89 dodge power ram 5.9 (long story)

I actually had a similar problem come in to the shop today. Different car ('01 Cherokee) but same idea. Car would stall at idle but when you gave it some throttle, it was fine. Turned out that the idle air control motor was toast. Its a little electric motor bolted to the throttle body that has an inlet/slot for air. It actuates a 'pintle' that meters the amount of air entering the throttle body at idle ('natch). It was all carbon'd up and was stuck. Car started, ran for a few seconds very rough and died unless I gave it a little gas. New plugs were recently installed by another shop, no dice. No codes either. Guy said his check engine light was on but the car was running so poorly that it affected the alternator output. I think it actually may have died because of it and erased the codes - no stored codes, none pending, no 1 trip failures. I put a new IAC in, cleaned up the throttle body and it was good to go.

Not sure how how the idle air is controlled on an '89 TBI engine but it probably has some form of idle air control. In any event, if there is something, it should be easy enough to pop 'it' off the (IAC) and/or your throttle body to see if it needs to be cleaned.

Also might want to check your fuel pump operation. Do you have an in tank or mechanical? Do you have a way to check pressure? You could just disconnect the fuel line and cycle the key just to get a look and see what comes out. (be safe when disconnecting and checking - high pressure gas!) I'd say it's probably not a fuel pump problem since your issue seems to occur at idle. Something might be gummed up.

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