not trying to get into it with anyone, but I'm still sticking with the battery or connections being a likely cause.

I've had all kinds of weird issues because of the battery connections or battery being bad. First time around (battery ended up being bad. replaced it and the terminals) it would start fine but the revs would slowly sink and it would stall after a few seconds if you didn't keep your foot on the gas. It would start fine on the first crank. Didn't seem weak or anything.

The second time a couple years (last fall) later had problems again (battery terminals had worked themselves loose). Again it started fine. While I was driving the radio kept randomly turning off and back on. Then the dome lights would come on for a few seconds and go off. Then if you'd let off the gas completely while you were moving in gear or at a stop the revs would slowly sink and then it would stall. After I pulled off into a parking lot and shut it off it behaved as though there wasn't a battery in it. Nothing worked at all (no starter relay or anything). The dome light relay would click when you opened the door, but no lights would come on. If you turned the key nothing at all would happen. I wiggled the battery terminals and everything came on immediately (including the alarm blaring in my face because the door was open when I reconnected it) and was working fine. It started right up perfectly. I grabbed my toolkit from the back and tightened the terminals, then drove it home with absolutely no problems. When I got home I cleaned them off with a wire brush and they've been fine since.

I guess my point is the battery or connections can still be the problem even though it is starting fine. Again not trying to get into it with anyone or **** anyone off, just speaking from past experiences

 

Trust me, a very similar problem on my old 97 ram was a bad battery. Drove me nuts, I replaced a lot of parts and did a lot of work when all it was is a bad battery

 

not necessarily, the starter will run and crank just fine on low voltage(example, my sisters vw beetle had the battery go bad last summer, we got a new battery and put it in, the car started fine for about a week and then we started having weird electrical problems, the battery had a bad cell in it and was only putting out 10v, still started just fine and cranked over quickly) as long as the starter can get the current, after cranking the voltage is low until it recharges, the PCM needs a specific minimum VOLTAGE and draws little enough current that the battery alone can run just the PCM for quite a while if it has a full charge on it.


againthis is most likely the cause until it is ruled out by testing and or replacing, especially since the tests can pass the battery and the batter still isnt good enough to run these trucks.