Engine died again...

[MIHELA]

I wish that was my problem. Mine will turn over but won't fire up.

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You misunderstand. That is EXACTLY what my truck would do. It had an intermittent connection at one of the many pink ignition feed wires that go to the switch, which would kill power to the ECM. It would still crank, and often start again and work fine for weeks.

 

[Thatguy0909]

You misunderstand. That is EXACTLY what my truck would do. It had an intermittent connection at one of the many pink ignition feed wires that go to the switch, which would kill power to the ECM. It would still crank, and often start again and work fine for weeks.

Hmm I'll look into this

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[kenh]

How old is your ignition control module?

My truck did that years ago and it turned out to be the ignition switch.

You misunderstand. That is EXACTLY what my truck would do. It had an intermittent connection at one of the many pink ignition feed wires that go to the switch, which would kill power to the ECM. It would still crank, and often start again and work fine for weeks.

The ICM is about 60 days old ans was replaced by the previous one that was abut 30 days o;d. The 30 days ICM tested good when I was near a place that could test it. I
s now in the glove box as a spare.

I'm leaning the direction of the ING switch. Guessing it is the original but not looking forward to replacing it. I think the steering column has to come down to access it.

I'll have to trace some wires and see that the heck I can find.

Ken

 

[thinger2]

Im gonna assume that you didnt get a cel and that you checked for codes.
Probably kinda pointless anyway because of the loss of power but just fer ***** give it a shot.
After that, go through each and every ground from the battery and back including all of the manifold grounds and the battery cables.
Dont forget the grounds from the head to the firewall and from the firewall to the frame.
Dont trust your factory battery cables either.
They can look perfect from the outside and be green rotted under the plastic ends.
Yes, it could be the icm or the pickup or the coil.
Could be.
It could also be a "corrosion intermittant" or a "heat intermittant"
That happens when a contact or component with an internal contact stays engaged untill it heats too far then that contact drops.
Then after you figure out what in the hell is going on, its suddenly cranks and starts again.
With crusty electrcal contacts. And rotted wires in a already hot environment.
The resistance of the wire peaks rapidly and cools rapidly.
Then you hit it again and it starts.
And you can actually get "potholes"
Thats when you hit a certain pot hole and your electrical system freaks.
Just from that little resonance of that particular pot hole at that speed.
Dont chase your tails folks.
Start at the front, start at the back
Whatever.
Fix the damn wiring and all of the grounds.
How in the **** are you going to diagnose an electrical problem with **** wiring and bad grounds?
Once you get good wiring and the problem still exists, Then you start with data and ecm problems.
Ecm data from shorted wiring or bad grounds is not only pointless, it will also lead you to replacing parts that are not bad.
You dont need a scanner of any type to start this process.
Its all not only low tech, its no tech.
Pick a wire, and inspect it.
If its bad, fix it.
Easy **** my friends. you just have to do it.
And you can do it.
Dont get discouraged.
Its all pretty damn easy.
Like all of life, someone will show up to say that you cant do it.
Or you cant do it without them.
Or you cant do it without permission from them.
Insecure as hell
Fuckem people
Crawl under the truck, fix the wiring, give yourself a just a little bit of satisfaction for being a badass and getting that **** done.
Unless you have some odd crazy mismatched ecm.
But I dont believe that scene either
Its the wiring and the grounds.
Repair all of it stem to stern and then look at live data
And dont get all wound up over the chevy truck gatekeepers
Its all really simple **** you just gotta learn it.
Dont get all ****** over by the diamond tiearra wearing prom posers.
Its just a Chevy truck.
If I can do it, you can do it.
Its easy .

 

[618 Syndicate]

Im gonna assume that you didnt get a cel and that you checked for codes.
Probably kinda pointless anyway because of the loss of power but just fer ***** give it a shot.
After that, go through each and every ground from the battery and back including all of the manifold grounds and the battery cables.
Dont forget the grounds from the head to the firewall and from the firewall to the frame.
Dont trust your factory battery cables either.
They can look perfect from the outside and be green rotted under the plastic ends.
Yes, it could be the icm or the pickup or the coil.
Could be.
It could also be a "corrosion intermittant" or a "heat intermittant"
That happens when a contact or component with an internal contact stays engaged untill it heats too far then that contact drops.
Then after you figure out what in the hell is going on, its suddenly cranks and starts again.
With crusty electrcal contacts. And rotted wires in a already hot environment.
The resistance of the wire peaks rapidly and cools rapidly.
Then you hit it again and it starts.
And you can actually get "potholes"
Thats when you hit a certain pot hole and your electrical system freaks.
Just from that little resonance of that particular pot hole at that speed.
Dont chase your tails folks.
Start at the front, start at the back
Whatever.
Fix the damn wiring and all of the grounds.
How in the **** are you going to diagnose an electrical problem with **** wiring and bad grounds?
Once you get good wiring and the problem still exists, Then you start with data and ecm problems.
Ecm data from shorted wiring or bad grounds is not only pointless, it will also lead you to replacing parts that are not bad.
You dont need a scanner of any type to start this process.
Its all not only low tech, its no tech.
Pick a wire, and inspect it.
If its bad, fix it.
Easy **** my friends. you just have to do it.
And you can do it.
Dont get discouraged.
Its all pretty damn easy.
Like all of life, someone will show up to say that you cant do it.
Or you cant do it without them.
Or you cant do it without permission from them.
Insecure as hell
Fuckem people
Crawl under the truck, fix the wiring, give yourself a just a little bit of satisfaction for being a badass and getting that **** done.
Unless you have some odd crazy mismatched ecm.
But I dont believe that scene either
Its the wiring and the grounds.
Repair all of it stem to stern and then look at live data
And dont get all wound up over the chevy truck gatekeepers
Its all really simple **** you just gotta learn it.
Dont get all ****** over by the diamond tiearra wearing prom posers.
Its just a Chevy truck.
If I can do it, you can do it.
Its easy .

