New owner here, just bought truck 2-23-07. Nice clean looking body for being a Michigan truck, no salt rust as of yet... It's a club cab, 4X4, 3.9L, Auto, with most of the other bells and whistles offered, it's got 159,XXX miles on it. Stole it from the neighbor for $1,600.00. Still learning things about it, and I've only put about 300 miles on it so far.

Problem with it running down the road is, it wants to "occassionally" cut-out and backfire, mostly thru the intake, but it will pop thru the exhaust at times too. Doesn't do it all the time, might do it once on the 32 mile trip to work, might do it 3-4 times, might not do it at all. Been reading the threads on here on anything to do with a bad running engine, got some things to check on now.

Last night it did the cut-out and pop thru the exhaust thing. Now, I get to put a new muffler on it. Split it right at the seam, Yea!!!!

Before I got the truck, all new plugs, wires, cap-n-rotor, coil, crank sensor were replaced, as it wouldn't even start up. Starts just dandy now, no missing at idle but I think it should be a smoother idle. Just seems rougher than the Wife's 3.1L Pontiac Sunbirds idle, but it just could be me.

Heading out to pull any codes it may offer. I'll post back with what I find. Got to get me a fix-it book for it, just so I have some refferance material for various things.

 

Ok. Checked for stored codes got 12 and 55, so nothing of any news there. Got to checking all the connectors and such just to see that they were prpoerly seated. Did find a couple plug wires weren't fully seated on the cap, and the PS wires were all wrapped around each other, so I straightened those out.

Got to get with one of my friends, see if I can get it into his garage. He has a lift, HEAT, and more play toys than I do. The lift will come in handy for doing the muffler, plus I want to do a good inspection of the suspension bits. Heat is a bonus, no have heat in my garage.....

 

I would check out your egr system.........the valve is prolly stuck open. From what I have read....unless its a california model...egr wont throw a code.

 

Bought a Haynes manual, boy was that a waste of $19.00. Had the Mrs look around Ebay and other sites for a factory repair manual. She found one and it's on it's way here......

Was a somewhat decent day on Saturday, so I gave it a look over again.....

Had it idleing and hooked a vac source to the EGR, made it stumble,,, badly. So me thinks that be ok.

Un-plugged the IAC, it still ran?!?!?! Maybe it's stuck and needs cleaning.

Un-plugged the MAP next. Idle smoothed out after a couple seconds and stayed that way even after plugging it back in. Hmmm,,, possible dirty connection. Idle was still smoother after shutting off and restarting engine.

Just for the heck of it, I un-plugged the TPS... It died!! Well darn, that seems about right.

Jumped the RPM's up to 2,000 and held the throttle steady.. RPM's waivered up/down 3-400. Shouldn't do that, right? I mean, it should hold a steady RPM, not hunt around like it did. Yes/No??

Going to get new fuel filter along with a new cam angle sensor, (pick-up coil in disty). OH, and a new muffler too. No idea as to age of fuel filter, just know it ain't a new one. CAS just cause it's the only thing that wasn't just replaced before I got it, well as far as ignition stuff anyways.

Did notice that some former owner had replaced the Brain, (has yard markings on it, no yard I know of though),on the PS inner fender, and most of the wire loom leading to it is wrapped with electrical tape instead of in the plastic loom. That has me wondering just what all has been messed with now.

Just for kicks and giggles, I swapped around all of the relays in the box behind the battery. Thinking I may open up that wiring and check on those wire splices I've read about on here.

Truck has now sat in the driveway more than it's been driven since we bought it. Wife ain't happy about that..........

 

Gee,,,,,,, I was hoping for some clues or ideas here....

Got 103 views of this here thread, but only one answer as to the idle issue, ( which has cleared itself by the way).

Guess I'll check back in a month or two, see if anyone has an idea or two............................................... .....................................

 

my 88 has been having a simmuler issue i replaced my bat dis cap cleand the roter and it ran fine for a few days then started doing it agein so i had a buddy of mine check it out he said it was the fule filter i got a new one and haden put it in till today but when i left the bank yesterday she wouldent start so i got under and found the fillte, hit it a few times in hopes of unkloging it and she started no probb so i changed it today primed the enegin and then started her no trobble yet so id say try your fule filter

 

Pulled a 60+ hour work week, so I didn't get a helluvalot done as far as getting any new parts for this here truck. Had today off, so I decided I'd look into the wiring under the hood. Opened up all of the wiring loom, looking for anything out of the norm.

Onliest thing I found was some slight corrosion on the lower terminals of the main connector going thru the firewall. Sprayed some "stuff" on there and got those nice and shiny. Looked at the splices, 'specially the "fusible link" ones, all looked good as far as cleanliness and good solder. Sprayed some stuff on those as well, then re-taped everything.

The manual we ordered still hasn't arrived, so I'm still stummbling around in the dark here. Freaking Haynes manual just plain sucks as far as wiring goes. They used to be good ones for that, but not anymore.......... Real tired of they're "typical _____wiring" for what ever system crap............................

Hoping to get to the parts store tomorrow, maybe even be late back from lunch to do so..

Wife isn't real happy with my $1600.00 lawn ornament, 'specially seeing as I just made the 1st payment on it and haven't put over 300 miles on it......................

 

Hi, I have a 91' Dakota LE 4x4 with a v8 318 5.2 long bed. I bought it in late 1993 w about 45K miles on it as a second owner.
It ran great for a few yrs. and I am thinking I had a similar prob. with mine . I will look into my repair log book and see if I can find what I had written for the solution..to the "sputter...cough.....bang...am i gonna make it ta work..... syndrome.
Also, if you are needing the electrical schematics for the beast, may still have the Chiltons complete electrical book, I need to break it out anyway for a diff. issue. I am needing to keep the elect. book but I will share some specific portions with you if you need the info...
My truck died last Xmas but I am looking at all possible doners for a complete transplant of the engine.
Pm me if you like.
signed,
caverC3

 

CaverC3...

I'll take any info you may have on what you found on yours..

The manual arrived earlier this week. It's a Mitchell Manual on CD. I breifly stuck my nose into it, and liking what I see.

Took today off so maybe I can get things done around here on the Truck, and doing some yard work. I'll be heading for the parts store as soon as they open.

 

Swapped fuel filter and put new muffler on yesterday. Of course, new muffler is shorter than the one that was under there, so the tail-pipe don't fit. Got to get new one of those now.....

Did a run out to Reading and back, maybe 25 miles total. On the way back, it did a hesitation, two different times, for a very brief period. No back-fire thru intake, no pop thru exhaust either. Don't know now, but I'll keep digging away at it.

Hesitation feels just like the engine has been shut off, and it re-fires before the engine actually stops spinning. No dash idicators lite up, tach doesn't seem to want to drop to zero either. Wierd for sure.

Mitchell Manual has been somewhat helpfull, but for diagnostics it wants me to use a scanning tool, me no gots one of those. It's better than the Hanynes manual, though the Haynes does have info the Mitchell doesn't, or I haven't found that stuff in it yet.