About 6 mos ago, I had the local shop replace my head gasket. When I got it back, everything seemed fine BUT after running for a short while, the truck would 'stagger'. Top speed would drop to 70-80kmh, acted like it wasn't getting fuel. The pump is only 1 year old, he replaced the fuel filter and no change. Started looking at the distributor and told me he'd cleaned it as good as he could, advanced it as much as possible - but.... It did the same thing. This time he said it was fuel starvation. Changed the filter (that's FIVE in the 2 years I've owned it) and 2 spark plugs. 5 minute run and same damn thing, PLUS the rad blew. Sat in his shop for months and it became pretty clear he didn't want to work on it and wouldn't come out and say so. We towed it to a friend and replaced the radiator, ran great for a few hours. When the truck was filled with gas, it died a block from the gas station but started half an hour later. Took it on a run today it ran great. But after 15 miles, it started to stagger and died again. Fired up after 5 minutes, but sputtered and gagged and couldn't get over 70 kmh. Aside from never using this mechanic again, where should I start? Distributor? Carb? Fuel delivery?
once it dies you need to see if there is still spark...are the plugs wet...I think you either have a bad coil or ignition module
Almost sounds like it could be vapor locking, I have seen this happen on other vehicles. The fuel line hasn't been moved close to something thats gets hot?
This might be important: I can rev high in 1,2 & 3rd. In 4th, stepping on the gas causes the engine to sputter and jerk and sometimes to die. Other times, it will run fine for a while. Wouldn't a fuel problem show up no matter what gear?
engine problems Depends on how far you are pushing the gas pedal. If you only push the pedal down part of the way you are only using the pilot jet, if you push the pedal down more than half way you get into the main jet. A lot depends on how far you open the throttle as to which part of the carb is feeding the fuel to the motor. It could be that you have some trash in the carb. Everybody says to use the seafoam, have you tried that? I recently changed my carb to a standard mikuni motorcycle carb and got rid of stock carb. I could not get it to work and parts are to hard to get.
I see where you are going with the secondary ,but I would think that the truck would just bog down and not die completely...a vacuum leak would also make it bog but not die only after several minutes....I think you have an ignition issue that is showing itself when the component (coil.ignitor,condenser) heats up...when the heat goes away it starts to work again....high rpm can cause this as well.....
True, and you are correct about the others. It's going to be a process of elimination, you will have to pick a direction and start the process. But in the end look at what you will have learned about your truck!! It's always good to learn!
if you can rev good driving in 1,2,3 but not 4, my question would be what size of tires? at lower speeds and in lower gears the engine can pull over size tires but when you are trying to go on the hwy way, the speed and the load is too much for the little 42hp engine. if you do have anything bigger then stock (145-80-12) this may be the problem. hope this helps wyatt
Turned out the mechanic replaced my head gasket. That's all he did. When I drove it over 5 kms, it overheated. Returned it over and over and he'd stall. Another mechanic looked at it and there's exhaust getting into the radiator. Head gasket NFG, head warped or cracked block. He's pulling the engine to let me know. Dammit, been without my mini since November!
