in the carb and check for vacum leaks. I would also add some Seafoam to the gas tank with a high octane gas. Seafoam is a good product. My truck ran a little rough and hesitated when I first bought it because it had set for several months and had old gas in it. I added some Seafoam to the gas and after SEVERAL miles it cleared up. It usually isn't an instant fix and can sometimes take hundreds of miles of driving to do its thing. If that didn't fix it then I would move on to the cap, rotor, wires... Good Luck...
Thanks for the input, i am going to change the filter and see what happens, i have already put sea foam and new gas, does anybody know a good way to get the cap, rotor and wires, none of the parts stores have any knowledge of these trucks, i guess i will take the old ones in if the filter doesn't do the trick.. again thanks for the info..
Check the sponsors above ^^^^^^^ [top of the page] They offer all the correct parts for your mitsu G & R Imports is probably closest to you.
i think we have some caps and rotors , wires and what not in our stock but seeing that you are in TN, i think it may be better to contact a closer dealer. if all else fails give me a call.
yours is LHD? if so you may be able to get the parts at the local mitsu car dealership, may be special order but if it's LHD then it's american spec and you should be able to find local support for it. you might do some research here on the forum, but i seem to recal the LHD mitsu's sharing an engine with industrial mowers (toro maybe?) and you can get engine parts at the lawnmower shops too.
yes the truck is Lhd was originally a state issued vehicle, i put a clear fuel filter on it today and took it out for a spin it is still weak, when i pull a hill or accelerate for extended period it bogs down, got back to shop and saw rusty color in filter, drained tank and will clean tomorrow... i will put new filter and gas and see what happens, not sure if it could be pump, cap, rotor, wires, guess i will use process of elimination
J.D.4320, I haven't had a tank off, but if they have one (a screen) it could be the screen on the pickup in the tank. I have had to back-blow (disconnect the fuel line from the tank-side of the fuel pump and blow air back toward the tank) to get trash off of the screen on the pick-up in the tank (on tanks so equipped). Might not be a bad idea even after draining the tank and cleaning it. And good call Milt on the Toro link. But just be aware that those engines are the 3G83 (660cc) not the 3G81 (550cc) that are in the LHD U.S. versions - but I'm sure the externals (cap, rotor, and wires would fit). Prob find that some of the site sponsoring dealers would have them (poss cheaper). Another suggestion is check your compression - shud have a minimum of 135psi per cyl with no more that 14psi diff between cyls. Also you said it set for a while, your truck prob??? came from a Military base, golf course or some type of industrial business - and that "normally" don't lend to any hi-revving of the engine. Take it out and run it to the governor limitation in 1st and 2nd a couple of times and see if you can't blow a little soot out of her. MOD's - You reckin' Captain Canuck or Marshall Milt could move this thread to the Mits section for better sourcing of the info----Thanks.............later, slim
thanks guys, i cleaned the tank, new fuel, filter, carb cleaner in carb, checked cap and button.. it didn't make much difference, it still smothered itself out and the carb started popping and spitting.. i think i will check timing on it soon..
John deere....You may want to try spraying wd40 around the carb while it is running to see if it has a vacume leak under the carb. ray allen
Welcome lefty!! Popping and spitting?? That could be a few things. Probably timing related. There are two methods of advance for the distributor. Mine sat for a while and wouldn't advance because the breakerplates gummed up and wouldn't allow the mechanical advance to work and, like the others have said, vac advance will be affected by leaks. I have also seen a few instances where timing belts were off by one tooth. it would run but, not well off idle. is there any evidence of a new belt being installed? could be why it was abandoned and sat for a while. Also, you do know that your truck has a rpm limiter and a speed governor right?? it wont pull anything over 25mph or more than about 5 seconds over 3500rpm's. It cuts spark and shuts off the fuel if you go over the speed limit or rpms. (US government conspiracy against the kei trucks...) But, this too can be overcome!..."Yes We Can!" A whole other can of worms there... If you really get on it, Is it fairly normal up to about the top end of 2nd gear? if you back off does it smooth back out? The harder you push it, the worse it gets. plugs foul and it loads up between sparks (spitting&popping)...before the fuel cuts off. give us some more details. A few of us have the literature for the leftys and can get you the specs and part #'s to use for most of your lefty issues. check in the reference section of mitsu's. I have kind of a slow start at posting the manual for the us spec mitsu's.
