[davester3500]

Hit the junkyard today, and found a MAF sensor, a black driver's door panel and a nice steering wheel. I was pleasantly surprised to find the door panel, as normally it's either gone or busted by someone getting some other part from the door, but all 4 of them were stacked in the bed of the truck, and had all been removed pretty cleanly (whoever did it did cut the cable to the latch and one of the wiring harnesses instead of disconnecting them).

Installed them all. The MAF sensor seems to be reading the IAT a bit better (closer to ambient) than the other ones, but still need to figure out the engine load problem. And need to find a black trim piece for holding the window/lock/mirror controls.

I will also need to make a steel mount for the interior door handle, as the plastic one is almost worn out. There are replacement pieces from various manufacturers to "fix" the handle, but they are also made of plastic and will wear out.

 

[davester3500]

Well, I've been having no luck w figuring out why the engine load is still high all the time. I've swapped the maf/map/ap sensors, and the throttle body, and the changes have made only a slight difference.

I've pulled the wiring for the 3 sensors from my parts truck, and will test it to see that the wires have good connectivity, then put them on my truck and see if it helps. I did have to cut the ground wire from the MAF sensor, otherwise I'd have to rewire the rest of the top-end electrical bits (and maybe more), it'll still be a bit of a hassle as the MAF power wire also goes to the EVAP solenoid on the intake manifold.

 

[davester3500]

Started swapping maf/map/ap sensor wires to the truck today.

Naturally there was still a bunch of dirt in the release mechanisms of the ecm plugs, with a bonus that the p.o. partially broke the middle one. I was able to use a large pair of visegrip pliers to hold the sides of the connector together, so the release lever would push the connector off instead of being able to slide past the mechanism to do this. I'm considering depinning the whole connector and swapping it with the one from the parts truck, which is fully functional.

And evidently the VSS sensor wires got cut/broken, and this is how it was repaired. It works, so I'll leave it for now, but I'll know where the problem is if the speedo stops working in the future.

As for depinning the connector, I looked at a bunch of youtube videos on doing it, some using a special tool for going through that gray cover in the above pic, some removing that cover, and then varying opinions on removing the plate & seal across the back of the connector. For depinning the parts truck connector, I removed the gray piece, using a long thin screwdriver with the tip bent over 90 degree's, to pull the connector straight out (alternating pulling each end out a bit more at a time), pulled the rear plate and seal off, about an inch (as all the wires go through it), then used a thin screwdriver to push the individual pins latch away to pull out the connector. This worked ok, the only annoyance was getting the connector to go through the backing plate, because I took the plate off, the pin can spin, but it can only go through the backing plate in one specific orientation, and naturally it would spin so it takes a second attempt to get it through. Doing the job on the main truck, I left the seal and backing plate in place, and the pin just slid through it with no problem.

Also replaced the bracket holding the ecm, as naturally the p.o. broke off one of the tabs holding the ecm in place.

And a tip for reinstalling the connectors, the silicon seals can make it hard to slide in place. From having this same problem w the ITBC that uses a similar connector, I found that applying a bit of dielectric grease to the silicon seal allows it to slide on the connector instead of grabbing on it, and it becomes much easier for the lever to pull the connector onto the ecm.

Tomorrow, I'll complete doing the job.

 

[davester3500]

Ugh, what a train wreck. After the success of the MAP pins on the x3 connector, I totally screwed the pooch with the MAF/IAT/AP pins on the X1 connector. Evidently I both can't count right, as well as not able to flip the orientation properly going from the front to the back of the connector, so multiple pins were done wrong. Then as near as I can tell, I fried the ecm, most likely from doing this work while the power was still connected, as the code reader couldn't connect with the original ecm, but if I swap in the ecm from the parts truck it can.

I blame the above on being poisoned by printing a bunch of ASA filament over the last week without having a good vent for the printer going outside. I've since connected up it up so it vents out a nearby window, so this shouldn't happen again

Go to fire up ACDelcoTDS/SPS, 3 weeks past the subscription, so need to pay again, then it's figuring out what craziness they decided to add to their connect software so it doesn't want to run. The only good part of this is that while their web site has a big warning about counterfeit devices being disabled/not working, the one I have at least minimally works with it, in that it worked for talking with the truck initially for reading the vin. I need to charge up the battery, and figure out what fuses to pull to disable a bunch of other computers before reprogramming the ecm, and then proceed with the security system reset, and whatever else needs to be done to get it talking to all the other computers again. Hopefully they haven't added the check for the MDI device later on, like right before programming starts...

Naturally, this happens when my home internet connection isn't working, and I drop my cell phone so the screen is partially disabled (1/2 win, because I would be really screwed if it was more than just the left 1/4 of the screen), and most of my monthly internet on it is blown setting up a replacement phone that took multiple tries to restore (evidently Apple assumes everyone has ready access to a wifi interet connect).

 

[RedSLEd]

Hang in there, take a deep breath. You'll figure it out.

 

[davester3500]

And ACDelco did the "I'll work once, and then stop working with clone mdi devices" trick.

 

[davester3500]

Well, after some back and forth w ACDelcoTDS, they unlocked my account from using a knockoff MDI, and getting a Topdon J2534 passthrough device for $400, I was able to use ACDelcoTDS/SPS to reprogram the ecm from my parts truck to have the vin & programming for my main truck, reset the theft deterrent system, then after some fiddling, used Tech2Win to relearn the crankshaft and brake pedal sensor, and the truck is back to running like it was before.

