Vibrations, then loss of power

Vehicle: 1987 pickup 22r

33×10 tires

4.88s in the rear/front diff


Today I was driving on the highway and as I reached a hill I began to lose power.... not too unusual with the tire size and little motor, but this time it was way worse.

The entire truck started to shake and my speed dropped at an alarming rate, down shifting had no effect, then I heard a pop in the engine bay and immediately assumed the worst. Pooped the thing nuetral and took the next exit.

I came to a stop and only being a mile or so from home decided to push on. No weird noises at idle, not vibrations, everything seemed fine.

Drive home was good even got back up to Highway speeds (slightly downhill), and everything was good. Popped the hood when I got home and saw no obvious signs of damage.

I had to take the jeep to work, sad I know, but I am worried about trying to take the yota out until I get and idea of what may be bad.

I have a weber carb, no cat, no vacuums leaks, and the timming was set a couple of months ago. I'm at a loss. Could it be the clutch or possibly the rear diff? Any help would be much appreciated.

 

Wild guess here, but sounds more like a fuel issue to me. Like you were running overly lean or rich and maybe had some excess fuel detonate in the exhaust when it popped. Would think a mechanical failure wouldn't just go away if it were clutch or diff.

 

True, mixture may be the cause. I do have the weber carb on there that has the single mixture screw and is a pain to tune and keep spot on, I'll look into that. I bought an entire gasket set and some vacuum lines so I'll replace those and look at the timing chain this weekend and then set ignition timing. If it comes back after that then I'll go from there.