What did you clean the tank with??? Could some water/moisture have gotten in the tank while you were cleaning it or water in the fresh gas you put in the tank?? I had a Cushman Haulster that somehow got water/moisture in the gas and it spit and popped like crazy. I ended up pouring a bottle of rubbing alcohol in the tank to evaporate the moisture in the tank and carb. If your points/timing check out ok then you might want to check for the moisture since the spitting and popping started after you cleaned your tank and put in fresh gas.
there is a msd 6al ignition box on the truck, but i have no idea about the way it is wired up it has a 7k chip in it and when i take it out it will rev up real high. is it fairly easy to remove the governs on the truck, i plan on taking tranny out and removing the collar that prevents 4th gear, i will try to check timing todayand look to see about the timing belt. don't think moisture got in there as i blew it out several times, but i will try some alcohol.. thanks for suggestions
msd 6al is an awesome ignition system. you should be able to find support for it on msd's home page. it's totally ok to run it without that chip in there, that's what sets the rev limits on it. just be careful not to over rev it, but it won't hurt the box to run it without the chip... sounds like that chip is messed up. another thing to remember when running the msd 6al is that you can really open up the gap on your plugs because it throws such a hot spark... but with that remember that your ignition system has to be in perfect condition. if you have any tears in plug boots it will start jumping the spark to a ground. also keep in mind that msd stands for multiple spark discharge... and as such will cause ignition when the engine isn't running... be very careful when leaving the key on. that system fires sparks throughout a degree range rather than only at top dead center. i have had engines kick over when just turning the key to the on position because the engine was within the range of firing sparks.
Here's my gallery http://www.minitrucktalk.com/galleries/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=685 If there's a msd box in the truck, it's governors have already been bypassed or abandoned. The fuel pump circuit had to be jumped or altered to run indipendantly from the oem ignitor too. I went the same route, and another member here did something similar with a stock mopar box...much less expensive. There are a few things that needed to be adjusted to compensate for the installation of the msd unit. Huge difference in timing is the first thing i found. The oem unit has a huge amount of retard designed in to it that the msd unit doesn't( unless this one is programmable). I had to retard the distributor as much as possible to even get it to start, before i modified the adjuster housing and a few other things. Is your distributor rotated as far counterclockwise as it will go? up against the vac advance? If so, its still not retarded enough. Waaay too much advance... The timing mark will still be outside of the viewing window on the bell housing. I pulled the distributor, flipped the guts 180 and moved the plug wires one terminal. this allowed me to advance in to the correct timing. which was still out of range of the adjuster but, obtainable. i fabricated a bracket to hold it in position there. am i on the right track here? has anything like that been done with yours? sorry about the double post but i think these two threads ran in the same direction. Dan: Your link to your gallery wasn't working so I fixed it for you - tripper
i think you are on the right track dan, mine is wired 1-2-3 and guess thats why it runs now, i retarded it yesterday as far as possible and it seemed to help.. i will try to flip the guts tomorrow and wire it 1-3-2 and see what happens... big thanks to all your input, this is my first mini truck and i am learning as i go...
dan, i changed the magnet inside 180 degrees to the other side, wired it up and i can see my timing mark down in the bellhousing prolly around 20-30 degrees.. then i tried moving the plug wires, but i don't know if i did it right cause it wouldn't start up and backfired a few times.. do i put the wires counterclockwise one spot or clockwise? also does the firing order go 1-3-2 clockwise or counterclockwise.
if you crank your engine over with the distributor cap off you will know which way the firing order goes.. sorry i can't be more helpful.
were you able to see your timing mark before you made the recent alterations to the diistributor? I'm not sure that you began at the same point that i did. someone has been working toward this before you. i can tell you the steps that i went through from the point that i discovered the mark at 30 like you saw. I loosened the distributor removed it and cut out the end of the adjuster slot opposite the vac housing so the bolt will slide out the end when mounted and rotated to advance past the end of the adjuster slot. turned the rotor shaft 180 from where it was on the drive pin in the head and reinstalled the distributor. moved the plug wires one tower clockwise. Timing was close when the lockdown bolt is 1/4" past the end of where the slot used to be. fine tuned timing from that point. you might try to find the best timing position before any trimming is done. i think i mayhave been able to lock down on the outside edge of the housing before i cut it away. The rotor spins ccw and fires 1-3-2. I wish i could see how yours was done. i haven't heard of many other attempts until recently. I just hope i'm not misleading you further by adding my thoughts to an already modified system.
thanks dan that worked for me, got the timing down to around 6-8 degrees.. now i just have to figure out exactly how im going to fabricate something to hold the distributor in place
