hey all! i am writing this at a filling atation i standish, Ca on my way to Tahoe. My truck has presented me with a problem: I can't go over 55mph without my engine surging erratically, shaking the whole truck. On flat geound it is if I go over 2k rpm, but even less when climbing. I have no idea what is wrong, and I have many hours between me and anything!!. if you know what this coulp be, please help.

 

tried totake off from the gas station, baaaad misfiring, stuck on the side of the road

 

Sounds like a timing issue. Pull your distributor cap and watch the rotor as you crank the engine. It should be turning. If not you may have a damaged timing chain.
If it turns, it could be the coil or the igniter.

 

That sucks dude. (don't need to tell you that). I am of no help to you, for mechanical trouble shooting, but i hope you get it worked out.

 

Fred... haha Fred Heath: that was one of my thinkings, especially because the spark plugs I pulled looked hot, but everything ignition and timinwise looked alright.
Fred D.K. I know man, life is always an adventure.

I sputtered and puttered my way to a shop (thinking now that fuel delivery might be a problem, even thoigh my revs spiked, it felt like fule loss.

Anywho, Betsy is at a shop and I am drinking cold beers for the first time in a couple weeks. I hope the shop says it is something simple enough I can do it myself, but who knows...

 

Hope its a simple fix, maybe a fuel filter or something

 

At least with these old vehicles troubleshooting is pretty easy. Imagine if you had to deal with computers, sensors etc.
Keep us posted on your progress and enjoy that beer.

 

Fuel pump could be on it's way out. Also, check for free movement of the flapper door in the afm. The afm on my old supra got stuck wide open once and it ran pig rich. Took me 6 months to figure it out. They can get stuck partially open also and prevent accurate fuel delivery. If it was stuck completely closed, it would not start since it's tied to the fuel pump relay. When closed, the fuel pump relay is deactivated, when cracked open, the relay is energized.

 

^^^YES yotarip, that is exactly my thinking... wish i though of it before taking her to the shop haha. At least the fuel filter and AFM are fairly easy problems to solve. Fuel pump requires taking the bed off? Well I am headed there when they open in a couple hours and we shall see.

 

Drop the tank or lift the bed. I'd prefer to use my engine lift to help lift the bed. Gives better access to the small screws for the pump access and the sometimes stubborn fuel line nuts. Check the AFM before you dive too deep in though

 

of course, I always try to start with the simplest. I had just driven 80 miles of dirt roads, so my expectation is that something simple got jostled wrong. As soon as my tires hit pavement, I pulled over to check undercarriage, tires, wires, and hoses. All that checked out... but AFM... it did start to act funny on a loooong windy stretch of road, and I did notice that whenever a giant truck passed and blew hard turbulence, there were problems. I though it was just my mind attributing factors like air flow to the problem. I even put in the spare air filter I was carrying around for after the dusty roads.

 

This is a 22re engine??
Check the hose that goes from the canister ( resonator) to the air cleaner.
If it comes off, the truck will not run right!!

 

I've got a 22rte, my friend. Hoses were all where they were supposed to be. I'm heading to the shop now to see what they say. Thanks for the help guys! hope I can return the favor to others in the future

 

went to the shop to pick some of my things up out of the truck, and decided to check out the AFM baffle. It seemed to move smoothly. There is another toyota they are working on, and will look at mine after it...... dang this waiting game haha.

 

This.

I was recalling having similar drivability symptoms but couldn't remember what caused mine. This post reminded me that for me, it was a clogged fuel filter.

 

On my recent travels I had been through many tiny towns buying whatever gasoline they had (nothing makes her purr like chevron 91), and thought that may be the cheap gas could've clogged the filter or something as well. Super easy fix, heck, I will push her a block from the shop, pop the hood and do it myself.

 

I spoke to the guy working on my truck before closing today, and he is pretty dang sure that the problem is in the ignition. About 5 months ago I installed the Crane FAST ignition from LCE. Recently when I did my "Big 3" upgrade I relocated and rewired the ignition system, so I hope it is just that I screwed up a connection that wasn't quite bad, but got bumped bad on the dirt roads I was driving. If not, and the problem is the ignition box or upgraded coil or something, I still have my stock ignition coil (I'm a collector not a hoarder haha), and can hook it right back up.

 

I went back in my files (again I'm collector not hoarder), and found the instructions from both LCE and Crane for the ignition setup I have and emailed it to the shop. This will provide them with wiring diagrams, troubleshooting tips, and contact info for the companies.

It is so hard being 5 hours away from Betsy at some shop I am unfamiliar with, but at least it happened on my way home, and not on the side of some mountain up in oregon.

 

well, I drove back up to Susanville to return my rental car and check on the truck today. The mechanic was still at a total loss. after quite a few hours (hours today, but days in the shop) i finally went out to watch what the mechanic was doing. No matter how many times I told him to check the ignition system wiring, I could still see it was in the splitloom I installed. I dolt him to just check the dang wiring, but aparently unwilling, he ended up leaving to run some errands. So! I went out, and in less than the time it took me to smoke a cigarette, i bypassed the ignition wiring with new wires right back to the stock ignition coil I had. Boom! problem solved! So thanks for nothing shop! I ended up spending over 500 dollars on hotel rooms, rental cars, and whatever the mechanic did, and solved the problem myself in 5 minutes. I have never been so frustrated, yet feel like such a champion. Mu rant could go on, but Betsy is running on all 4 cylinders, and that is good enough for me.
Thanks to those of you who chimed in! your support on these forums over the past few years of my toyota pickup ownership has given me the confidence to tinker with my own engine, and the ability so supercede any shop I have taken my trucks too. KEEP ON WRENCHING GUYS!

 

Props bro!