Well I went out and drove it briefly now that its about 30 degrees cooler than earlier today. AirBag light came on once for a few seconds then went off, but other than that it ran strong, no hesitation, stumble, surge, dieing, etc.

I have a suspicion I will be replacing the alternator soon to eliminate it. That seems to be the most likely culprit given the transient nature of the problems.

Any idea what alternators to stay away from? I would guess the original is a Denso, and my experience with rebuilt japanese stuff is very poor. I tried 4 reman brake master cyls on my toyota truck, 3 never worked at all, wouldnt pump fluid, one did and failed after a couple months, I ended up ordering a new OEM one, problem solved. Too much headache to screw around with.

You've a few options. One is to buy whatever is available at the parts store and have them test it before you leave. (Also keep the reciept in the glove box, just in case). The other is to buy a new one. More expensive, but that is for you to decide. Finally, you might want to see if you have an electrical shop in your area. Having them rebuild may give you a better product at a good price.

Good Luck,
Michael

Well I tried to get started today changing the valve cover gaskets. Turns out the manual leaves a few things out. Like the cover on the driver side cant come out without removing the throttle body. simple, except that there is coolant connected to it, so now have to drain the system partway. OK , I have a new radiator I need to put in anyway, plastic tank is cracked on top and seeps some, but I was gonna do that when I do the timing belt when all these other problems are gone. Maybe I do it now anyway.

Also, wiring harness wont move enough out of way to get off the cover near the timing cover, its too tight. Have to unwrap lots of electrical tape to allow some leeway in the harness then it barely can move off the cover.

Lets not forget the frozen egr pipe bolts in the exhaust manifold that will round off with a 12pt socket, off to the parts store for a 12mm 6 pt.

Got the driver side all done finally, putting stuff back on, egr pipe, etc and I look down and one of the frickin plug tube seals is missing on cyl 6, it must have got knocked off into the valvetrain when I wiggled the cover back into position. Oh well, back at it tomorrow. The passenger side had better be easier, but somehow I doubt it.

Once the valve cover gaskets are fixed, Ill pull the alt to get it tested. No since drenching a new one in oil.

Sounds like fun. I haven't tried that little adventure yet, won't until I have to.

I got started back on the valve cover gaskets about 8 this morning, and finished about 5pm. Only a couple short breaks when it rained. I cleaned the throttle body well too.

I "only" lost 2 bolts I couldnt find after dropping them under the engine. One was a heater pipe bolt, no big deal, it had two holding it. And one was a valve cover bolt, I might need to replace that one eventually, but its not leaking without it. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" />

No big surprises on the passenger side, except that I couldnt remove a heat shield from the exhaust manifold to get a bracket off. The bolts felt like they were buggering up, so I just bent the heat shield out the way. Thank goodness the rest of the bolts were a breeze. I wish the manual had said to remove the passenger tire, it would make it easier to get to the bracket bolts.

Its amazing how hard and brittle the gaskets and plug tube seals were. The gaskets on both sides had shrunk and split open and thats where oil was flowing down onto the exhaust manifolds.

So I go out and drive it around carefully, its still misbehaving, come home and leave the lights on 5-10 minutes with engine not running while picking up my tools,
I go to crank it to move it, It wont crank. No battery juice, battery is close to dead? or it could be a bad cable. I think this is confirmation that I have an alternator problem, A battery problem, a battery cable problem, or some combination of the above.

This is what my wife said it did to her once, died and acted like batt was dead, wouldnt turn over, then a few minutes later it did. Of course I didnt believe her, I figured she had just left it in drive and so it wouldnt crank.

Well, I checked the battery electrolyte, 4 cells were 100% and 2 were 75%, so the battery looks good that way, no dead cells.

Hooked up multimeter and battery voltage drops to 8V while cranking. In my experience, voltage should stay over ~10V or it will can burn up a starter. Nothing in the manual about this way of testing, but the battery looks like its failing. Manual says 300 amp load test should have about 9.5 V minimum. Its a walmart battery which normally lasts 2yrs, and its 3 yrs old, so I can believe that. UNLESS starter is bad and groundint out and drawing way too much current, but doesnt seem to be case. Oil leak has killed starter before...so I dont know.

