1994 Sierra 1500 stalled in road and won't start

[simonphelps08]

Sorry about the phrasing on that.
Those are two associared statements that left out some assumtive details on my part
The very first thing is to physically establish that the piston is at tdc in order to see if the balancer is correct.
That is the part about putting a feeler of some type into the #1 plug hole and finding tdc without referencing the timing mark.
No matter which stroke the piston is on.
TDC of the piston should also be timing mark at zero.
The dampener is keyed onto the crank and the crank is mechanically connected to the rods and thus to the pistons.
The mark will either line up at zero with the piston at tdc.
Which is good
Or the mark will be off with the piston at TDC.
Which means the timing mark itself is not aligned.
Not the crank or the piston, but the outer ring of the balancer.
Do that check first to see if you can eliminate the balancer as the source of the problem.
If the balancer timing mark is at zero with the piston at tdc.
Then you can move on to the next step.
Let us know what you find and just start with that step and then we can go on
good luck, it will all make sense when you are done

I checked the piston for TDC and figured out what you meant after going back and forth a couple times. When the piston is TDC the timing mark is quite a ways off.

interestingly enough the line is off from the TDC and in the same position it was in last time I had to readjust the truck when it was acting up.

So, when the piston in all the way down in top dead center the timing mark is off and it happens to be off in the same direction and about the same amount it is when I need to readjust. (I not know how to read the degrees but I would say 20-30 degrees.

I hope this makes sense.

This means I need a new harmonic balancer or is this a crank sensor? Whats next?

 

[Schurkey]

That damper is DONE.

I was going to trade school, most of a lifetime ago. Blew the damper on my 283. Got a junkyard damper and I was back in business. Wasn't but a couple months later and it spun bearings. I never did figure out if the damper was faulty and caused bearing problems, or if the bearings were bad and caused damper problems. Still, I'm sure the two events were related.

 

[Erik the Awful]

Be sure and get a damper for a TBI truck, not a Vortec. They are different!

 

[simonphelps08]

I think we are getting very close but I have a few more questions.

I ordered the harmonic balancer and installed it. I'm not sure how to tell if the old one was bad or not so I took some pictures. The picture of the inside is pretty accurate but after removing it it also had a chunk of rubber on the inside about the size of a pea that looked like it had torn or something. The other picture of the whole balancer doesn't capture the way it looks well but the center piece appeared to be popping out more than the new one. (see pictures)

Anyways, I installed everything and went through the whole TDC, distributor, timing light process. After everything was done I took it for a drive and it appeared to be fine. I attempted to push the gas pedal down more to see if the old problem occurred but it seemed to not be experiencing issue at this time. (Maybe its better but maybe it takes some time to fall out of position)

When I returned home I hooked up the timing light again while the brown wired harness was plugged in and it wasn't TDC. It was about 4/5 notches off. I don't know if it was suppose to be like this so I turned the truck off, unplugged the wire harness and checked for TDC and it was perfect. So, I plugged the wire harness back in, checked for TDC one last time with the timing light and saw that I wasn't crazy and the timing mark was 4/5 notches off again. I dont know if this is how it works of if this isn't how it's suppose to work and says there is a problem with something else with the truck.

So, I imagine this points to the final problem or this is normal and how it is suppose to work and everything is cherry...?

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[Schurkey]

Compare the position of the timing mark on the outer (inertia) ring, vs. the keyway in the hub.

I'm guessing that the "new" damper is different from the "old" damper. This represents how much the inertia ring of the old damper has moved out-of-position.

 

[RawbDidIt]

The timing is NOT supposed to be spot on with the brown wire plugged in. Only when it isn't, otherwise you wouldn't bother to unplug it at all. You won't notice it at idle, but that wire actually induces variable timing controlled by the computer depending on load, RPM, etc. Don't check the timing with that wire plugged in, because it's pointless and won't give you an accurate idea of your timing as there is electrical variance whereas it's strictly mechanical without it plugged in.

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[simonphelps08]

A little more help please.

The truck seems to still be having issues. After the truck has been running for a while it starts to sputter and try to stall. It's kind of like a snowball. IT gets worse the longer it is running. At first when I drive to work in the morning it seems to be doing well. By the time I drive home in the after noon it starts to sputter when pushing the gas down more. By the time I get home it is a task to keep it from sputtering and stalling out. I need to get momentum going up the Hill to my house or it will sputter and stall out. By the time I get home it is sputtering so much that it chugs while sitting still idling.

If anyone could give me some other ideas of things I could check that would be great.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Schurkey]

After the truck has been running for a while it starts to sputter and try to stall.

The Usual Advice:

Verify fuel pressure under load.

Connect a scan tool, look at the data stream. Especially when it's "sputtering".