JAW's 4Runner

Occasionally people give me feedback on the 4runner, or ask some questions. Here is a selection of their comments.

Just wondering if you can help with tunig a 4runner 4y petrol carb, i know the standard way of tuning a carb but just want to make sure, as i too own a 87 but petrol one, and the girl was complaining about somethings. Cheers mate and being good reading your stuff and learnig something. Regards Chris

Hmm, I played with a 1984 petrol 4y carby once. Sad to say, but it was knackered and all the tuning in the world wouldn't fix it. Best I got was running okay, but chewing the juice...

Perhaps start with a carby rebuild kit for it, I've had a lot of success in the past just hitting a carby with a compressor air blower, can of carby clean, and the rebuild kit. It's a straight forward operation if you are mechanically minded.

Make sure your ignition timing is correct before doing anything - and put in a new set of points first.

Carby "tuning": set the carby idle speed as low as it will go before it stalls. Now twist the carby idle mixture screw until "it runs the best". Do this by turning it in one direction until it starts to cough and splutter, then the other direction until it again starts to cough and splutter. Halfway between these two extremes is "best". Wind down the idle screw down again to the lowest idle speed it will do before stalling and repeat. Once you are satisfied, wind the idle screw back up to get the idle speed at 800-1000rpm, you're done. Now this assumes all the important things are correct - jet sizes and such. If you've changed them, or put in a lumpy cam, or something that will affect the way the engine runs, then they might need changing. A whole new world of pain, I've pretended that they are all okay ;)
hello, i was reading ur comments on prop shaft noises. i have a 90 hilux and am still trying to source the grinding sound that comes with clutch disenaged and when car is coming to a halt. i am thinking it could be from the prop shaft. i will try to check for any movement in the shaft tomorrow as u suggested. any other things it could be? regards phil

Sounds like prop shaft bearings to me, check out my unijoint article. Hop under and see if you can find movement in a knuckle joint bearing. Hold both ends of the prop opposite the knuckle, and you should get no movement whatsoever. Even a tiny bit of play, replace them. It's a fairly simple operation to replace them, if you've done a bit of mechanical work before. Punching out the bearing caps and knocking new ones in might be a bit radical for the uninitiated though :)

Good luck! JAW
Hi,I really liked your notes on getting your injector pump working, I have a problem that perhaps you might be able to shed some light on based on your own experiences with Hilux's.

I have a Hilux SSR-X LN130 1991, one morning I was pulling a load on my trailer and the power suddenly dropped. Now I am unable to get the car past 60km and she cant rev higher that 3500 revs and takes up to a 1minute 1.1/2 minutes to startup and sometimes flatterns the battery as I dont drive it much anymore. Do you think that this could be because my injector pump is stuffed?

Your insight would be most warmly welcomed.
Regards
Yaasin

It could be a stuffed injector pump; it could be a stuffed injector - it could even just be an airlock in one of the injector lines. This can happen if you've been working the engine really hard - eg towing a load - and some fuel has got hot and boiled up an airlock. Injector pumps need to be primed with fuel to work properly.

Do this test:

Grab a spanner, while the engine is running, back off the nut connecting the fuel line to the injector just a little bit, which will let diesel leak out rather than going into the chamber. If the engine coughs and splutters tighten it back up immediately. That piston was working, you took away the fuel, so the engine was down one cylinder, hence the rough running.

If it makes no difference then there is something wrong with the fuel delivery to that cylinder, there is your power problem. If no fuel is leaking out, wait a while maybe there is an airlock, it might come good. If it does start leaking fuel after a while then tighten it back up, it might now be fixed! If no fuel comes out at all, then the injector pump is not putting any fuel out that line, there is something wrong with the injector pump.

If there is fuel leaking out the whole time but it doesn't matter if the nut is tight or loose, then there is something wrong with the injector - fuel is available, but it isn't getting through the injector.

Work your way through the cylinders. Be prepared to get splashed with diesel, be careful. I'm no mechanic, I'm pretty rough; I've played with engines in my backyard :)
In your article about the injector pump for the 4runner you found that it was the solenoid. I think I may have the same problem as you had. How do I go about getting the solenoid out to test it? (I'm not even sure where it is).

You don't need to take it out - just disconnect the wire from the solenoid, and use a piece of scrap wire to temporarily join the battery positive to the electrical connection. You'll hear a "click" if it is working. Good luck! :)