Jump to content

dayid

New Members
  • Posts

    11
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Profile Information

  • Location
    Central, FL
  • Cars
    '86 720

dayid's Achievements

Newbie

Newbie (1/14)

2

Reputation

  1. dayid

    My New 720 Diesel

    Odd, I've never seen a thermostat fail any way but open To extents, they do. Otherwise, there'd be no reason to have a thermostat on any vehicle at all - you'd just run a ton of coolant and have really long lines and large radiators on everything to keep really cool. Engines running too cool can be detrimental to their efficiency and longevity - Not that you use it - but you'll also notice your heater doesn't really work, since it won't warm up enough to get hot air to you. Having a thermostat in and having your temperature almost spike doesn't mean much unless you removed it and found that it was stuck closed - finding a bad radiator afterwards points to your cause.
  2. dayid

    My New 720 Diesel

    Removing the thermostat is a bad idea. The cooling loop normally works in a whole/partial loop to keep the vehicle cool. When you remove the thermostat, it *always* works in the whole loop. What the thermostat does - is when the vehicle is too cool - restricts the coolant to only a partial loop - letting it warm up more (think of it as warming up/cycling 1 gallon of liquid vs 2) If you believe that "diesels like it warm" yet at the same time your temp gauge isn't riding right in the middle - then removing the thermostat is going to be worse for your engine - since it may remain too cool by not being able to warm up the fluid enough. This is a common problem for folks (like me even...) who had thermostats fail - they normally fail in the open position. When they do this, the coolant is always doing the whole loop rather than properly warming up in the partial loop before reaching the proper temperature (or load) where they need the full loop to keep warm. Normally having a really low temp when not under a load is the sign of a failing thermostat that's stuck open. Your motor running cool is good - to extents - but running too cool is bad. There's a good reason why these vehicles have a thermostat. It's your own - but I'd highly suggest keeping a thermostat. For the $2 they cost it's worth having your motor's temp in the sweet spot.
  3. Not so long as you make sure to put the cap/rotor back on in the same orientation that it came off. Also, hookless beds should be double-walled (like my 09/85 '86 ST model) - that's the oddball for the pre "hardbody" (hardbody being for the thicker bedsides, but now is mostly known to refer to the D21 series).
  4. My '86 720 5-speed regular cab/long bed gets around 24/25... I wouldn't expect the auto to get much worse, I'd imagine around 20/22. The EPA says around 18/21 for an '85 auto IIRC the tank is like 16 gallons (not sure, would have to check manual), but I normally fill up when the gauge hits the 1/4 mark and put in around 10-11 gallons.
  5. correct, 86.5 was D21's arrival
  6. I really hope this doesn't sound like a dick thing to say, but I'll give it a go anyways: You're in school (high school?) You bought a truck from a crackhead with a known questionable history ...without getting the title in hand right then signed to you Said crackhead later pulls out the title, still in his name, and wants his truck back. If I'm wrong in my shortening of this thread I apologize in advance, but while there are moral problems on his end, the legal issue (and - not to mean, but stupidity issue) is on your end. How much money did you lose in this truck? (and - in that number, also figure the cost of "using" the truck during the time... e.g., if I buy a $1k truck and a year later it's stolen, I didn't lose $1k, since I "got value" by using the vehicle for 12 months). I'd avoid all of these folks like the plague and move on and learn from this.
  7. Broke out the ol' Haynes last night - found the table you were talking about. No idea how I never had noticed it before, but it clears up a LOT when looking at these darn schematics!
  8. Ah, I have a Haynes but it normally stays on the shelf since I find the FSM in general has better information. I'll have to double-check my Haynes and maybe break out the coloured pencils on the FSM. :thumbup:
  9. If I listed everything that isn't stock there'd be no more room left to talk about the problem :rofl: But seriously, I didn't even think about it since that was done a year and some 12,000 miles ago. Yeah, that's the fusible link that we've been talking about. These I replaced when I got the truck also since the stock thin-bands were cracked. In re-checking the splicing this morning the white/black-striped wire on the ignition-switch PAS connector (that takes a 15amp fuse on the fusible link to ignition) looks like of the X# strands of wire in it, only maybe 75% were clamped well by the connector at the ignition plug end. Removed this post of the connector and re-spliced it and re-inserted. AFAIK that end of the connector is 100% stock, and until trying to debug this the only time any portion of the dash was out was when I replaced the speedometer cable back 5 months and 5,000 miles ago. Even then, I only had the gauge cluster out, not the steering column/area where the ignition switch is, so who knows. I had since wired in the two switches and push button start - but that was many miles after this had originally occurred, so while I may have worsened it then, I couldn't've originally caused it. I've only driven maybe 50 or so miles since redoing that end of the connector, but sometimes this problem had slept for 50-100 miles before re-popping up, so I'll just have to drive more to see. I think this is where I really need to write myself better notes in the FSM, since "WL" wire being "White with black line" isn't very clear to me, and of all the tables/definitions/symbols they give in the electrical section, I haven't noticed any that describe the wiring colours/striping details.
  10. So tonight driving home from my midnight shift it died... and completely died - not jerk as it died and then lurched back to life again. Since I'd not been sure if it was the ignition switch or not, I looked down at my new lit-ignition switch - no light. So I check fuses, etc, and find everything good. Unfortunately (and fortunately) my main fusible link had burnt up before I got the truck, so I have all individual inline fuses there instead of the normal fusible link. It's made debugging some things easier, and others a little more PITA. After checking the fuses, got back in the cab and it was happy again. I'm *really* hoping you guys are right about the loose connection at where the fusible link had been - that would coincide perfectly with it working again after I pulled on the wires to get a better look at the inline fuses. I'd been partially writing off a loose wire since it sometimes does this at 70MPH on the highway, sometimes at 55MPH on a smooth road, and I've even had it do it while sitting idle at a stop light not moving at all - but then going down dirt road (or over speed bumps, etc - where it jostles the truck more) it kept on going. Tomorrow I plan to re-evaluate the links where the old wiring harsness is tied in to the new replacement wires. I'll be the happiest guy driving a 720 if it ends up just being having to rejoin a connection! Intermittent is the worst!
  11. Vehicle: 1986 720 2wd Z24 manual, regular-cab long-bed, ST I've got the worst type of problem - intermittent. I've had it occur with and w/o my AC on, same for headlights, regardless of speed, regardless of gear, sometimes after running for nearly an hour, othertimes just minutes after starting - where it seems like my ignition cuts out. I've got a 1-year old alternator, my charging system light isn't on, my voltometer reads properly, and I've recently removed - polished - and replaced all the grounds on my truck to ensure good connections. This past week I replaced my auto-choke-relay (since I was hearing it click when this occurs - and I wasn't sure if it was the cause or just another symptom). I replaced my ignition switch just to verify that it wasn't the culprit. What happens lasts just a portion of a second - but I've had times where it's last probably 2-3 seconds - is that my truck acts like someone came along and turned off power to the ignition. It acts just like if you were running down the road and turned the key from IGN to ACC and then back again. The wiring for this system looks so simple in the FSM and Haynes, but I can't wrap my head around where else my problem could be. I've got a multimeter and I'm "OK" with it, but it's hard to test a circuit/system when it's so intermittent - any suggestions?
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.