I've been trying to figure out a freak issue on my 92 F150 4.9. On a few occasions when I've hit a decent sized water puddle on the right side, my charging system drops out, and the truck does just about everything but die. The strange thing is though, when I pulled over and popped the hood, the passenger's side of the engine compartment looks nice and dry, alternator included. The drivers side looks pretty wet though, which causes me to suspect maybe plug wires or dist cap. got wet, but doesn't really explain the drop in the charging system.

Question is, are there components inside the fender wells, or something exposed potentially that I can look for and maybe protect? My 93 never did this, so I'm suspecting something's a little out of the ordinary.

Thanks

 

Is it possible that the drive belt(s) is/are getting wet and temporarily slipping until dried out? Do you notice the steering feeling differently as well?

 

I didn't hear or feel any slippage, though I won't rule it out. Steering seemed to feel the same, was almost like my charging system dropped out, but the alternator didn't look wet. I have a spare alt that I might try out, just in case.

 

It may help to clean your battery connections well and use dielectric grease.
They don't have to look bad for a poor connection.
Also check for clean grounds.

 

What tiap said plus, I found this out years ago when washing the engine at a car wash, the distributor cap does get wet so I take a dry rag with me and after washing and before starting up I pop the cap and wipe it out.

 

My 91 occasionally loses accessories when dring in the rain, I think there's a shield missing somewhere.

Sometimes when driving in the forest the dizzy cap gets all wet and just about kills the engine. I think grease and a good cap would help but it's not enough of an issue that I really care.

 

Sorry for the neglect on my thread here, I've been working on trying to find the cause of this, but couldn't get the cap off with a screw driver, have to find my small sockets to get a better grip on the bolts. That said, thanks to the snow here this week my problem amplified. It is running terribly, unless I am really on the gas. I'm suspicious of the TPS, and I'll check that out soon, and it triggered the check engine light, so I'll grab my code reader and see what's up with that too. I suppose if there is condensation in the cap, it would just get worse and worse, but do the new symptoms prompt any other areas to look at?

**Edit**
I also noticed what i believe to be a check valve failure for the smog pump as I'm getting a lot of noise from that area. I'm wondering if that could result in a vacuum leak because of a busted diaphragm since I saw a vacuum line attached to it. Need to yank that stupid pump anyway (dang eco commies....)

 

Found the problem. Finally got a nice day to pop the hood and pull the dist cap and it was a nightmare. One of the cap bolts broke off flush in the distributor, so had to pull the whole unit out, drill out the busted bolt and then rethread, and then fight to get my timing lined up again. But for all the trouble, the cap was indeed bad. One of the worst I've ever seen. The rotor nearly had a hole worn through the top metal tab, the button in the cap was worn flat, and the insides were green, corroded and cracked. It starts and runs nice and smooth now, and I'm beyond glad that it was just a "simple" fix.

 

Ok, I thought this was fixed, but I haven't had to drive it much on rainy days. The issue is still here. I've replaced the cap, rotor, wires, and plugs, so within reason the ignition side should be in good order. I pulled out my code reader this morning after it began sputtering and kicking again and got the following codes.

KOEO:
522 - Vehicle Not In Park Or Neutral During KOEO (It was)
173 - HO2S System Indicates Rich
334 - EGR Valve Position Sensor Closed Valve Voltage Higher Than Expected

KOER:
173 - HO2S System Indicates Rich
213 - Spark Output (SPOUT) Circuit Open (Doesn't "look" like it's unplugged)
538 - Insufficient RPM Change During KOER Dynamic Response Test

While I'm looking into what the codes represent, I curious if their conditions could possibly factor into what I have going on. I had just driven it to work when I read these, so it was at operating temperature and ready for reading.

Thoughts?