What an ordeal the past few weeks have been with the crew cab! About 3 weeks ago tomorrow it failed its first run through emissions due to (mostly) a lack of air injection system (and high HCs and CO at idle). On the emissions report they didn't even say it needed a catalytic converter -- but the air pump missing was a visual fail.
A week or so later I bring it back it fails due to high HCs at idle, but passes otherwise (visually and for CO) and this time around they say it has to have a cat.
I bring it back home my brother and I set the timing (was off a wee bit) and get the idle mixture set. We head back to emissions and they pull it into one of the lanes (after giving it the visual inspection) and it won't start for them. So they push it out and I sign the "unable to test" form. No money spent but I wasn't in a good mood. My girlfriend runs home from work, grabs some tools, and meets us at the emissions station. For the life of us we couldn't get it started. I call my insurance company and setup a tow (finally get to use the towing service I've been paying for)! I have it towed to my local shop that I use for alignments, AC, service, and other things I can't (or don't know how to) do.
The next morning they set the timing and it starts right up for them. While they had it I asked them to give the truck a once over and they said the front right wheel bearing was toast so it takes them another day to get the bearing in/installed and send the hub off to a machine shop to be fixed (apparently it was chewed up/unevenly worn).
After that's all said and done I drive it back up to emissions earlier last week and it makes it into the testing lane again and -- no start! So they push it out and I try a couple of times but it just won't start. It was getting gas but didn't appear to be getting spark.
Once again I have it towed back in to my shop (same tow driver even) and they look at it the next morning and it finally acts up for them. They confirm it's getting intermittent spark but not sure where it's coming from.
Long story short it had a bad distributor; the pickup plate's rivets had come loose and it was just flopping around in there. It was somewhat rusty so it looks like a bit of moisture got in the at some point. I didn't notice it was loose when I did the cap and rotor so I don't know if it let go since or I was just oblivious. Either way it did take the shop a couple of days to track it down -- and it probably would have taken me much longer.
Of course a cold front moved in so I'm waiting until it warms up again before I take it back into emissions (so sometime this coming week) -- for (hopefully) the last time for a long while!