'89 K stalling, not wanting to start after (LONG)

Hey Guys,

Wondering if anyone might have any suggestions to my problem. Recently I was low on fuel, stopped at gas station and filled up. Hot day and truck was at normal operating temp. Tried to start truck and she wouldn't start.
Cranked her over a couple of times and she finally fired, but kind of chugged into life. Idle was fine but hunting about 100 RPM or so. Put her in drive and stepped on gas, and she stalled. Check engine light came on.

THis went on for about 10 attempts. Hard to start, finally starting then stalling when fed fuel in gear. I then let her sit while holding the engine at 3000 rpm in Neutral. THis resulted in sporadic rough running. RPM would hold for a bit then she would kind of choke off and RPM would drop to 1000 or so then catch again.

Anyway, I limped her home, and figured out to let her idle up to 30 Kmph before hitting the gas pedal. On the freeway, everything seemd fine and by the time she was home, she was her old self..purring like a kitten.

I had the mechanics do a tune up on her (it needed it) and described the problems. I figured water in the fuel then. Report came back, tune up done(new plugs, cap rotor, and wires), fuel filter changed (no crap in old one), mythel hydrate added to gas, could not replicate complaint, truck running fine. And it was, until last saturday.

Again another hot day, long trip and on the way home, at several stop lights she again, stalled out, but this time while idleing. Not as hard to start this time, but on the freeway, going about 80 Kmph (50 mph) steady, the engine quit again. I quickly dropped her into neutral and let her roll along. THe engine then restarted on her own, I put it in drive and again, made it home with no problems. Everytime this happens, the check engine light comes on, but I have nothing to interrogate the computer with. What do I need for that?

I am now thinking either fuel or spark (as it must be one of the two). Could the fuel pressure regulator need changing? Maybe the coil is bad? When truck is cool, there are no problems with it starting, idling or driving. Both times it has happened after lengthy driving, on a hot day.

Can anyone point me in the right direction of where I should start looking? I'm gonna fix this myself, as I don't feel like paying a mech again who cannot replicate the condition in the first place.

Any and all help appreciated ;)

If the check engine light comes on while the truck is running there should be some code to read, but if the light comes on after the engine has died it is normal.
you need to be a bit more spefic on what happens when it dies or idles rough, but the first thing I would do the next time it happens is pull a plug or two to see whats happening, fuel soaked=bad spark or bad fuel delivery, black fluff = running rich=possable bad o2 sensor or temp sensor, etc,
with the information given I couldn't even guess, it could be many things, Egr cat, repost with what you find.
to retrieve trouble codes you jumper the two far right terminals of the plug screwed to the underside of your dash drivers side with the ign key off, "I use a paper clip, I always carry one in my truck for just such an emergency", then turn the key to on and watch your check engine light, it should flash once then pause then twice "a 12 code", it will do this 3 times, this indicates your in diagnostic mode, keep watching your light and it will flash a code such as 4 blinks pause then 2 blinks, it will do this 3 times as well "a 42 code", if there are other codes it will then flash these 3 times for however many codes there are set, after give'ing all the trouble codes stored it will then again flash a 12 code.

Fuzzy,

Thanks for the help. I'll have a look at the plugs next time it happens. Thanks for the info about getting codes out of the computer. It might help the next time it happens. I'll let you know.

To rule out this is a fuel issue, see if fuel is coming out the injectors. All you have to do is remove the air cleaner and have someone watch the injectors when it won't start. It will be obvious if you are getting fuel or not.

//2000CAYukon

I'm NOT suggesting you go here first, but I experienced something similar in my 1988 IROC 350 TPI about 2 years ago. I went through EVERYTHING (don't even get me started.) Finally turned out to be a bad computer. I don't even remember how I figured it out - I think I had already replaced everything else.

It was a wierd problem, because it would run fine, and suddenly quit. I could be driving down the freeway at 80, and the engine would just die, as if i had turned off the key.

So kind of tuck it away in the back of your mind, but check the likely stuff first, and if you're getting codes, by all means follow the diagnostic trees and do things in order.

Keep us posted!

Jonathan

You should be able to get the codes read at your local parts store for free. Most offer it to sell thier parts. Hope it works out.

Hey guys,

First off, thanks for all the help with this problem.

So I finally ripped the distributor out of the truck and replaced the pick up coil and module. I put in a new oem module. The old one was a really crappy aftermarket one. Anyway, the problem seems to have sorted itself out now. I did manage to figure out that what was happening was the module was faulty, as the injectors would not spray sometimes when the key was turned. That explains the unwillingness to start after it had died.

The only thing is that now on start up, it runs a bit rough until she gets warmed up a bit. I'll have a look at that when I get some time next weekend.

Hope this thread helps every one, because every problem does have a solution, even if you have to buy a new truck to fix the old one!!! LOL