1988 chevy 305

[Christian62]

Please help!!!

I have a Chevrolet pickup (1988) with a 305, recently I had distributor problems. Long story short, I replaced the distributor, the truck sat for approximately 6 months during this time. I can can start the motor and it runs okay at higher rpms, however it will not idle, it just dies as if it was starving for fuel. Does anyone have any ideas why? What can I try?

Thanks

[wrightz28]

Did you set the timing and reconnect the tan ECM wire?

[Christian62]

I can't get it to idle to set the timing correctly, I figured I should be close if it starts. I;m not sure I know what wire you are talking about.

[twistedtech]

It is in 1 of 2 spot's. # 1, under the hood at the pass side of firewall under plastic cover ( big cover ) #2 Roll back the floor mat in the pass side and look for a tan/white around the heaterbox/floor area.

[Christian62]

Okay,

The wire was connected, any other ideas?

[mooseye]

Maybe a little late, but you have to unplug the wire to set the base timeing to 0 degrees then when you plug the wire back in the computer takes over the timing.

[silicon212]

Have a friend keep the engine running by keeping a foot on the gas, just enough to keep it from stalling. While your friend does this, rotate the distributor until the RPM increases.

Now, see if it will idle. If it will, then disconnect the ECM wire from the distributor (this will cause the MIL, 'service engine soon' lamp to light, ignore this), and use a timing light to set the static timing to 0 as outlined above.

If the engine will still not keep idle, try a little more rotation on the distributor. If this doesn't work, verify that all of the ignition wires are properly installed, in a clockwise motion, with the order 1-8-4-3-6-5-7-2.

Edit: OOPS didn't see the date on the original post. Bad Silicon! At least this is out there for others who might be having this problem.