I have 92 dakota will not run.I was driving home and just lost power like was a cloged filter as i let off gas was ok for a sec. then had to let off again till stopped running altogether. It has spark,has pressure to start but runs choppy and stalls. put a new fuel pump and filter has a married pressure regulator on fuel rail any idea whats wrong please help ty

 

hi there ,
i am too arriving on the board being fresh with the sole aim of delivering the best knowledge i have got into the issues put here to be simplified



Tevida

 

Welcome to DF. Moving to the correct section.

 

I'm not sure what you mean by a "married pressure regulator", the configuration I'm familiar with has a removable regulator on the fuel rail and this, or one of the associated O-rings can be leaky and cause a significant pressure drop. Can you explain your configuration?

The fuel system is relatively straight forward, with few things that should bother it, so if the pump appears to be running and the lines are clear (no frozen water or dirt in the lines or filter), there are only a few other things that can cause a fuel delivery problem. Here are a couple of things to consider:

• The pump & regulator work as a team. In the older systems, the pump and regulator are separate with the pump in the tank and the regulator on the fuel rail and in the newer systems the regulator became a part of the pump so you only have a delivery line going to the fuel rail -no return line. The pump provides more fuel than your engine needs and has a check valve to stop the fuel from coming back through the delivery line. The regulator keeps the fuel pressure at a specific level and lets all the excess fuel go back to the tank in the return line (on the newer systems, this return line is part of the pump assembly).
• You've mentioned that the regulator is in the fuel rail, so I'm going to address only that configuration. This regulator is usually removable and has a vacuum line attached to it. To see if you have a fuel delivery or regulation problem, you first need to perform a couple of tests, a fuel pressure test (with vacuum hose attached) - this is to give you the normal "running" pressure at idle. A fuel pressure test (with vacuum hose removed or clamped) - this gives you the fuel pressure you'd have under load or acceleration. Fuel leak-down pressure test - this is with the engine just turned off and you're seeing how long the pressure holds at an acceptable level.
• The numbers that you get from the above tests will give you a good indication as to how good your pump/regulator team is working and if the running pressure is good but the leak-down is bad, then you need to determine whether it's leaking through the regulator or the pump. If the running pressure is poor, again, you need to determine what part of the team is failing. Once you post the test values (also post the specifies normal values so there's something to compare to - I don't have those specs or the manual for this gen Dakota), I can give you additional steps to determine what's bad (I could continue here, but I don't know what your "married" configuration really means.

 

yeah my pressure regulator not removeable
cal emissions

 

The regulator should be removable. My 93's is held in with a hog nose clip. Grab your rear view mirror andhold it back there to get a better look. Also if you dont here the pump turn on when you turn the key to prime the system check your relay and grounds. Good luck.

 

Take a picture of your fuel rail and the regulator and let's have a look - Chrysler sells a regulator for this truck, so the old one must come out to put a new one in. Along with the picture, post the fuel pressure readings on your truck - it's not possible to give you more than theoretical solutions without you doing some testing and posting results.

 

thanks got regulator out.not regulator fuel pump doesn't keep running . pump starts to run but then stops running it is a new pump
any thoughts

 

The pump only runs for about 3 seconds when you put the key into prime. It does that to pressurize the system. It continues to run only after the motor is running. If you put a new regulator in and still have no fuel pressure im guessing something is clogging up your lines. Although it should have enough pressure to register on the gauge after replacing the regulator.

 

It would really be good if you could hook up a fuel pressure gauge to the rail to let us know what it sees. Without it's input, we're all guessing.

With the pressure gauge, if the pressure didn't build up & dropped off quickly, it's possible to figure out whether the pressure drop is through the regulator or the pump. You can also determine if the screen on the pump is clogged or if it's check valve is shot. Without this info, you're going to go down the line and buy new pieces until the system works (pressure gauge costs about $40, regulator is about $150 and the pump is about the same or more - to me it's more cost effective to buy the tool first).