'96 Tahoe Electrical problem

MOON

MEMBER
1996 CHEVROLET TAHOE

I have a '96 Chevy Tahoe: 4dr, 4x4, 5.7L engine, with 200,000 miles on it. The truck has recently started having an issue with dying while I'm driving it. The rpm will drop to 0, act stalled - just coasts to a stop, and sometimes actually starts running again before I have to turn the ignition off and re-start it. When it stalls out completely, it will re-start with a bit of hesitation, but then runs great again. After a week or two of intermittent stalling out, it stalled out without being able to re-start. I had it towed to the shop I use, and after they installed new ignition wires, distributor cap, and rotor, it did great until I was about 3 miles from the shop, then started the same intermittent dying again. The shop checked it out again and found the wire to the ignition module was rubbed through, so they repaired it. A total of five hundred dollars later, it happened again about an hour and a half after I had picked it up. It had to be towed to the shop again - and is there right now. Another weekend without my truck, and I'm being told they found more bad wiring. The fuel pump (which was replaced in February) checks out fine, and pressure is great - when it actually gets spark - so it's not fuel related, but electrical. Anyone else ever have this happen?

1 Reply

LEB

MEMBER
45 POSTS

Yes, I've had this problem on a '96 with 150,000.

Unfortunately, electrical items get old and need to be replaced. I replaced all the things you mentioned, and one other wire (but I don't remember what it was).

The only other option from a repair shop is doing it yourself. Doing it yourself takes a lot of time, but safes labor. You would try to first look for any wires with obvious breaks in it. Then you would need to use an ohm meter to test the ohms on other wires to see if there are any unseen breaks.

Not fun, but the only way I know how to find them.