ThaBigPerm

Joy of joys - may latest winter camping trip to CO this past Dec, my idiot light started dimly turning on. So dim I wouldn't have noticed but for it being at night. Then got brighter, dimmer, off. Dim, bright, off. Pulled over to check oil level - had just done an oil/filter change week before the trip. Level good. Was in the middle of BF nowhere between Wichita Falls and Decatur, middle of night on a work night, so no help on the way lol. But as someone mentioned, there was *no* racket from the valve train. I've run it a bit before on low oil, low enough for the sump to slurp air and yes, it will begin cyclically tapping up top if pressure drops too low. So I strongly suspect a bad sending unit, or the wiring (the wire has yanked out of the spade connector multiple times, so I know it's a potential point of failure, could be grounding). The behavior mine exhibited - on throttle up, light would brighten. Chop throttle at highway speeds light would go off. Also, light would flicker in sync with road bumps and whoops. So hopefully my intuition is correct. Have a set of Auto Gauge gauges to install to day for a second opinion. The light issue is still intermittent after getting it home, but as you can imagine it's been parked almost the whole time since getting her home, minus taking it to get inspected.

Here's the pic of what a failing dizzy did to my timing belt

Yes, an erratic tach reading coinciding with a misfire/stumble is usually due to the dizzy - the sensor that drives the primary ignition system is inside there and can give erratic signals if dust and/or debris contaminate it. In turn, dust (usually red) or debris there is usually caused by bushing/bearing failure in the dizzy. Replace the whole unit sensor and all. A word of caution about merely cleaning the junk out and putting it back... When the dizzy starts to fail it also tends to try to jam up. I had this happen to mine. It will destroy the timing belt. Fortunately I caught mine before the belt broke. Put a new dizzy in and it fixed my misfire issue but I heard a knocking sound coming from the new dizzy (old one did it too, I thought it would go away with a replacement). Did some research and apparently a knocking sound from the dizzy on a VG series engine is a tell-tale sign of imminent timing belt failure. Took the upper timing cover off and the teeth were almost completely ripped off and rubber dust was everywhere.

Update - charge was fine - a few psi low but not much. Put a bit more in just in case. Made no difference. AC full cold vents blow 79-80 degrees. AC off full heat, it blows about 88 degrees (ambient). Blend door is actuating normally, engine gets to operating temp and stays there, compressor kicks on but doesn't cycle. I'm at my wit's end

Got an issue that just started myself - 93 w/auto AC system (barf). All of a sudden my AC would blow barely cool air ... just a bit below ambient. I noticed when testing that heat does the same thing - blows barely warmer than ambient. I suspected either the PTC (slider control - not a cable on mine but is a variable resistor) or the blend door - it was behaving as if the blend door was stuck in a middling position, never quite cold nor hot. BTW, it's hot as crap here at the moment. However, I pulled the ac module and tested the PTC ohms ... a bit erratic, but not shot. I cleaned it up with alcohol and swab and got very clean 0-1000ohms from full cold to full hot like the FSM says. Pulled the glove box and noted that the mix door control motor is actuating when the PTC is slid from hot to cold and back ... and it's hooked to the blend door itself. The range of motion didn't seem like a lot, so I disonnected the motor and manually actuated the blend door from one extreme to the other - full cold gives a few degrees below ambient, and full hot only gives a few degrees above. I can tell it's doing *something*, just not much. WTH? Just had AC pressure checked a few weeks ago - on the nose. Full radiator, t-stat not stuck open (attains op temps and stays there). Also, I noticed the compressor is not cycling. Which might indicate a big loss of charge since a few weeks ago (never had a leak before), but doesn't explain why heat suddenly stopped working at precisely the same time. Will check charge pressure as soon as I can.

Odd - on my 3 trips to CO with mine, I noticed something similar. After extended periods in 4wd and chugging away on steep climbs to altitude, mine also smells, but it doesn't smell anything remotely of "man-made" chemicals ... no burning oil, fluids, coolant, rubber, plastic, etc. In fact, the best way I can describe it is smelling like I ran over some mountain foliage and sage grass, and it began cooking on the exhaust. It's almost an overpowering perfume smell ... but with no associated flowers stuck in the exhaust (and definitely not the "hot pancake syrup" smell of coolant). It also goes away after cooling down, and never happens outside of my trips to CO. The only thing I can think of is pine sap has been tossed up onto my exhaust during the drive.

