Hey guys, here's an update on my timing issue. I took
the intake hose off of the throttle body and yeah it had
a lot of black crud everywhere, especially on the butterfly
valve. So I removed the throttle body and cleaned it out
real good, but the TPS wouldn't read or adjust right so I
removed it to check it out. On the back side I found a
return spring that was clogged with that same black gunk.
The gunk prevented the spring from returning completely
to the idle position, thus my no signal and timing problem.
Probably never been looked at in 16 years I figure. I
carefully cleaned the spring gunk out with carb cleaner
and presto the switch worked like new. Put it all back
together, adjusted the TPS, reinstalled the throttle
body, fired the truck up and voila...timing works fine.
Got her set at 5* @ 850 rpm (750 was just too low). I'm
going to take her through emissions testing on my lunch
hour today after a short run on the freeway to get her good
and hot.
Thanks to the guys that pointed me to the TPS, it would have
taken me a long time to get around to checking it otherwise.
The FSM doesn't go into all the diagnostic details that the
folks on here have learned through experience.
Thanks also to 4Crawler for the TPS info he has on his site.
Once I was pointed that direction I found the info there
very helpful.
I feel like I'm doing all taking and no giving on here, but
I am learining quite a bit. Hopefully I'll be able to pass
on what I've learned to the next generation when the need
arises.

Regards,
Indy