Hello I have been reading forums for a while decided to join since I can not figure out what's wrong
1 sometimes it will go 200 miles no problem or it may make it a block and dies or it will not start at all no power to fuel pump or coil

2 have replaced crank sensor coil cam sensor new fuel pump checked wiring for bad or burned spots wires under fuse box under hood are ok

Can not find a ECM within 5 states Of me could it be a faulty ECM ?
It is a nice straight truck but I'm at witts end about to burn it lol any help would be great

 

How do you restart it after it dies?

 

Wright now I can't it's been almost 2 weeks but before if I let it sit a day it would sometimes start but at moment no fuel pump sound installed new fuel pump and you can care it but no coil spark with test light also now you can push throttle to floor check engine light comes on other wise its off with no codes

 

I ask because I had a similar problem on my 93 Dakota (5.2L). After going thru all kinds of stuff (including what you did and much more) I ended up with a new PCM. Mine had a bad microprocessor. Thing would die randomly but not near as frequent as yours. I could always get it to restart. Sometimes within 15 minutes, sometimes within several hours but it would always restart. One time I took a screwdriver and tapped around on the PCM with the handle (not hard but noticeable) and she fired right up. Coincidence? Possibly. I have an OBD1 PCM so it is plug and play. I believe 96 was the first year for the OBD2. Do you have an OBD2? You're welcome to read my trial and tribulations (it's a long thread) if you think it will help you. Link below. Otherwise someone smarter than I should chime in here soon and give you some ideas.

https://dodgeforum.com/forum/1st-gen...-no-start.html

 

Ok ill read it yes mine is obd 2 but that is how mine started doing it would start drive it and it was like it lost all power gagues went dead engine would die but for a while it would start Wright back up but not now that's why I was thinking ECM bad

 

If I had to do it again I would have sent my PCM in for diagnosis from the start. They can bench test those things and pinpoint any problems. From there you can tell them to repair it (if possible) or replace it with a rebuilt. If it comes down to that let me know or read my thread for contact info at the place I got mine. They're not the only ones. Plenty of others who do that kind of work but the guy I dealt with did right by me. But wait for some other opinions on this thread before committing to anything.

 

Ok will do im still reading your post you linked I never had to deal with one before thank you a lot for your help it's much appreciated

 

You're more than welcome. Trust me, I have taken more help here than I have given and without it I'm not sure where my truck baby would be. You see the names.

 

The ONLY gauge that's connected to the ECU is the tach. So if they're all dying, it's probably not the ECU/ECM.

I'd say it's either bad power wiring (battery cables, that infamous splice, the bulkhead fitting, maybe even the ignition switch itself!) or a bad major ground (see all but the ignition switch).

Good news! The wiring diagrams for your 1996 are in the factory service manual. Better news! After reading this message, go back to the subforum message list, look at the top, the #3 stickied message at the top is the FAQ message. Open it, go about 40% down, and presto, there's a link to where you can download it!

Get that and use that as your map while troubleshooting.

RwP

 

And to add, I always suspected my OBD1 was the problem with my truck. Before I even posted on this forum. But I subscribe to what Ralph refers to as, "Eliminate what you can, what's left is what's wrong". Or, do the simplest and cheapest things first and work your way to the hardest and most expensive things last. What I didn't know was that removing/reinstalling/replacing an OBD1 and getting it diagnosed was not as expensive or difficult as I thought (an OBD2 could be a different story). And when my hunch all along was that my OBD1 was the problem source, I should have moved that up on my list instead of putting it last. Changing out some relays or inspecting some wiring is easy. Changing out crankshaft sensors, cam sensors, fuel injectors, coils, ignition components, rewiring 60-wire connectors, this test, that test, etc begins to get a bit more difficult and, truthfully, whiffs of a little bit of desperation. My only point is weigh the difficulty + your suspicion of the problem source (OBD2) vs the "cost" of doing all those other things I mentioned and place it appropriately on your "Eliminate what you can, what's left is what's wrong" list. Hope that made sense.