check battery voltage with engine off and with it idling. I'm thinking the starter might be pulling more amps than the battery will allow, which happens on our 77 dually sometimes, and there's no reserve for other things (like the computer or stereo), so it thinks you unhooked it.

As for EGR, I don't even know what that set of letters means.

 

egr - exhaust gas recirculation.

If your EGR is screwing up it can cause a poor idle condition.

Find your EGR, verify that it's opening and closing as it should.

 

sea foam is a liquid that you put in your gas (some people even put it in their oil but i wouldnt) and its a great cleaning agent for injectors and fuel rails and such...a lot of garages i know of use it. it works great and its relatively cheap at auto supply stores.

-Matt

 

It was the EGR valve! I pulled my plugs out and re-gapped them first. After that I got back to the EGR valve (which was buried in the back of the engine by the distributor cap) and it looked like it was on fire. The valve consists of two parts, a metal valve bolted to the motor and connected by hoses to a plastic piece that also has an electrical connection. The plastic piece was all melted like it was on fire. I don’t know why or how this happened. I got a new valve at Auto Zone for about $87 and put it in. Now the truck idles smooth as can be.

 

Glad you fixed it. $87 isn't too bad... if you'd taken it to the dealer it would have probably been over $200 with an hour to diagnose the problem, an hour to fix it, and a hundy for the parts.

 

I would have taken a good reaming on that at the dealer for sure!

The difference is incredible, the valve must have been hosed for a while because I think this is the best my truck has run since I've owned it.

 

it's amazing what a difference replaceing the EGR valve will do.

the one on my old Nissan was so gunked up when I shook it only oil flew out[:'(]

I dont think anyone answered it but you do not have to gap platnums, they are yes pregapped for you from the factory.

 

I just got some autolite platinums and each individual box said to gap them. They were all pretty close, but not exact.

 

the Bosch platnums I use on my yoda are pre-gapped (I use the single electrode, anything more is a gimmic )

they come packaged with a cardboard tube around the threaded end and say the specs of the gap on the box.

 

I'm not a fan of platinum, but I was distracted and they were under $2.50 each so I went with it. I'd much rather have copper in there myself.