Please, tell us how you really feel....

 

[kenh]

Im gonna assume that you didnt get a cel and that you checked for codes.
Probably kinda pointless anyway because of the loss of power but just fer ***** give it a shot.
After that, go through each and every ground from the battery and back including all of the manifold grounds and the battery cables.
Dont forget the grounds from the head to the firewall and from the firewall to the frame.
Dont trust your factory battery cables either.
They can look perfect from the outside and be green rotted under the plastic ends.
Yes, it could be the icm or the pickup or the coil.
Could be.
It could also be a "corrosion intermittant" or a "heat intermittant"
That happens when a contact or component with an internal contact stays engaged untill it heats too far then that contact drops.
Then after you figure out what in the hell is going on, its suddenly cranks and starts again.
With crusty electrcal contacts. And rotted wires in a already hot environment.
The resistance of the wire peaks rapidly and cools rapidly.
Then you hit it again and it starts.
And you can actually get "potholes"
Thats when you hit a certain pot hole and your electrical system freaks.
Just from that little resonance of that particular pot hole at that speed.
Dont chase your tails folks.
Start at the front, start at the back
Whatever.
Fix the damn wiring and all of the grounds.
How in the **** are you going to diagnose an electrical problem with **** wiring and bad grounds?
Once you get good wiring and the problem still exists, Then you start with data and ecm problems.
Ecm data from shorted wiring or bad grounds is not only pointless, it will also lead you to replacing parts that are not bad.
You dont need a scanner of any type to start this process.
Its all not only low tech, its no tech.
Pick a wire, and inspect it.
If its bad, fix it.
Easy **** my friends. you just have to do it.
And you can do it.
Dont get discouraged.
Its all pretty damn easy.
Like all of life, someone will show up to say that you cant do it.
Or you cant do it without them.
Or you cant do it without permission from them.
Insecure as hell
Fuckem people
Crawl under the truck, fix the wiring, give yourself a just a little bit of satisfaction for being a badass and getting that **** done.
Unless you have some odd crazy mismatched ecm.
But I dont believe that scene either
Its the wiring and the grounds.
Repair all of it stem to stern and then look at live data
And dont get all wound up over the chevy truck gatekeepers
Its all really simple **** you just gotta learn it.
Dont get all ****** over by the diamond tiearra wearing prom posers.
Its just a Chevy truck.
If I can do it, you can do it.
Its easy .

I had the engine out recently to fix replace the main seal and rebuild the heads as one was cracked. At that time ALL the ground points and ground cable ends were cleaned to shiney new. I was having an intermittent hot no start issue (everything but the starter worked) and that disappeared after all the ground cleaning.

I did have an ICM go **** up. That was pretty dramatic as the truck coughed, hiccuped, backfired and died. Then no spark. NOW when it dies (which is completely random) it just shuts off and will immediately refire even while coasting down to a stop.

I do suspect a funky wire and or a bad ignition switch. Most of the corrugated loom covering has rotted away so tracing wires will be easy. Just need to find a few hours to do that.

Ken

 

[Schurkey]

My '88 K1500 started off with a high-speed misfire. Eventually, there was some random stalling, but it would immediately re-start. The stalling happened at lower speed.

One day--400 miles from my tools--it died at idle, and wouldn't re-start.

Chevy dealer replaced the distributor mainshaft. The magnet in the reluctor had cracked, resulting in a weak/erratic signal to the ignition system. Therefore, erratic spark.

With the new mainshaft, the high-speed misfire also vanished.

The "cracked magnet" problem seems to be fairly common with the TBI distributors. Unlike the earlier distributors, the magnet isn't part of the replaceable pickup coil. It's a permanent part of the shaft assembly.

 

[Steven Petersen]

I had the engine out recently to fix replace the main seal and rebuild the heads as one was cracked. At that time ALL the ground points and ground cable ends were cleaned to shiney new. I was having an intermittent hot no start issue (everything but the starter worked) and that disappeared after all the ground cleaning.

I did have an ICM go **** up. That was pretty dramatic as the truck coughed, hiccuped, backfired and died. Then no spark. NOW when it dies (which is completely random) it just shuts off and will immediately refire even while coasting down to a stop.

I do suspect a funky wire and or a bad ignition switch. Most of the corrugated loom covering has rotted away so tracing wires will be easy. Just need to find a few hours to do that.

Ken

Ken, did you ever get anywhere with this? I’m having a similar problem.

 

[kenh]

No I haven't been able to find the issue. Kind of hard to fix something that isn't broken! haha I did find a large pink wire under the dash by the steering column that has two splices a couple inches apart with two smaller wires between the splices. Like the guy didn't have the correct size wire to splice in. I'm going to cut the splices out and solder and shrink wrap a correct piece of wire in place. I'm wondering if it had an aftermarket remote start at one time and it was removed?? I'm thinking that pink wire powers the ignition system????

Ken

 

[thinger2]

Please, tell us how you really feel....

I think I did tell you how I feel.
I can go a deeper and wider and expand on these ideas if you need it but, Geez seems pretty damn obvious.