Drove through heavy rains and a few puddle in my ACTY, and it will no longer start.

Howdy, all! I bought a 94 ACTY SDX 5speed 4x4 (real time 4x4) back in August. Truck has been flawless except for the alternator belt which squeaked when wet or cold. Fixed that pretty quick. But this story begins earlier this week. So my wife and I live way out in the sticks in Virginia, and had some torrential rains move in. I got home from work a bit early and hoped in the ACTY to drive the route my wife comes home from work to make sure she can actually get home. After driving around for awhile and admittedly driving through some decent size puddles on the road, the truck started to run a bit rough.! But this quickly turned into a the truck really bogging down, especially on gear changes. Then the exhaust overheat light came on, I pulled the truck over, and it died within a few seconds. Haven’t been able to start it since. It wants to turn over, but can’t. Occasionally get some very soft pops from the exhaust when giving it some throttle, but that’s it. Took the cover off the carburetor and sprayed some starting fluid in there, no change. I’ll have time to start really messing with it this afternoon, but I assume it’s spark related of starting fluid isn’t changing anything. I’d love some wisdom from yall, and I’ll update with any changes or breakthroughs I find! And for anyone who will ask, I’m mechanically inclined, but electrical is far from my strong suit. Don’t be afraid to explain things like you would to an 8 year old! Thanks!!

*sidenote* I’ve had this happen before in my old Comanche when plowing through an icy puddle, and it started running rough immediately. Cleaned the distributor a bit and it was good, however that was fuel injected, so I’m not sure if I should be approaching it the same or not.

 

Your dizzy got wet maybe. Spray the cap and rotor with WD40 to dry it out and see if that helps.

 

Update: dried the distributor out and it started right up, and is driving smooth. The only issue I have now is the exhaust overheat sensor light won’t turn off. Not sure if the sensor is toast, if it’s one of those things that will turn off after driving 10 or 20 miles, or what. Already disconnected the battery for a few minutes to no avail.

 

that is the cat temp sensor which is required in Japan to give a warning when the cat is glowing hot, was mandatory in Japan to avoid fires. I had such a warning once on my 1989 BMW E32 750 Japan spec., turned out the wire was disconnected on the temperature sensor on the cat. Check the cat temp sensor wiring. On my BMW that wire went from cat temp sensor to a relay (870 degree C) , which sent to signal to the cluster. I once tested it, just pulled that relay and the warning light for hot cat never comes on again.
I explained that here on the BMW forum and we showed some pics of the sensor and relay https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/...alyst-quot-quot-Owner-s-Handbook-quot-warning

here how to delete the warning, we discussed that 6 years ago https://minitrucktalk.com/threads/catalytic-converter-temp-sensor.18118/

 

Thanks Shogun! Just read through the thread and it seems like a very easy fix. Ill try and take pictures of it to contribute to that thread as well as this one.