or maybe something else..........

Just a couple days ago, my 98 1500 5.2 started up, got down the street, and when I went to accelerate from a stop sign, it kind of sputtered and almost stalled, but I gave it gas and it recovered fine. Made it down to the end of the street, and when I gave it more gas to go from a stop, it sputtered and died. I put it in park, and tried to start it, kept crankin and crankin and crankin. I eased up, and I noticed the brake pedal was rock solid, and the shifter wouldn't budge out of park. I started crankin again, and after about 30 cranks, it started to sputter and fired up. Then the shifter and brake pedal were back to normal. I easily crept back around to my parking space. Then I decided to test it. I turned it off and on 10 times, no problem. I drove down the street and back 3 times, turned it off and on another 10 times no problem. Then I drove to work figuring I was good. It happened 1 more time while leaving the parking lot at work, when it wouldn't start, but it hasn't died while I was driving it again so far..... this was a couple days ago. Yesterday it ran fine. I changed the IAC valve last year because it was bad. I had to ease the pedal down at stops to keep it idling. Could a new IAC valve go bad in a year? I have a new one on the way, but I hope its not the fuel pump. When my IAC valve was bad last year, I don't remember it locking up my brake pedal and shifter during the stall.

Any opinions?
Thanks

 

It doesn't sound like a IAC although they don't really go bad, just get dirty. I hope you didn't get one from a parts store as they definitely cause problems. Can you hear the fuel pump working? How's the charge on the battery?

 

I think I got the middle of the road one from rockauto. 20-30 bucks. Charge on the battery is fine and I hear the fuel pump kicking on. Like I said I have run some tests starting it up and shutting her down, so all in all its started probably 47 out of the last 50 times in the last 2 days. The 3 times it didn't start I wasn't paying attention to if the fuel pump had kicked on, so maybe it did fail and I missed it, but its kinda working. Who knows. Once I get this new IAC valve in a couple days it will help narrow down the field of what the problem might be, if it happens again. Correction on my post....obviously the shifter doesn't move without the brake pressed in, so basically it was just the brake jamming up at stall, and then the shifter would follow.... what kind of a stall would lock up the brake?

 

Engine stall= no more vacuum

 

Its not that your break pedal is locking up its that when you stall you have no more vacuum to operate the booster... Your booster might be starting to fail though because it should hold enough reserve for about three pedal presses before becoming rock solid. This really has nothing to do with the stalling problem though. I'd start by checking your battery to make sure its holding charge and that all the connections are good... These trucks love to not idle when the battery is shot.

 

I would test the fuel pressure. I was having the same issue and it ended up being the fuel pump. It wasn't too bad to fix, $165 and about three hours of work. The fuel pressure gauge was free to rent from O'Reilly just like $118 deposit or something.

 

I think I might have figured it out. I noticed the other day when this happened that my dash lights seemed to be dimming and coming back. I didn't think anything of it until today when I read somewhere that stalling, and lights dimming, can be a possible alternator or voltage regulator problem. I've never noticed my dash lights flicker until now in the whole 5 years I've had this truck.

 

Might check/clean the connections at the battery and alternator