LUVTruck.com

Hey, guys, I need your help.

This weekend I took my 80 4x4 luv onto the beach and in the entrance there was a puddle of water that burried my truck up to the license plate in water. Immediately the "Heat" light came on and stayed on. The truck made it through fine. Never cut off. Drove fine all the rest of the day and through the night with the exception of that "Heat" light being on now.

Went to start it the next morning. It starts up with a long start, but dies on idle. You can keep it running if you give it gas and keep the idle way up. But it will no longer run with the original 900 rpm idle.

Also all of my guages are now not working. Fuel, Temp, Heat light is on all the time, Gen light is on all the time. They were working the day before after the off-roading. My blinkers don't work. The emergency brake light doesn't work. Real Brake lights do work.

I took it to NAPA and they said my battery is good and that my alternator is charging fine. But the gen light is on all the time.

I am at a loss. Was thinking that maybe a ground corroded overnight? Anbody got any ideas? Had this happen to them before?


On a side note... I was the smallest truck on the beach running right along side Hummers, huge jacked up full size chevy's and fords, and everyone was starring at the luv in amazment. HaHa, she sure is sweet.

Check all of your fuses and as many ground wire connections you can find.

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Richard Barnes Salt Lake, Utah
1980 Luv Mikado 4X4
http://geocities.com/luvtruck2004/

IT's fun to see other people's recation to a Luv's. My luv can out climb my brothers tacoma in 2wd. (Though I have a LSD and the tacoma is a one legger. hehe)

Alright!!! Got some of the issues fixed. It was a bad fuse. I don't know which circuit was bad because I just took all of them out and put all new ones in.

That takes care of everything except for the "Heat" light. I'm not sure what that light even means since it has both a temp gauge and a heat light. I saw some threads on it yesterday, so I will search around and see if I can find out what it's for and why it's still lit all the time. Guess I fried the sending unit or something.

Thanks for the help so far. If anybody has any ideas on why that heat light would be on all the time after going through water or what it is for, I would appreciate it.

From what I recall, the heat light for a sensor in the catalytic converter on California emissions equipped trucks. Look for a wire coming out of your cat and that will be it. That said, the heat light has come on in my 77 three or four times in the 14 years I've been driving it and it has never had a cat, so it could be some sort of phatom wiring thing too.

Hey, guys, I was so wrong. The fuses didn't fix the problem. That was just coincidence I guess. The problem is intermitent. Yesterday I pulled it out of the garage and it went back and forth where the gauges would work and then they wouldn't. When the gauges aren't working, the truck won't idle.

My next step is to check all the grounds and make sure they have a clean connection. I know there is one on the side of the engine block from the negative terminal, and one from the coil to the sidewall of the fender. Is there anymore up underneath the truck connected to the frame?

Anyone got any ideas what's going on? Had this happen to them before?

P.S. When I tightened my negative terminal (it was really loose), the "Heat" light went off and hasn't come back on. Some weird stuff going on with this truck.

There is a ground strap from the transmission to the floorboard of the cab, also I think one from the firewall to the head/block somewhere. Ground problems sounds about right to me, I think you're on the right track.

Solution - (at least it seems to be). Voltage Regulator. When I got off of work today, I figured I would just take it off and see if they could test it up at autozone. The dude couldn't test it, so I made him agree that if I took home a new one and it didn't fix the problem, then I could bring it back for full refund.

Put it on and voila. Gauges work, Gen light is off, and the truck will idle. After a week, I was so ready for the luv to be running again.

Thanks for the help guys.