Mechanical issue with old truck

[am44mag]

Well, my old truck is giving me fits. It's a 1995 Chevy C1500 Silverado V8 with about 132,000 miles on it. The power steering pressure hose gave out, but that looks to be an easy fix. The part is ordered and there is so much room in that engine bay that I can probably have it replaced in a few minutes.

That might not be the only issue though. It's doing what I can best describe as a shiver. It does it when it's worst when it's idling (occasionally it will stop for a second or two), it does it occasionally when you're accelerating, and it will do it a little (though a lot less roughly) when you have the cruise set at 70 mph. Something in the engine bay is also making a clicking sound. I'm not sure exactly what that is, but it's coming from around the area of the alternator (brand new, just replaced last year). It's like it's really having to fight for power.

The engine is not overheating, all the fluids except the power steering are good, and while a little rough, the truck is still drive-able and still starts up without a fight.

Any ideas?

[Chad5005]

your truck should have tbi injection and could have one of your 2 injectors going bad,remove the air filter and fire it up and see if either are dripping instead of spraying a mist

[EDG]

Yeah carefully lift off the top of the air filter and look into the throttle body while it is running. There will be a nice umbrella shaped spray from each injector. If one or both of your injectors has a poor misshaped spray pattern pull your injectors out and get them back flushed and cleaned or just replace them.

[Lloyd Smale]

like the others the first place id look is the fuel injectors. If its not that it could be a torque convertor or even a wiped cam lobe or a lifter gone bad.

[farmerjim]

Old truck. My 1995 2500 only has 52,000 miles on it. 40,000 went on in the first 2 years.

Has it set any codes?

[1911sw45]

Had to say it. It's a chevy!

[Lloyd Smale]

yup its hard to diagnose something that rarely breaks. Now if it were a ford we could have chalked it up to over engineered junk. I mean what do you expect when they give you 400hp out of a motor not much bigger then whats on a lawn mower. I saw the other day where gm is going to follow suit and offer a full sized Silverado with a turbo 4 cyl that puts out 300hp. Id rather have a case of the clap!!

Had to say it. It's a chevy!

[Lloyd Smale]

By the way I just went hunting yesterday with my partner and we drove the 120 miles in his 97 Silverado that has 280k on it and not only is his daily transportation but has been a plow truck since new. Still runs like a sewing machine. Got some major rust but the drive train still gets it done.

[Jniedbalski]

Also check under the hood at night . U might have a miss because of a spark plug wire leaking spark voltage . You can only usally only see this at night. I have a 94 Chevy surbaban that was doing the exact same thang. At night you could see the plug wire close to the power stearing pump jump spark to the exhaust manifold. It would give miss every once in awhile

[Jniedbalski]

Also check your belt ideler pulleys some times they get dry and start making a noise . Take the belt loose and spin the pulleys by hand they should be smooth and quiet

[brass410]

Also check under the hood at night . U might have a miss because of a spark plug wire leaking spark voltage . You can only usally only see this at night. I have a 94 Chevy surbaban that was doing the exact same thang. At night you could see the plug wire close to the power stearing pump jump spark to the exhaust manifold. It would give miss every once in awhile

ya I'd start looking around for a bad ignition wire its easy to find (usually) don't jump to major things these ol girls are pretty problem free usually little things. I would wait till dark open hood up take a mister bottle full of water,with the engine running and someone inside have them place in drive, foot on brake, this will load up engine, apply a little throttle, MIST (do not spray) the spark plug wires from spark plug end back to distributer watch for sparks anywhere wires run near metallic parts of eng compartment the darkness will help you to see the ting blue sparks. PS don't touch these when they are damp or you'll find where the hood is smartly trust me it will leave a mark.

[cwlongshot]

Glad to see others keep ol truck going!







I just wanted to make a new bumper...

BUT found SO MUCH RUST... it started the ball rolling... 3500$ so far...







Found rotted rear most cross member, bad shocks, bad brake line, bad exhaust, rusted thru cab corners and rockers and to top things off.. A/C quite and DS manifold finally started ticking. (Most bolt heads rusted off) Frame itself still 98% solid and there. Bolted on X members are whats rotten.

This is ALL this rust is condensed 12" in front of rear tires to end of bumper...

Last weekend, I removed and re built the rear three X members. Now its at shop for Exhaust manifolds, exhaust, brake line and shocks.

I Hope to get it back this weekend so I can finish rockers and get bed back on...

CW

[Jniedbalski]

Also my 94 suburban will foul a plug or two. The valve seals get old and hard and leak more oil in to the cylinder. My truck was the front passenger side the first plug and the third plug. Just clean them off with sand paper and go another few thousand miles. It would start missing at idle and going down the road but not all the time

[chill45100]

In addition to the TBI check and spark wire checks there is the consideration of a timing chain problem. While I do not have experience with a 90's series V8 Chevy the older ones had nylon gears that ran the timing/cam chain. When worn badly enough the chain would slap the side of the cover and eventually would try to skip a tooth resulting in a real mess.
Hopefully someone else can weigh in on this as either a probability or a non-issue with your engine.

[Chad5005]

on a quiet night you can hear chevy's rust and parts fall off lol

[Lloyd Smale]

on a quiet night you can hear chevy's rust and parts fall off lol

can tell you live down south. EVERYTHING rusts up here. Theres NO brand that immune from it. Body man that I know said he even sees in on the aluminum panels on the new fords. Once you scratch the paint down to bare metal oxidation starts and lifts the paint. Said the big difference is painting, banging out dents and touching up those aluminum panels costs ALOT more then doing the same to steel. He also said when they do dent the aluminum tends to stretch more then steal and doesn't shrink back when working it with a hammer and dolly like a steel panel so you usually end up replacing a panel and going through an expensive paint job. If you believe aluminum doesn't rust or break down with salt water try taking a bare piece of aluminum and sitting it in a salt water solution. Look at the oxidation on all the aluminum rims on cars and trucks that get scratched and the finish bubbles right off. I had factory aluminum rims on a dodge Dakota that got so bad they leaked air. Aluminum has only ONE advantage. Its lighter and that's why ford uses it. Not because of durability because we all know steel is stronger and not because it doesn't rust. they use it to get corporate fuel economy numbers. Tiny motors with big turbos and a beer can skin. NO thanks. All to get MAYBE 2 mpg better then a dodge or chev.

[Chad5005]

I know everything rust up there,in my younger days I came up and bought a lot of 1 ton 4x4 trucks and cut the running gear out from under them and scrapped the rest,ford,chevy and dodge and a few old military trucks

[Brassduck]

If you don't find anything, pull the distributor cap and rotor and check the trigger wheel on the shaft for looseness inspect the rotor for burn through the cap too.

[bob208]

first thing I would check is fuel filter. with the new pumps in the tank and fuel injection the filter is very critical. yes any thing with a computer is a new truck to me. I have my first new truck a 98 k1500 with 4.3. it is what they call a work truck. which means it does not have power this and that. it has 250,000 mi. still going strong just had to replace the water pump.

[foesgth]

As I look at my '73 I wonder what old trucks you are talking about.