Worded that poorly... it looks to me like there is a plate blocking off the egr. No?

 

Most likely that is just the EGR gasket. Wouldn’t be bad idea to remove and clean out as they collect soot—but leave alone for now in case it becomes a new problem from messing with it.

my money is on crusty gummed up carb.

 

That plate looking thing is the gasket is it a metal graphite coated gasket.

You need to do the test with capping off your vacuum lines. I have a suspision as to what it could be, but to rule it out you need to do this test.
Again like the electrical stuff, there is a procedure to follow to ensure you are diagnosing and finding the actual issue.

 

Ok, will do.

Any other vacuum lines to check besides brake booster and cruise control?

 

Everything on the vacuum tree. I believe all you have from the look of it is the Trans modulator (highly unlikely this is the issue) your cruise and the Brake booster. Not sure if you have a distribution manifold screwed to the cowl to distribute for HVAC and other. There may be another vacuum line on the intake in front of the carb this would likely be for emission devices if still present.

 

Watch out with this test, as you will obviously lose the power assist for the brakes. They will still work but you'll have to press much harder. Be extra careful because the booster typically retains enough vacuum for two or three brake applications. When that happens, the brakes feel normal leaving your driveway, and maybe at the end of your street. You won't notice a problem until you try to slow down at the first busy intersection, behind a bus full of nuns and orphans, right in front of a personal injury lawyer's office.

 

And then the bus falls off the bridge, onto the passing train, which derails (now the federal transportation safety board gets involved) and which happens to be carrying spent nuclear waste, resulting in a large scale general mandatory evacuation for decades.

I hate it when that happens!

 

Obviously, common sense dictates this is a non-driving test. Pretty sure we have not regressed to the point on the forum (yet) that we have to attach a don't be a darwin award winner to testing procedures, just for the stupid. And if it gets to that point, then people should not be working on their stuff in the first place.

 

I can appreciate this... and the warning! Def was planning on driving it with booster detached but I am a rookie at this stuff and we all learned these things at some point. You guys are great and thanks for helping me learn.

 

Well the stalling is back. Good news is it restarted each time and I made it home. For the record I’ve done alternator, regulator, ignition control, coil, distributor cap, wires, and plugs.

It’s so weird sometimes I start it and idle is higher and seems perfect with no symptoms and will drive fine! Other times it’s lower by 200-300 rpm right at start up and I just know it’s gonna struggle. So when it was struggling today I did a few things and noticed a new symptom. Idle/rpm will dip way down when turning the steering wheel and will sometimes make it stall out. Even if I’m just sitting at a stop with my foot on the brake. I’m not talking turning the wheel completely over... just marginally can make it stall when it’s struggling. I also messed with the low idle screw and fuel/air mixture screws. Interestingly the drivers side fuel/air screw does nothing. I can turn it all the way over in either direction and it will not affect idle. The left screw does respond. Just thought I’d add that.

Also did the following:

Used Carb cleaner method again to search for vacuum leaks and found nothing... I sprayed all tubes connected to anything basically. Nothing from Tree in the back, egr, brake booster. I definitely heard the difference when I sprayed some into the air filter so that I don’t think there is user error going on. Unless I missed something I don’t think there’s a vacuum leak.

Multimeter came today... here’s the readings

Car off: 12.9
Park/Idle: 14.5
Park/idle w/ accessories: 12.6
Park @ 2500rpm: 14.6

Tested with Fluke Amprobe pm51a

 

Well, the charging system looks good, for whatever that's worth.

 

It appears that the charging system is fine.

You just need to do the vacuum test.
And the fact the idle mix screw on one bank does not affect engine idle is a clue that something is wrong on the one bank. Either the carb is faulty or there is a vacuum leak on that bank. Remember the vacuum tree is fed from just one bank.

 

Ok. I just picked up a vacuum gauge on amazon as well should be here tomorrow in addition to some caps. Can you recommend what line to attach it to?

 

Fluke? You went all in! Gauge can attach to any of the unused ports on the vacuum tree. I am sure there is at least one.

Hopefully you bought rubber instead of plastic vacuum caps; I quit using the plastic ones after they repeatedly blow-off on the highway.

Make sure you replace that distributor rotor.

Timing, did you check timing?

I still think this is a crusty carb issue. Needs rebuilt. If you don't want to tackle, it see if you can't find the oldest, crustiest, shop in town and ask them. Don't pay over $350.

Finally, triple check that your plug wires are in the correct order and routed neatly! -- They can be shorting to the engine block or crossfiring each other. --At night fire her up and pop the hood observe for any blue sparking around the wires (like mini lightning). Rev it up and look again. Finally, lightly mist engine/wires with a spray bottle of water and repeat test.

 

Yeah I guess fluke owns amprobe... meant to get a different one coming directly from fluke but i guess it'll do. The caps I got have high reviews so i guess they're fine.

Timing I something I'm not sure about. I tried to watch some youtube videos but nothing that I found was specific enough to my truck... I would need some direction on how to do that.

When I did the wires I just copied what was on the old distributor, but im not real sure how to make sure they are correct.

I think the carb might be the main issue but what do I know. It's an edelbrock 1406. They obviously still sell it so I'm really not sure how old it is. I've had the truck for about 4 years. I'll definitely keep looking at things that have been suggested.