I have a 1996 Dakota 3.9L ,my truck starts fine from a cold start ,but after just a few minutes,loses power & kills. Sometimes if I am driving 40 or more miles an hour, I can lightly pump the gas pedal and it will sputter & backfire loud & start back up. I have changed the fuel pump assembly,the IAC valve,the throttle position sensor,coil,rotor, cap,& pickup, plugs & wires. Please any input would be great, I am waiting on open heart surgery for an Aortic aneurysm & I really can't afford to keep getting stranded out on the road & I have almost no money at all,so I really need to quit dumping any money that I do have on unnecessary parts . Thanks in advance for any help.

 

Give the FAQ page a read to see if any of the common problem descriptions look right. Also look into the code check. You can do it with a key turning process and count the flashes of the check engn light. It's just under the General Information section. It looks like there is a PDF of the factory service manual for the 96 on the FAQ page, it would do you a lot of good in diagnosis.
Good Luck and be safe that sounds like a pretty serious surgery.

 

With just the symptoms you've presented, and the parts you've replaced, I think a good possibility is an erratic MAP sensor.

More info would help though, such as how many miles are on it, automatic or manual, and does it die when idling or only when you're giving it throttle?

 

I'll add that being a 1996, it's an OBDII, and you should be able to use a standard OBDII reader/scanner to pull the codes if you wish.

Also, and here it gets fun, you can pick up an OBDII Bluetooth or WiFi adapter, and for Android devices I like Torque (Free or Pro; Pro is cheap enough) and you can datalog the datastreams off the ECU, to figure out why the ECU is doing what it's doing (MAP sensor out? O2 sensors not toggling, which won't affect cold run? ECU RPM off? etc.)

RwP

 

If it runs fine initially, then sounds like it's okay during open loop A/F control. Once it warms and goes to closed loop using the O2 sensor it behaves erratically. So, I would be looking at the O2 sensor.

 

I would be looking at 2 things, ignition coil and distributor pick up plate ("cam sensor")
you wont get a code for a coil and you may/may not get a code for that dist pickup/ I had a 97 full sized truck with a 318 that did this and one time after it died I got a code for the dist pickup, until then I was too scratching my head.