Technically not today (last week). Took a little drive to Telluride

First hand, recent experience on those injectors. Had a low-end stumble/hesitation. Nothing I did made it go away. And I did *all* the usual stuff, plus a few other things it needed: plugs/cap/rotor/wires (cheapos then proper NGKs) ... eventually had to replace the distributor itself as the bearing was self-destructing and debris was interfering with the position sensor, making it intermittently undriveable. New IACV. MAF subharness ground fix. Fuel filter. But ... when I replaced the injectors, I suddenly had a VG30E that ran almost as good as when it was new (all the other new bits didn't hurt, I'm sure). The screens on the injectors were dark brown, almost black. I imagine sitting for extended periods can gum up the works moreso than high mileage. Many cans of "injector cleaner" didn't to the job, but swapping them out sure did.

I had the dreaded "high beams don't work" or one would work then not work, then the other, then neither. I didn't install relays, but I did clean the contacts and got 'em working again just fine. My technique: took the switch out and removed the little plastic cover to gain access to the contacts. If you flip the headlight switch around between off, parking lights, and headlights, and then flip the lever between hi/low you can see how the various contacts open and close. I took a strip of sandpaper - medium grit, nothing crazy - folded that strip in half lengthwise so it was a skinny strip that had grit on both sides. For each contact, I'd move the switch until that contact was open, slip the strip in between the open contacts, then move the switch so the contact closed onto the sandpaper strip. I simply dragged the strip out from the contact, adding just a little bit of pressure on the contact with my finger as I pulled the strip out. Did that twice for each contact. Then I took a folded skinny strip of shop towel with some mineral spirits and went through all the contacts again to clean out any residue. Haven't had a problem since.

I will add that it's generally not a good idea to coil excess coax cable, as that creates, well, a coil, which is also called an RF choke and can cause problems. Best to run excess cable in a back-and-forth loose skein or hank than a coil.

I mounted mine using a 90 degree bracket. Near the top hinge on the tire rack is a sheet metal "web" that I drilled for mounting, and got 1.5 SWR on 1 and 40 without running a dedicated ground from the bracket to the chassis. Not the best SWR in the world, but not bad. Cobra 18 WX ST II on a generic coax, generic 90 degree bracket, generic spring, and a 4' Firestick II. Worked great until excessive whipping on the trails busted the conductor inside the spring

Aside from proper diagnostics, running voltage to the right leads and checking the relay circuits operate properly, the cheap-o way is to visually inspect the solder points. I had to do this right off the bat with mine, and sure enough a visual "ring" around one of the solder contacts could be seen, indicating that solder contact had cracked and was only giving intermittent contact. Resolder and has been working fine since.

It's sounding like the blower motor itself is out - perhaps a brush wore down to the nub. I have noticed my fan will hesitate to start spinning if the temps are in the low 40s or lower. Once it does start to spin cold, it squeals very bad until it gets going (as if the factory lubricant, being 21 years old, turns to wax at those temps). I'm waiting to have the same "no blow' problem myself one morning. Been meaning to pull the motor and see if I can fix it before it gives up the ghost.

The old school way of checking for LSD was to chock the front wheels, put the trans in neutral, and lift the rear tires off the ground. When you spin one of the rear wheels, an open diff will spin the other tire in the opposite direction,and a limited slip will spin the other tire in the same direction (and also turn the drive shaft). A real world test might be going to a sandy or gravely area and punch it and see what the rear does - one wheel spinning or two.

Yes, double check that cig lighter fuse. I popped mine putting a stereo in, and it did precisely what you described. I didn't think it had blown either, since I used a continuity tester on the fuses while still in the block - all had tone and continuity. I didn't notice at first, though, that when testing continuity on that cig lighter fuse, the courtesy lights would light up under the dash - it was finding continuity through the wiring, not the fuse. When I pulled it and inspected it visually, it was indeed blown, and a new one fixed it all right up.