fixing up my daughters se-5

Hey Bscene I am a new member even though your forum has helped tremendously before I joined. Some history- My wife and I bought my daughter a 1987 B2200 SE-5 when she turned 16 for several reasons 1) we wanted her to learn how to drive a stick 2) she wouldn't be able to load 10 kids in it and 3) I knew just enough about the engines in these little trucks to know they would last a long time. The truck had 128,000 miles on it and was priced in our budget. Now she is a soccer player in college and she wants to take the truck 7 hours away. I wanted to make sure her truck was a driver so I started driving it. Three weeks in and the truck started sputtering on the freeway and I barely made it to the airport where it stayed for a week. Don't really know how the thing made it home I think the carb was in limp mode. Anyway after moving to a Weber and pacesetter headers (and a lot of other updated parts) I found the ignition module in the distributor was bad. Has anyone seen this before? I plan on lifting the truck about 3" and putting in bucket seats as well as painting, so if anyone has suggestions on these any help would be appreciated. So far the truck has been awesome to work on, basically been rewarding me after every thing I do, which is abnormal for me.

Distributor parts have been known to go bad, but how does the fuel filter look?

Brand new as well as fuel pump, coil, distributor cap, rotor button, plugs, and plug wires. Sorry I should have mentioned all this before.

Clogged cat(s)? Sounds like you are getting fuel and air so the exhaust to go somewhere - allowing it to breathe.

Dan

Thanks Dan, I thought the same thing early on I went ahead and installed pacesetter headers. Right now the headers are the only exhaust until I install the rest.

Gotchya, OE setup had two cats... didn't realize you were catless/exhaustless.

In that case check for vacuum leaks at the weber. More times than not there is a leak. The adapter plates are not very flat and even though the instruction say not to use sealer everyone ends up using some. Most popular is the aviation sealant from most big box auto parts stores.

I assume you followed the Weber adjustment after install guide.

Also make sure you set the timing with the vacuum blocked off.

Did you keep the EGR valve or block it off?

By the way I love your logic of buying a truck for your young daughter. Perfect way to control the number of passengers!

Since you were a lurker you know we love pictures. hint hint

Dan

Yep, same with my 1888 B2200; my mechanic told me that some solenoid in my stock carb was bad, but he was going to be gone for two weeks, and he said he felt it was carb because when he added propane fuel it ran well. When I checked that dealer-only and expensive solenoid, it did seem to click and operate every time. So I figured maybe it was input to that very complicated carb, and I decided to go Redline Weber kit. When that didn't work well, took it back to the mechanic and by substitution they figured out that it was bad pick-up and ignitor in the distributor (he actually bolted-in his son's distributor to find this out). That was back in 2005, those parts weren't cheap, but good ever since.

So did the mechanic make an honest diagnosis mistake? Maybe. Maybe both issues had started. Anyway, I doubt that the stock carb would've laster another decade......

By the way, once my youngest needed 4WD and got her own vehicle (1998 4WD Pathfinder), that Frontier was a hand-me-up back to us, and Mrs. Cusser drives it daily, and I take it when I go out of town by myself.

Cusser glad to see I'm not the only person thinking that way about the importance of driving a stick. After my daughter got it she understood what I meant when I said that people that can drive a stick are way more in tune with their car or truck. They can hear and feel things happening to a car that others may not.

Anyway, what led us to the ignition system in the first place was what happened after we changed to the Weber. First, we figured the new carb needed to get gas into it and that was why it took so long to start initially, but we both knew it shouldn't take as long as it did. However, when she started up she ran beautifully. No adjustments needed, although I am still trying to figure out how to permanently attach the throttle cable(not hard,just haven't looked close). So truck was doing great 15 minutes or so then someone flipped the truck's switch. I mean it turned off like a light, instantaneously. My neighbor and I looked at each other like, huh? He said, "it sounded like we just lost spark. We started up after about 5 minutes of trying and it does the same thing. That is when I was troubleshooting by price and was hoping for something positive. When the rest of the ignition system being replaced didn't fix anything, we broke down and got out the meter. And we finally proved what my wallet feared. I wanted to know about just replacing the module but I then remembered why I was fixing it up. To send it 7 hours away to Kentucky. The voice said replace the 28 year old distributor and don't worry about it.

When I say we I am talking about me and my neighbor. He used to own a Merlin auto shop (repair shop if you don't have them). I refer to him as the car whisperer because when I am really stuck he seems to get me out of each jam.

Actually: a stick shift vehicle is a theft deterrent these days ! My kids found that most of the boys at the HS and colleges could not drive stick, and that they were the only girl who could.

Agree, seems to direct one to focus on driving more.

Teach your daughter brakes on this, and clutch hydraulic cylinders. Make sure she knows how to use a multimeter too.

On my spare room bed is a new tape measure, screwdriver set, and multimeter, and some Loctite for my youngest when she comes down next weekend.