Hey guys, i was wondering if you guys might be able to point me into the right direction for troubleshooting my truck. I picked it up at the beginning of the year for 500 bucks. Its a 92 pickup with a 3vze and an auto. Ive been driving it for a few months (roughly 2500 miles). The truck wasnt running when i bought it. I gave it new plugs and tested the wires, set timing, and replaced the coil/ignitor and maf (from ebay), and shortly after i started driving it i had to replace the efi relay (in the fuse box). When i got the truck running the trans was slipping so bad that i couldn't get over 30 mph. I cleaned the filter screen and flushed it with 4 gallons of atf, and added lucas stop slip. Before i bought it the previous owner (wifes family) replace the fuel fump, and fuel pressure regulator (unsure if they cleaned the tank or replaced the fuel filter). After all the work I put in it it has run like a champ until now.

Ive had drivability issues that have gotten progressively worse over the past month or two. It started with the truck dying when shifting from reverse to drive. Then i started to have issues with the truck dying when coming a stop (at first mostly hard stops). Next was was problems with idling, when i try to warm the truck up in the morning it will die after 30 seconds up to about 5 minutes. Most of these problems seemed like the happened most commonly when the truck was cold, with occasional exceptions

Now the truck is almost to the point of being undrivable. I try to warm it up and it starts without any drama. The engine will high idle on a cold start for a bit l. During warm up it will die 1-4 times, whenever it dies it usually restarts with little or no drama (the worst being 3 periods of 15-20 seconds of cranking). When i back out of my driveway it will die when i try to shift to drive, as i drive out of my neighborhood it will die or try to die at low speeds or stops. Once it gets going it is usually good (until now). Sometimes it dies at low speed or when making turns. Usually when it dies it is either when slowing for a turn/stop or accelerating from turn/stop. Coming home from work today is the worst its been. The engine was surging really bad at anything below 2-2.5k. When i got home i looked under the hood for obvious problems and found nothing. I did notice my idle seems to be higher than i had set it, i set it around 850 per fsm. I found that i could push the throttle linkage shut and drop the revs to 750 (my throttle has always felt sticky/stiff like it needs a cable that i dont want to buy). After poking around under the hood and not really finding anything that looks or sound out of the ordinary i hoped in the driver seat to see how easy it was to to kill it by shifting to different gear. Sometimes shifting gears drops drops the revs to around 500 (if it doesnt kill it). Now i cant shift into drive without it dying.

I am a fleet mechanic with over a decade of experience and i have no issues with tearing into anything thats needed. Im just looking for i put on what parts i should be looking at. Most of the stuff i work on as a professional is new, American, and a good portion of that is heavy deisel/industrial.

I've been planing on rebuilding my powersteering pump (leaks like a stuck pig), i suppose a good place to start would be cleaning the throttle body. After that i plan on double checking my timing (the timing light i used is finicky after my dog chewed on the cable, now i have a new one) and readjusting my idle. From what I've read i could had an issue with my torque converter clutch solenoid (which wouldn't surprise me with the trans fluid looking like burnt motor oil before i flushed it), or possibly a vacuum leak at the brake booster. Ive also thought about replacing the fuel filter (Although i think it would cause more high rev problems then low).

Sorry for this post being so long, hope you guys might have input that can help save me time. After working 10-12hours a day on other vehicles its hard to find motivation to work on my own in the cold/dark. So any ideas, directions, advise, or insider info that might help would be greatly appreciated.

 

I'm not even going to pretend I know what is going on. Sounds to be a tough one and I haven't experienced anything like this. Would the issue with the torque converter clutch solenoid cause the dying when it is just sitting in the driveway warming up or would that just be for the shifting? Have you got any codes from it yet? I would definitely start there if you haven't already. Throw a paperclip on that bad boy and get to counting.