While driving my 1994 Dakota manual 3.9 Saturday night, it began bucking and lurching. Then it died, I was able to control the truck as I still had power steering, but no gas pedal to accelerate.

I then tried to re start the truck, it started, and I drove about a mile, then it stalled again.

I tried to re start, but wore the battery down...very quickly.

After towing it back to the house, it sat for about an hour. I went to try and start it and it fired right up!

-no dead battery
-idled then stalled

The next morning it started then died a couple times, then ran fine.

Bad ground?? What would explain the fully recharged battery??

 

I'd be checking the battery connections - and the connections at the other end of the cables.

Sounds like corrosion or oxidation somewhere in the chain.

RwP

 

Had the battery tested today....NAPA machine says bad!

 

If we swap the battery and find you have the same problem, look in the first FAQ and there's a sticky about the relay box splice that goes bad. Same thing happened to my truck.

 

We dealt with that issue last year. Checked splices, and also replaced the fuel pump.

On the last die out I checked the schraeder valve and there was fuel making it to the fuel rail.

Truck is at the farm, so it will be a week or so before I can check.

 

Installed a new battery a week ago. Drove around the farm, idled about 45 minutes. No stalls.

Drove around the farm today doing chores. Idled 45-60 minutes no stalls. Starts up right away!!

 

Well after driving the truck around the farm a couple of months....just to be safe, loaded her up with trash from landscaping and headed to the dump.

Stalled out right before arriving, same symptoms, bucking, lurching etc. Ecept this time had no problem trying to restart because I had a new battery!

Call the same tow driver as last time. He checked a couple things out. The truck turns over, but it is like there is no spark. He said there is no spark coming to the coil as he disconnected the wire.

One thing I did notice which was weird...the two wires on the connector to the coil had there insulation sheared off, as if someone were testing for voltage??? Am I thinking right? If the wires are stranded, then taped with masking tape, could that cause and issue?? I taped the wires with electrical tape, truck started right up, ran it for 2-3 hours around the farm, with A/c on, pulling trees, old fence etc. No problems!

 

I'm not an electrical guy but I would tape those wires with electrical tape. Don't stretch the tape it's got memory and it will try to pull itself back to original length and you'll have a tail hanging off it all the time. The other thing that came to me as I reread the whole thread is that your alternator may be going bad. I just occurred to me that the first time if you still had power steering doesn't that mean the motor was still running? If that is the case I think it changes something about the diagnosis. IDK what. Could it be as simple as a TPS?

 

Yes the truck still did run. I was able to drive in 4th gear for a while....I am making a list of things to replace all at once. Each tow cost $60. Very expensive trying to do process of elimination!

 

I'd try to get a good diagnosis before spending much more money.
http://dodgeram.org/tech/transmissio...TPS_adjust.htm

Just found this too
http://dodgeram.org/tech/gas/repair.htm