i'd be willing to bet that condensr's u-joints are going bad. they can be tight and still be bad. and if you do drive it off a cliff, can you make like an apointment with me and tell me which cliff you'r gunna drive it off of?? cuz i would haul my dozer to the bottom of that cliff, tie a chain around the truck and drag it up to the road so i can load it up and take it home i'll even give you enough money for 6 months of full coverage insurance and you can report it stolen. it'll work for me lol, and captaindave, the truck will run a LOT better after you have the valves set right. my cousin had a 97, and when it hit 99,000 he had the warranty adjust the valves and you could feel a HUGE difference in power. it was all stock and the truck ran never really ran bad. he just wanted to get all the good he could out of his 100,000 mile warranty

 

All '94 - '99s defiantly can have the kdp problem

 

infidel,

This means my '96 does as well. Is there any way to tell if it's been recified as of yet? Also what's the line with information on correcting the situation? (Thanks)

CAPTINDAVE don't get too discouraged with your rig! Any older vechile will have issues to sort out, hang in there, do as much as your budget permits, and gradually you will really begin to enjoy your truck.

 

96_12V, only way to know if the kdp problem has been addressed is to take the timing cover off unless you can contact the previous owner. Since you have to go that far just be prepared to do the fix. Just because the rig has high miles don't assume that the problem won't occur, I've seen the pin do it's damage on a truck with over 300k.
The pin will probably only fall out on less than 1% of trucks, problem is if it does it can be really expensive and might leave you on the side of the road. A little cheap insurance can avoid a major headache. A search for kdp will give you lots of info.
Best advice is to just buy a kit here http://www.tstproducts.com/index.asp...PROD&ProdID=64 and follow the instructions

 

I cleaned all my wire connections at the battery and replaced a few wire terminals. No change. Just an update. Wish I had a shop to get in and not be outside.

 

There is a small wire that goes from the starter (need to lie on the ground to see it, and goes to the fuel solenoid). I believe it is brown. It has a little eyelet that is mounted to a small post on the bottom side of the starter. It can get gunky, and if anything like mine, it was installed improperly and loose. May be creating part of your problem.

The solenoid can be removed, the boot replaced (from foster truck) and it can be simply pulled apart and cleaned on the inside (the parts that move).

Have you tried to "jump" or "bypass' the blue wire for testing purposes? Do you have a manual that shows you some wiring diagrams? That may help.

The battery temp sensor is under the driver side battery, and it is designed to sense temperature. If the battery gets hot, it tapers down the rate of charge. I doubt this is a problem. If you remove the battery, it looks like a black button about the size of a quarter stuck in the battery tray. Like I said, I doubt it's a problem.

Sorry, I need to reread this entire thread to get back up to speed, some of this stuff may have allready been mentioned. Kevin

 

Okay I was wrong. The fuel shutoff is fixed. Apparenttly the wire terminals was the culprite. I was still pulling the arm up by hand because when I turned the switch on it didn't come up on its own. I wasn't thinking that it was activated by the starter.

Now I still need to figure this charging thing out. The computer regulates the charging doesn't it? Seems like I have heard of problems with that. I plan on checking out the wires to the alt tommorrow. I think I am going to check the stuff going to the starter also just for good measure. Dave

 

Have you checked the big fusable link , seems I recall 140 amps, in the underhood fuse box?
Some times it can look ok but test bad.

 

Dave, try checking whether your intake air heater is sticking on. This heater grid will pull a lot of amperage and drop your voltmeter. There are two heavy gauge wires going to contacts on the intake manifold. Once the engine is warmed up check to make sure there is no voltage being applied to the positive side of this grid heater. The computer does not control voltage output, this is done by the alternator's voltage regulator which is inside the alternator. I don't know if this is your problem, but it looks like you've checked most of the obvious things and this just came to mind. Good luck!

 

IT'S CHARGING! I had alt rebuilt. So far so good. Will report back after weekend test, going to beach.

 

Just got in and put a little over 500 miles on it and is charging great. I am planning on replacing the battery cables next, just for good measure.