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1991 K5 shuts off when put in gear!!!

M

maxumpower

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Crank it up and she purrs like a kitten....put her gear and she drops dead like a 100 year old man lookin at some boobies!
If you bring the RPMs up a little and put it in gear and then push the gas it will drive down the road just fine. As soon as you pull up to a stop sign......in gear it will shut off...if you put it in neutral and keep the RPMs up a little it will stay running.

1991 K5 automatic with the 350
 
Is the check engine light on? if so you should find out what they are. Any work under the hood lately? when was the last tune up done? plugs, wires, cap rotor, air filter?
 
no cats on the truck...H pipe through 2 3 chamber flowmasters...and it just started doing this out of the blue
 
No check engine light.....all plugs and wires are good, K&N air filter good, It has a Jacobs Electronics Ignition that has been on for 4 years. I have changed the idle air control and the temp sensor.
 
Start with easy/basic mainteance. When was the last tuneup done?

Specifically, fuel filter. I'd change that first, if you don't know when it was done last.
 
If you have a lockup style converter in the truck it could be a lockup issue, hung valve, or solenoid?
 
If you think it may be a vacuum leak then you can try spraying brake fluid around the connections but come to think of it it needs to be idling for that to work. anyways if it will idle then try it and if you have a leak then you notice an rpm change.
 
smartcarkiller said:
If you think it may be a vacuum leak then you can try spraying brake fluid around the connections but come to think of it it needs to be idling for that to work. anyways if it will idle then try it and if you have a leak then you notice an rpm change.
Click to expand...


Don't use brake fluid. Use carb or TBI cleaner.
 
Wheres my head at I meant brake cleaner. the idle will drop if theres a leak. Yea not brake fluid hahaha!
 
Hate to say it, but it sounds like a torque converter going south. Hopefully not. Try it on level ground with the brakes off. If it starts rolling right away and keeps running, odds are thats it.

J.
 
explain it jsut shuts off when put into gear for us.. like doest it fight and stumble a bit and dies? knocks while stumbling? or does it just shut off like you turned the key off?
 
shuts off like turning off the key. no hesitation no stumbling. I checked for stored codes but it flashes a code 12
 
I'm leaning away from a torque converter now, but still not quite convinced. Try getting it going, and let it idle along.
Then gradually apply the brakes while you watch the tach. If it starts lugging down, its probably the converter. If not then no.

If the converter were going bad and locking up, it would still drive good and shift fine once you got going.
At least for a while.

My truck started doing the exact same thing, turned out to be the fuel pressure regulator letting too much fuel pressure to the injectors.

J.
 
Mine's doing the same thing.
I've done all of the basics from fuel filter to replacing all the gaskets/etc in the tb to replacing the intake manifold gaskets.
I gave up and turned up the idle in the ECM and with a screw :(
But now that it's hot and I'm using AC it stalls sometimes again.

Not sure how to really detect the converter especially since I don't have a tach and it seems strange for the failure mode to be locking.
 
The locking part would be due to the bearings seizing up.
Remember, when you are sitting still in gear with the engine running, half the converter is bolted to the flexplate, so it has to turn with the engine.

The other half is attached to the input shaft of the transmission.

There are bearings between them.
That is what lets the truck be stopped in gear.

If the bearings seize up, the engine will be directly coupled to the transmission as if a clutch were released on a manual transmission.

Sometimes the bearings don't seize completely, just gall up enough to put more load on the engine. Enough to stall it at idle, but not enough to stall it when you give it more gas.
Just like partially releasing a clutch.

J.
 
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