WTF, Rita: What I'm Working On

[whiskytangoford]

Hey all. New guy here. Don't worry, I already introduced myself in the appropriate section. I figured I'd take a moment while I'm waiting on a part to come in, to write a bit about what I've been working on - on the off chance someone finds this helpful, or on the greater chance that I'm making a horribly stupid mistake and someone will point it out. Or maybe nobody will read this, and I'm just jacking off on the keyboard. Either way, here we go.


The Case of the Clogged Catalytic Converter
About a week after I bought the truck - her name's Rita - I started having a stalling problem. I could only drive for about 5 minutes before she'd shut down on me, and I'd have to wait a couple hours before I could get rolling again. So I took her in to a friend of a friend's shop, and after some testing, he let me know that I had a clog in the catalytic converter.

Well, shoot.

I'd bought Rita to work on her myself - learn by doing - but if there was one thing I wasn't prepared to do, it was any of the welding required to put together a partial or whole exhaust system. Keep in mind a few things: I don't have a garage, so all the work I do is done outside in whatever weather the gods decide to throw my way; my tool collection consisted of a wrench and socket set, a hammer, and some weird metal-looking things I thought might be called "screws"; and when I bought Rita, my knowledge of automobiles was just barely at the level of "gas goes in the gas tank, not the tailpipe". So Rita became a large, decorative piece in my driveway for a while.

Then my other vehicle - an '02 Cavalier - blew an engine rod in August, and I needed to fix the truck fast. So I borrowed a reciprocating saw, took Rita in to work and used a forklift to lift her up, hacked the catalytic converter off at both ends, and drove her home with no issues.

Of course I knew I'd need to replace the converter eventually - definitely before winter - but I'd get to that down the road. And for now, I had a running truck again.

Or so I thought.


The Case of the Terrible TFI Module
I quickly found that, while Rita could now run past the 5-minute mark, she'd still stall after 15-30 minutes of driving - depending on the outside temperature. I did some research, but there were a lot of different opinions about what could cause the issue, so I wasn't really sure where to start. Found a great article here at The Station all about my 1986 Cologne V6 engine, and that led me to learn that the TFI module on the backside of my distributor could get fried by the engine's heat, over time. Okay, good, let's try swapping it out for a fresh one.

Replacement module was $25 on Amazon, and the special little tool for the job ran another $8 - a lot less than I thought I'd have to spend. I was able to get the old module out without removing the distributor, but I wound up one screw short. I finally found the screw I needed at the fourth store I checked, so I clipped the new unit in, screwed in one side - and discovered the other side was stripped out. Pretty sure the screw I thought I'd lost hadn't even been in there to begin with. Oh well, it holds for now, and eventually I'll probably replace the distributor anyway. Best of all, the TFI module swap fixed my stalling issue, and I could once again drive anywhere the road would take me.

...for about a week.


Next time: The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Brakes

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

Masturbation can feel good, but I tell you now that's not what you're doing. Awaiting your next installment.
Welcome to TRS.

Richard

 

[Elutheros]

Yeh, life is a learning process. That missing screw could be causing the premature failure of your TFI. The distributor acts as the heat sink for the TFI and if the TFI is not mounted tightly to it, the heat is not getting transferred away from the TFI. There is also the issue of the heat transfer paste which is supposed to be applied to the TFI before installation--you may have received that with the new unit. There are technical articles showing how to move the TFI to a remote (cooler) location here on the forum. Good Luck with the learning curve!

 

[whiskytangoford]

Masturbation can feel good, but I tell you now that's not what you're doing. Awaiting your next installment.
Welcome to TRS.

Thanks Richard. Still working on the brakes issue, once I've got it resolved I'll write it up!

Yeh, life is a learning process. That missing screw could be causing the premature failure of your TFI. The distributor acts as the heat sink for the TFI and if the TFI is not mounted tightly to it, the heat is not getting transferred away from the TFI. There is also the issue of the heat transfer paste which is supposed to be applied to the TFI before installation--you may have received that with the new unit. There are technical articles showing how to move the TFI to a remote (cooler) location here on the forum. Good Luck with the learning curve!

Thanks for the advice, Elutheros. I'd had a similar thought about the missing screw being a bit unhealthy for the TFI module, and once I have other more urgent issues solved, I'll probably tackle replacing the distributor. I did get some paste with the new unit, and I picked up a larger quantity of heat sink goo so I'd have it on hand. And I've looked at that remote-mounting article you're talking about, but once again -- more urgent matters to deal with for the time being.

Thanks for the replies, guys! See you around.