97 LX dies without giving gas (1 Viewer)

[fordoford]

This morning I went out to start the 80, and it fired up and ran just fine as I let it warm up for a couple minutes as I went back and forth grabbing stuff. Got in and switched on the headlights and it instantly died. Now it will only crank if I give it some gas, and will only run while I’m giving it gas, once I stop it instantly dies out. Any tips where to start?

 

[jonheld]

switched on the headlights and it instantly died.

Battery connections, charging circuit.

 

[hakalugi]

Is your CEL on?

I had EGR issues that caused random stalls. The EGR “testing kit” that uses ball bearings to seal the hoses fixed me up.

 

[fordoford]

Is your CEL on?

I had EGR issues that caused random stalls. The EGR “testing kit” that uses ball bearings to seal the hoses fixed me up.

CEL has been on for a little while for EGR. Hasn’t caused me problems so haven’t gotten around to fixing. I’ll look into that

Sunday the 80 ran fine all day. Started up perfectly lots of times and idled/drove great all day without me doing anything to fix it. I didn’t drive it yesterday until night time and when I went out to start it now all I get is just clicks. I can hear something going under the hood (I think fuel pump?) and I have power to everything else. All fuses look good and I rebuilt the starter ~2 years ago so I would be surprised if that’s the issue, but I suppose it could be. Wire brushed battery terminals as well and those are good also. Any suggestions on where to look now? I can’t quite figure out how all the issues could line up to one thing

 

[jonheld]

switched on the headlights and it instantly died.

I'm going to say again that your battery and/or connections are suspect. At idle, the alternator is putting out sufficient current to power the EFI system, but as soon as you added the additional load of the headlights, the truck shut down due to not having enough current to power both.
This is why the engine dies without giving it throttle. You have to get the alternator to spin fast enough to power the systems in use.

I would be putting a meter across the battery terminals and get some real voltage readings in 2 situations.
1. Voltage across battery terminals with the engine off after it has sat overnight.
2. Voltage across battery terminals after startup.
This will give you real information about the battery status and alternator status.