Hi again,

Call me stubborn, but I should have asked this about 4 hours ago. That’s how much time I’ve spent trying to get this bolt off. I can’t find anything in the repair manual or online that says this should be a lock, but that’s what it appears to be. I loosened it with a 5/16 socket, but after a few turns it stopped coming up and just spins. I can feel a catch if I turn it slowly, so it must be a lock, but damned if I can find anything on YouTube or google that explains how to get it unlocked. Please help!!

 

If you are referring to the plug from the harness that is bolted into the computer have you tried to pull it off? I am not aware of any lock and the bolt itself doesn't necessarily come out if I remember correctly. I haven't taken my harness out of the computer in a while.

 

Ms. Rebecca, i had that issue with my 94. there is a nut on the other end of that 5/16 bolt you trying to get out that is supposed to be fixed/attached to the main board of the pcm/ecm. its broken loose from its attachment. i hate to tell you this but to remove that pain in the a** bolt that likely was over tightened at some point you have to take pcm loose from the fender well, take the screws out that hold the casing on the pcm. throw that casing in the garbage. find where the 5/16 bolt attaches to the main board which means you have to remove that heavy silicone encasing the board, find anything to hold the nut & turn the bolt out. i had to completely destroy mine to get that bolt out, then use vice grips & socked after the pcm was cut into a couple pieces. after you get that bolt out of the board, throw the board & other cover piece in the garbasge it is now useless to rebuild or use as core. my current issue is that i cannot get gas to the fuel rails. new pump assembly airtec. i can hear the pump run, have spark. zero fuel spray from the port on fuel rail. can only come up with 3 things. fuel pressure regulator bad. line plugged. or only filtration from factory is 2 strainers attached to fuel pump assembly. there is no external filter on this truck. good luck. let us all know whatu come up with. bravo on jumping in to work on your own truck. admirable.

 

Hi again, sorry I didn’t see the post trying to help with the bolt; I guess it just needed to be pulled (I’m definitely NOT a mechanic). Anyway, I got my spare brain put in, and it ran perfectly. I didn’t even see the response to my post because I was too busy jumping for joy. A couple days later, I was headed to get the a/c fixed and take it to Mexico, it did the same thing it used to - kicked into a chugging, struggling kind of idle, and the check engine light popped on. 😫 Codes 21 and yep...27. I wanted to scream. I was so frustrated at that point that I shuttled to Mexico and haven’t done anything with it since. So I’m gonna have to conclude that it’s not the ECM. It has to be a short of some kind. I have a multimeter, but I’m not confident in using it. I guess I need a mechanic that’s good with the electric side of things.

 

Look up the brand name of your multi meter you should be able to find the manual and several videos of how to use it on YT. That's what I do when I have to use mine just to make sure I am doing it right.

 

Thank you - just my luck, I get to try to learn the one thing even the mechanics hate to mess with!

 

My truck (1993 Dodger Dakota, 5.2L) has been inexplicably quitting on me at random over the past few years. Used to be once or twice a year now it's every few weeks. It always restarts after some period of time (5 minutes to a full day). Like others, I have replaced everything I can think of. Plugs, cap, rotor, coil, cam sensor, crank sensor, relays, on and on. I suspected my output driver in the ECM was bad so Ralph talked me into getting a noid light tester to check the signal from the computer to the injectors the next time my truck petered out. Well, it petered out yesterday so I checked all 8 cylinders with the noid tester and all 8 flashed perfectly fine. Decided to do an OB1 code check and it comes up with a Code 27. I'm baffled as to how the noid test suggests the signal from the ECM is fine but the OBD1 code suggests it is NOT OK.