Hello from a new member.

My daughter and son are driving a 3.9 liter 1990 Dodge Dakota across the western US at the moment and had a problem yesterday after they shut the engine off, went grocery shopping and returned. The engine wouldn't crank. The headlights and dashboard lights were OK.

This has been a problem since we have owned the pickup starting in 2002. Another of my daughters drove it for about a year and had the ignition switch replaced, a nephew who succeeded her driving the pickup had frequent starting problems (requiring tows and extensive garage investigations now and then) and now the problem is back.

I'm in Ireland but was in the US all July and the pickup ran fine and started well. A neighbor of my sister showed my nephew how to start the pickup with a jumper from a disconnected two-prong plug near the battery (driver side, front) to the positive pole of the battery while the ignition switch was in "on". Apparently this was nearly infallible. In fact, this is how my son and daughter got the pickup started just recently.

Reading through postings on this forum, I spotted one with the caution that the gear selector for the automatic transmission model had to be in either Park or Neutral for the engine to crank. I had forgotten all about automatic transmissions having this feature because I have been driving only manual transmissions for the past 10 years.

Furthermore, the gear selector of out pickup is sometimes reluctant to come out of Park or to move smoothly to select the various gears, and the little red indicator sometimes doesn't indicate where the selector has landed. Could the starting problem just be a safety switch related to being in Park or Neutral?

Maybe the plug that the neighbor showed my nephew is the transmission starting safety switch. I would very much appreciate it if anyone can tell me whether there is a plug serving this switch up near the battery in this year Dakota, or whether anyone else has had a problem like this.

 

explain the plug better? When you jumper this connection to a hot connection (battery) it makes the starter turn? If so sounds like just a terminal block for the starters wire connections and by jumping it you force the starter to turn. If so then problem is probably in the ignition inside the steering column. You mention putting a new ignition switch in recently so my guess would be a wiring prob inside the steering column. Perhaps an intermittant short.

 

The ignition switch and, I think, some wiring in the steering column, were replaced by a garage about 3 years ago. Since then it seems that every mechanic in the vicinity of the pickup has had a shot at finding why it has this starting problem. I'm sure something intermittant like this is a tough one to handle, and one garage just said we were forgetting to shut off headlights and drawing-down the battery, even though the battery has been fine and there is a new one in the truck now. I just wonder if they looked at the transmission switch as a possible explanation. As it is, they tended to roll their eyes whenever my sister forwarded an idea from me about the cause.

The plug is difficult for me to explain beyond that it is a two-prong, in-line plug with a waterproof seal, located on the engine side of the battery next to another such plug (don't know how many prongs in that one). I wish I had been able to take a digital photo, but both my sister's and her son's digital cameras were stolen by a burglar this last year, and I didn't have my camera with me.

 

Sorry, I missed answering part of your reply. Yes, when the jumpering to the positive pole of the battery is made the starter engages and the engine ignites and runs. As you say, maybe the garage that diagnosed an faulty ignition switch and installed it caused/overlooked a wiring problem.