I still need to complete the work I was doing, getting the replacement wires inside new loom (I don't want to cut open all the existing loom to stuff it in there), but from a quick check, it didn't fix the high engine load.

I'll try disconnectig the muffler on the weekend, and see if that makes a difference, as I suppose it could be plugged/damaged.

 

[davester3500]

After the ecm debacle, I noticed I still got one code, that I never had before (now I get the codes for having no cat's), P0452, fuel tank pressure sensor low voltage.

Given what I had been doing, repinning things on the ecm connectors, and that I had botched at least some of them, I assumed I messed up one or more of the pins to that sensor. Disconnect and untape it, look at the connector, nope didn't pull any of the pins for the sensor (3 pins, they were still dirty and with dirt around the base of the pins). So, it's not the pins, so look at the wiring, insulation looks ok, but wires could be broken, so I do some end to end testing (which, thankfully, is much easier to do on my truck, as I can just pull a couple boards up to access the top of the fuel tank:

).

I clean and blow out all the dirt from the connectors to be able to disconnect them, then test the 3 wires on the pressure sensor, all have good continuity. Plug the ecu back in, then test that the sensor is getting 5V and ground, yup it is, but still reporting 0V/P0452. Pull the signal wire out of the ecu plug, power up the truck and yup, it's getting 0V. Pull the sensor out of the tank and do some resistance testing on it, signal pin is open to the power pin, and has low resistance to ground pin, so the sensor decided to fail right at the same time as the ecu did.

Instead of driving around and blowing about $100 on a replacement sensor, I dropped the fuel tank on my parts truck and pulled it from there, plugged it in, and it's back to reporting no fault.

 

[davester3500]

Last fall, I rejigged the fuel fill port a bit, to make it be more of a straight line to the fuel tank, before it was more horizontal right by the port, then the hoses curved down to the tank. I did this to hopefully improve filling the fuel tank, which generally required me to manually fill very slowly (slower than what any set notches would do). And before this, I had checked/tested that the evap vent solenoid worked, that the lines were clear, and that I could blow through the evap canister ports, but none of that did much to help. The rejigging made it so I could sometimes use the slowest notch, but not often, and it still wasn't unusual for fuel to back up and come out sometimes while filling.

Today, I tried swapping the evap canister from my parts truck to it, and that was the ticket. Now I could fill full speed about 1/2 a tank and it didn't click off until the tank was full.

All I can think of is the old canister didn't flow air quite as easily as the replacement does, and that was enough to cause the problem. It wasn't posting any evap codes either before or after this swap.

 

[swathdiver]

Dave, what's wrong with your engine load? I guess I didn't go back far enough.

 

[davester3500]

Dave, what's wrong with your engine load? I guess I didn't go back far enough.

I can't tell you when it started (if it was a problem w the original engine when I first got it, or just w the latest engine or what), but the engine load seems quite high, all the time. It's a little better now that the cat's have been removed, but it's still high.

Right now, at idle, it's around 25%, and will dip to about 20% with the engine sped up to 2k rpm. IIRC, my '04 is about 5-6% at idle, for comparison.

Just recently, I tried disconnecting the exhaust between the y pipe and the muffler, to see if that would make a difference in the load number, but it didn't, so it's not a plugged muffler.

The mpg is also worse, the '04 would get about 28l/100km (8.4mpg) while the '12 is getting about 32l/100km(7.3mpg), both towing the same trailer (about 4k lbs). Sure the '12 sits higher, is physically a bigger brick, and is heavier, but I think it's at least partially because the engine load is higher all the time.

 

[swathdiver]

Well, my engine load at idle used to be 28% (not in gear) with my 5.3 for many years and it has slowly dropped. Now it is about 22% at idle, not in gear. This is viewed through the Tech-2. The horsepower (RWHP) of the engine has increased from 307 to 326 during that time.

 

[davester3500]

Finally got around to being annoyed enough that the 4wd engaged light on the IP wasn't working that I actually diagnosed it today.

Started with depinning the two pins to the ecu to indicate 4wd mode, and 4lo mode, then powered up the truck and shifted between modes (and then realized I can't shift it into N or 4Lo anymore). 4lo pin couldn't be tested, but 4wd pin didn't get power.

Inserted a stub wire into the ecu connector, applied power to it, and 4wd light goes on, so ecu forward is working fine.

Took off the plug from the front diff actuator, looked at the wire going to the ecu more closely, and it looked pretty banged up, but the rest of the wires are working as the spare actuator I have moves in/out fine (and 4wd mode worked fine driving around).

Cut off the end of the wire, stripped it, applied power and IP also light up, so it was either both actuators failed in the same way, or the wire was busted.

Went over to the parts truck and was going to just grab the end of that one wire so it was the right color, but remembered the harness is short and separate from everything else, just goes from the front diff to near the fuse box, so pulled the whole harness. Tested it by plugging it into the truck and spare actuator, and it worked, both the actuator moved and the 4wd light goes on/off, so it is the harness.

Re-taped the new harness to protect the end of it a bit better, and replace the tape that was coming apart, installed it, and it's good to go.

Having a spare truck for parts works great...

The parts truck came an electric shift transfer case, so I'm not going to rebuild that to throw it into this truck, but I might do a double swap in the summer, first test that the transfer case is in 2wd mode (or shift it into that mode), swap it in, then rebuild the manual transfer case, and swap it back. But I should probably first crawl under the truck and see if anything is jamming the shifting mechanism on the outside of the TC.