Hi everyone new dakota owner here, picked up my 1989 dodge dakota sport with the 3.9 and a manual trans about 1 month ago. Im having trouble getting it started again, i bought it from a guy a few blocks away for 500$ running and driving it ran pretty good other than it skipping and sputtering when i drove it a few blocks home. Anyways got the truck in my driveway and it stalls out. I didnt have time to look at the truck again until about a week later and it would start up perfectly fine but would act like it was getting choked out when i tried to give it gas and wouldnt move but idled perfectly. Now about 2 weeks later im just getting back to it and the truck wont start at all now, last night i checked for spark at the wires and it has it so i sprayed some starting fluid down the TB and she fired right up so im thinking fuel pump? I did some research last night and came to the conclusion that taking the bed off would be easier than dropping the tank so i called a few buddies and thats what we did today and now with the bed off i can clearly hear the fuel pump priming and sloshing around gas in the tank. I called the guy i bought it from and he said he had a new pump put in about 5 months ago, could the pump go bad that fast? And would i still be able to hear it running if it was bad?

 

Depending on the brand of pump that was installed, yeah, they can go bad that fast. Best to put a pressure gauge on it, though that's gonna be fun too. Might try pinching off the fuel return line, (if you can) at the throttle body, and see if it will start/run.

 

Thank you for the fast response i will go out and try that right now, as for the pressure testing how do i do that without a valve on the fuel rail?

 

Need some adapters, parts store gauge *should* come with them.

 

Ok so i tried pinching the return line and nothing seemed to have changed so i decided to take the fuel pump assembly out. There are two wires that go directly to the pump and one of those wires (black) was disconnected. I will try to attach a picture, i dont know if it was like that or if i accidentally popped it off while I was taking the pump assembly out. I am going reconnect it better and put it back in and hope that was my issue. The fuel pump brand is Precision and from what ive looked up it seems to be an orilley brand. Has anyone ever tried one of these are they any good?

 

My fuel pump petered out 3-1/2 years ago. That translates into 9,000 miles ago. I don’t drive much. I put in a Delphi fuel pump and it hasn’t let me down yet. Think I got it off Amazon. I had read many people complaining about crappy afternarket fuel pumps. If I recall, Delphi was recommended so that’s what I went with.

I removed the bed bolts on the driver’s side. Loosened them only on the passenger side if I recall. Lifted driver’s side of bed. Held it up with 2x4s and what not. Had good access to the pump.

My one mistake was allowing the rubber gasket to fall in the tank unknowingly. Next time I filled the tank gas spilled out all over creation. Had to go back and fish out the gasket and do it right the second time.

BTW, it would be a good time to make sure you have all the bed bolts. 3 of the 8 on mine were missing.

Oh, and careful to orient it the same as your old one. If you get the sending arm too close to the tank wall it can get hung up and you get squirrely gauge readings.

 

Lol i thought that gasket was part of the tank mine was stuck on! I was lucky enough to have my brother and a friend help me take the bed off so i know all my bolts are there LOL. I want to make sure im getting power there before i buy a new pump, i have 5 wires that go to the pump module do you know what 2 wires power the pump? I have 2 gray wires one solid gray and one with a black tracer, 2 blue wires one with a red tracer other a yellow or white tracer, and the last is a green with black tracer. I have the FSM but cant seem to find the page with this info.

 

Yeah, I’m getting a little ahead of you.