It will start and then batt voltage is 14V. I dont know if
the alternator is going bad, or the battery is screwing it up, but Ill start with a new battery. Thats pretty cheap and its time for one anyway.

Alternator terminal looks clean, battery cable is clean. I checked resistanc across cable to alternator terminal and got 12 ohms. Is there a fusible link in this cable that gives resistance that high? Have to have resistance to get hot and melt.

After reading all of this. I still say that this is EXACTLY how my '95 trooper w/ SOHC acted when the ground was bad and when I had a battery come apart on me. Same stalling, dim lights, trouble lights, sputtering, etc. I would not change the alternator until the battery is confirmed OK.

Also, where did you pick up you spark plug seals? I'm going to change my valve cover gaskets soon.

I had the battery tested, it was bad. I put in a new one. ($34 with the prorated warranty on the bad one).

Went out and drove it around, for a while (10 miles) it behaved. then while accelerating hard at ~5000 rpm, the AC switched on (I think this is supposed to cut OUT on accel) and it may have locked up, it for sure burnt the clutch up and ruined the belt.

Then it starts bucking some under heavy accel, maybe not as bad as before, but no warning lights or total failure. When I get home 10 min later coolant is pouring out the bottom off the skid plate under rear of engine. Coolant temp gauge never showed a temp rise so I hope enough was circulating to prevent doing damage. No level in radiator under cap. Some is sizzling on top of intake manifold also. I cant find the leak and it got dark, so Ill look tomorrow. I drove this some yesterday after completing the work, and had no problems or leaks. It is NOT leaking from any hose connections I touched, I can see them all and they are dry.

How many damn things can suddently go wrong with a vehicle that has given me almost NO real problems in 14 yrs!!!!

I think I got my gaskets from autopartsgiant.com. Thats where I usually mailorder stuff from if I can, they have good pictures to make sure its the right parts, etc , low prices, and very fast delivery. I got the felpro stuff, they have several to choose from. Mine arrived in one day, it was obviously shipped from a location close to me.


It may be time to scrap this vehicle. Its been a good one, but to fix all this stuff could end up costing more than I would ever be able to get out of it.

The coolant was coming from a hose beneath the ignition module mounting plate, the plate was pushing down on a clamp and making it leak. Strange, I didnt touch that clamp, and the plate was put back in the exact place it came out from, but somehow it made it leak when I reinstalled it.


I replaced the battery clamps, cleaned grounds, and made sure there was 0 ohm resistance from the neg terminal to the wiring harness grounds on the inner fenders and ignition module harness grounds on the common chamber.

Drove it some more this morning. A few minutes after I started driving the airbag and check transmission lights came on, then went out. It was behaving at time, not under heavy acceleration. The oil pressure gauge still cuts out at 600 rpm idle, and comes back up to normal at 1000 rpm.

Under heavy accel at ~90 mph and 4800 rpm would waver very slightly, it would have been unnoticeable except I was looking for it. After driving for ~30 miles and 25 minutes or so it started doing the bucking again under heavy accel at lower rpms 3500-4500.

No lights though, and no total failures since the battery was replaced.

I hate to gamble on $200 alternator. But nothing else would make airbag lights come on. Still havent found out whats wrong with the AC now, the clutch wont pull in even if I press in on it .

Well, the AC compressor seized up, the heat from the clutch friction shorted the clutch out. I get 1 ohm to ground on the clutch, and it blows the 10 amp fuse. When i manually jumper the clutch at idle, the clutch works but it almost stops the engine and the belt slips.

Anyone know if the condenser and evap are serpentine or parallel path? You can never flush the crud out of parallel path completely after a compressor dies a black death, so everything must be replaced. I went thru that on my 95 GM truck, I flushed for days before I gave up and bought a new condenser and evap. The only think I didnt replace on that AC system was a 3'long piece of aluminum tubing.

I guess I suspected it was getting harder to turn when I had to adjust the airgap on the clutch last yr, it would still squawk a little when it engaged at high rpm, even with the belt tight enough to bend the adjusting bracket.

In 14 yrs though, it NEVER needed any freon, I checked the pressures routinely and was amazed, no eaks, so I know it didnt lose oil, etc.