Hi Guys,
Some follow up on the W/T. The truck still wasn’t running perfect so I finally did the intake manifold gaskets. There was no evidence that they were bad but I was running out of ideas to get the truck running 100%. Unfortunately, the old gaskets looked good with no witness marks of anything wrong. The job went well until I put it all back together and had a leak at the heater hose quick connect fitting. I purchased a new fitting at CARQUEST. As I prepared to use heat and unscrew the old one it broke off with about 10 ft. –lbs. of torque! I went back to CARQUEST and bought lisle easy out made just for this problem. After removing the coil and MAP sensor to get at the fitting I hammered the easy out into the broken off fitting, then I heated the surrounding area with a torch. I had some good luck and was able to get the piece out with no damage to the threads of the manifold. That easy out sure was a life saver!!
When I did the intake gasket job I looked everywhere for a crack, broken wire, potential vacuum leak, I found nothing wrong until I was putting all the wiring harnesses on and I found a broken wire. It is the purple with white stripe wire. It runs from the coil to the distributor. The manual calls it “Distributor ref HI”. The manual said it should be almost zero volts with ignition on and 1.6 volts with motor running. I checked the voltage on this wire and it was correct. I repaired the wire and hooked it up.
The truck is now running better than it ever has, still not perfect but very good. No miss or no stumble. I am not sure if it was the wire or the gaskets, I will have to check.
So the question is…Would a trained tech found this with a scanner? Or would he have found it just like I did by more luck than anything else?? And what is distributor ref Hi anyways???
Like I said the truck is almost perfect now but at 65-75 mph it has a little miss but it may not be a miss at all. Could it be the trans? it seems like maybe it is going into and out of “lock up” and searching for the right condition. Remember this is an underpowered 4.3L and at 65-75 MPH it is not in the power band. As soon as I drop it into drive it runs great at the 65-75 range.
07-25-2014, 10:49 PM
