Truck ran fine until Fri evening. Truck parked for the night. Truck won’t start Saturday morning. Tries to turn over but *groans out (*Crank, Crank, groan - kind of like when a sneeze backs up. Ah, Ah, AH. Groan) after just a second or so of cranking – while the key is still in start position. This truck has an after market ignition mounted under the steering column (steering column is trashed). The ignition switch is not connected to anything (all wires are cut). My son replaced the Ignition Control Module (under distributor cap) upon advice from his Dad. No Change. My son indicated that he can hear the fuel pump most of the time (the truck is noisy in the cab from the electronics) (Plus he can smell fuel in engine compartment). He replaced Distributor Cap & Rotor. No change. While checking spark. Ta-da. Truck started. Truck ran as before for about 15 minutes – until manually turned off. Obviously has spark, (assumption – ignition coil is ok) but did notice that plugs are dry carbon fouled (the truck has smelled like it was running rich). Truck would not start again right away or after sitting ½ hour. Someone mentioned that it may be flooding? Can that be with a throttle body? What controls the air/fuel mixture at start up? From the reading that I’ve done the O2 sensor monitors exhaust gases – can’t get that far - No start = No exhaust! Again PCV valve returns / re-circulates combustion gases. No start = No combustion! EGR valve re-circulates exhaust gases. No start = No exhaust! Someone also suggested and Oil Pressure Switch. Oil was just changed within lat 50 miles with no sign of leaking or blow-by (assumption – Oil pressure is OK – Gauge showed good pressure as well). Could this be a faulty switch, causing the fuel to be cut off, thus causing the engine not to start?
Air cleaner on / Air cleaner off = No difference (Air Flow restriction shouldn’t be an issue from dirty air cleaner)
Perplexed – Getting fuel (maybe too much) – Getting Spark (checked 3 times) – Will intermittently start – Can’t get it anywhere to have any codes read (it’s holding down my driveway nicely, though)
Could it be the ECM? How can I test that?
Could this problem be related to something I noticed the last time I drove it. When I turn on the turn signal – all the gauges pulsate with the signal. He/we already replaced the Battery and Alternator (within 50-100 miles). The truck does have a snow plow on it – but this happens whether the plow module is on or not.
My son is running out of time & $ to dump into this truck – any more ideas?
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Tuesday, February 10th, 2009 AT 2:23 PM
