Here we go….about 2 weeks ago I changed the valve cover gasket on my 95 Dakota Sport (4cyl). While doing so I ended up killing my battery and had to jump start the car. I got around the corner and the car just died, feeling like it ran out of gas or something. I tried to jump start it again but no luck. So I pushed the bastard about half mile back to my house up a hill, which really sucked. The next day I got a new battery, thinking this was the only prob, I put the new batt in and it did not start. I then went under the hood and moved some stuff around and looked for anything obvious to be displaced, got back in and then it fired up…..now 2 weeks later I was driving to school and the truck stalled coming out of a light. I pulled into a parking lot and had a hell of a time getting it started. I hit the gas tank and got back in and it would start working for a min. I thought at this time it must be the fuel pump. After stalling about 20 times to get 5 miles back home I started to look into the problem. Below is a list of things I have done.

-Checked the fuel filter inline to the tank and that was not clogged.

-found that the car would start after waiting a bit rather then hitting the gas tank (starting to not think its fuel pump)

-when I turn the car to the on position I can here the fuel pump engage

-inspected the throttle body and made sure all connections were good. (perhaps it could be a sensor)


After checking all this stuff on Monday and calling my friend over to work on it, the car seemed to be running great. We took it down to the auto parts store about 5 miles and it never stalled. Later that night I went to wal-mart and when I got back it stalled as I pulled into the driveway ( this happened earlier that morning as well.) So I tried to check this and about 50% of the time when I took a right turn into my drive way (second gear clutch down) bumping over the gutter it would stall. Perhaps something is loose. Maybe not. But for the most part the car still ran.

Today (Tuesday) I got into my truck around 6am (a lot of morning dew) and I got out of my driveway and half way down the street and the car stalled. This time it did not start again. I pushed it back to my house and then:

-replaced distributor cap
-replaced ignition wires
-replaced spark plugs

Car still wont start

I had my friend come over who is a mechanic at Hyundai so he knew a little bit and we tried everything we could to get the thing to turn over. We had the air cleaner cover off exposing the top of the throttle body. I sprayed some throttle body cleaner into the throttle body and was able to get the car to fire. It ran and sputtered for about 5 mins until I decided to kill it.


A few other things I have discovered while searching for this problem.

-under the hood in the fuse box the 5amp fuse was blown. I had a few more hand so I went to put another one in and it blew soon as I touched it to the terminal.

-inside my car the overhead lamp never worked. I took out the audio deck and this guy that I bought it from had a wire ran from the positive of the bat to the audio deck in order to get it to work. The dedicated line that should be used for the audio unit is not pulling any voltage nor is the acc. power on. But I had the door open and I touched the 12 volt line to the line that should be pulling the 12 volts to the audio deck and magically the damn cockpit light turned on….what the hell!! It must have completed to shorted circuit.

Thanks in advance for anything that can help on any of these issues.

 

That short circuit you're referring to could be the problem, but i highly doubt it. The stalling problem you're having sounds more like a problem with the wire splice on the auto shut down circuit or even a continuity issue within the relay itself. The short circuit issue you're having is definitely something that needs to be addressed, because, unless I read this wrong, there's a positive going to the radio that is at constant, it doesn't turn off which will begin to drain you're battery. When you mentioned the fuse popping, it turned on a light bulb in my head, my sister had that problem in her '93, the next 5 amp we put in popped much like yours, now she has a 10 amp in there instead and hasn't had a problem since we replaced it almost 2 years ago, I don't know exactly why the 5's popped, haven't touched it since the 10 worked. Very dangerous and stupid for us to do, it could have made matters worse, so I'm not going to suggest doing this on your truck.

 

The next time your vehicle stalls pop the hood and depress the shrader valve on your fuel rail... if it does not shoot fuel out at you... HARD then the fuel pump is going bad and being intermitent.. if the gas just barley dribbles out then you know its bad.

 

Doubt this is the issue but, my clip connector on top of the gas tank that has the electrical connections for the fuel sending unit is not getting in tight. There are times it runs great and then others it shakes and shudders and throws a code 27. sooner or later I will get fed up with it and fix it.

 

Currently i am doing the timing belt i should be done with that today. If my truck still does not work i am going to drop the gas tank and have a look at the fuel pump. Does anyone have any pointers on removing the gas tank or is it pretty straight forward. i read somewhere that somebody took the bed off to make the process easier, as its relatively simple to remove the bed.

 

I have removed my tank twice and dont find it to be a real problem from underneath. There is only about 8 bolts. You need to make sure as it starts to come down that you disconnect the two fuel line hoses and the vauum hose as well as the electrical plug so that you dont have any broken components.

Also there are the two hoses going to the filler spout. It is about a 2 hour project to pull check and replace the whole thing.

 

can someone please tell me how to check the fuel pressure on this model. I bought a fule pressure gage but there is no test post on the fuel line. It says in the book to connect it to the fuel inlet usuing a t-fitting on TBI models. Is this correct? if so where can i get this t-fitting that the book so briefly mentions.

 

I have had this same thing happen to me on a few chrysler products and it has always been the Crank Sensor. Just happened to my 01 Van. Crank Sensor.

 

after reading up on the Crankshaft position sensor that seems like it could be the issue. The only thing that is weird is the fact that i do not have a check engine light. Shouldn't a check engine light be on if this sensor is bad?

 

Not always. Have an auto store or someone to hook a code reader up to see if their is any pending codes that havn't set off light yet.