I guess there's a first time for everything.

Saturday, 9AM, pack up the truck with chainsaws, guns, camping gear, food, dog, etc. Heading up to a family get-away spot about an hour out of town for a weekend of tree-cutting, shooting, quading, camping, and beer drinking. 15 minutes from my destination, heading up a short steep grade I lose power. I manage to pull off on the shoulder and the engine dies as soon as I push in the clutch. Turn the key, she cranks, but won't start.

Popped the hood, no leaks. Open the vent tube after my filters and turn the key, get a few nice puffs of fuel out of the vent, so the lift pump is fine, filters are okay, no air in the system. Try to start her again and nothing. I figure it's either a bad shutoff solenoid or something is wrong with the IP. Since I don't have any tools with me, there's not much I can do on the side of the road.

Called AAA and arranged to have her towed home. Call my brother in law who left home about 15 minutes before me and he turns around to come pick me up. Move all my stuff into his truck just as the wrecker arrives. Called and made sure my next door neighbor is home to receive the now dead truck and that's good, so I leave her with the tow truck driver and head off for the weekend of fun.

A storm is headed this way, so we load up early and pull out of camp by noon Sunday. Didn't cut a lot of wood, or do much shooting, but the beer all got consumed and the dog is exhausted from chasing me on the quad.

Get home and unloaded. Dog goes straight for his bed. I grab the truck keys and jump in. Push in the clutch, turn the key and she roars to life.

At least this means it's not the VE pump. I'm thinking at this point it's probably an electrical problem, like the shutoff solenoid wire grounding out or that circuit having a poor connection somewhere.

Anybody got any other ideas what might cause this?

 

Is the wire connecetd good at the shut off solenoid. Mine quit one time on me and that was the problem. They have a poor design the way the wire attaches there.

 

Any thing else happen besides just a short loss of power then dead. I.E. smoke color, miss/chugg, exhaust temps. Also how long did you notice the loss of power before it died?

 

2nd the bad connection. Mine died in my garage. Though it was just luck (or lack there of) but it was probably because I had been working near it, and must have bumped it. Took it out, drove it for few weeks while i ordered a new one, and the new one didn't work either. bad connection.

 

Nope. No other symptoms. She was runnin' fine right up to that point. No noises, no vibrations, she just suddenly died.

I checked the wire and it was tight. I plan to pull the wires out and check for fraying or a loose connection. I also have to check under the dash, since I grafted in a '91 steering column over a year ago, but I haven't seen any other wiring type problems to this point. All the connections were soldered, so I kind of doubt that.

 

Fuel line still all original? Maybe starting to suck air somewhere?

 

I"m suspecting ignition switch. I had similar problems. I was able to run a jumper from the battery to the IP to get the FSS on, and luckily my starter still worked so I could make the last 100 miles home. What did your gauges do? Mine were going on and off along with my GPS which was plugged into the 12v cigarette lighter.

Because of my ignition switch shorts, it also took out some fusible links that fed it power.

 

Mine died on me once due to the main power wire into the igg switch frayed and broke. I had to pull the cover off the steering column and once I was in there I also found that the metal connector in the main plug had pulled out. I still have to fix this one, I'm thinking that I'll have to glue it into the main connector to keep it from popping out again.

 

When mine went out it turned ou to be the fusible link that powers the ASD relay..I know the relay does it's job - the truck "Automatically Shut Down"

 

mine does that but my ip was wore out and it would start with a couple bottles of cold water poured over the ip head and rotor, it would run for 25 - 30 min and then shut down.

 

I finally got some time to take a look at the truck. I took her for a test drive around the block and she died about 1/2 mile from the house, but after a second started back up. That happened again after a few more blocks. It only seems to happen when I really hammer the throttle. Going up a hill doesn't seem to help, either.

I pulled the fuel pressure gauge pod out from under the hood and put it up by the windshield so I could see if while I'm driving. No problem with lift pump fuel pressure, so it has to be after the filters. I'm going to drain and refill the filters to make sure there's no water in there.

I just changed the shutoff solenoid. What a PITA getting the old one out. I had to take a grinder to the bracket along the back side of the IP and cut off the top 1" or so to allow me to get a wrench on the solenoid.

When I took the old one out, the o-ring on the brass sleeve stayed in, like it wasn't in the right place to begin with. There was some seapage on the old solenoid, so I think that's the case. The o-ring was making the tip of the solenoid bind up, a little. It took a little tug to get the old plunger out with the o-ring around it. The plunger looked fine, with maybe just a little bit of swelling, compared to the new one.

Maybe those was my problem? The swollen plunger or the o-ring. Anyway, the truck starts and shuts off. I've got to put the throttle bracket and linkage back on and take her for a test drive, after I clean the filters and change the oil.

 

id be willing to bet that the shutoff was the issue if you were having it die after hard throttle mine would do it hitting bumps especially railroad tracks. i started the truck and wiggled the wire on the shutoff and it would shutoff so i put a ring terminal on and that fixed it no problem.

 

Good advice!

 

So far, so good. Took her around the block a couple times and to the parts store to pick up oil (Valvoline Premium Blue on sale for $8.99 at Kragen, guys).

Oil is draining now. After I get the filter changed and refill her, I'll take her out for a little longer drive to see how things are.

 

Its the shutoff solenoid. just clean the connections and put on some die electric greasse