So I purchased an 1989 Dodge D150 the other day and was told it ran fine (It did on the test drive). On the 95 mile trip home it began to randomly die on the highway. It started 12 miles out of town and about every 15 miles after that. I was TOLD the truck had a new fuel pump and regulator. Also, sometimes after heating up and sitting while still hot or even cool (although not as often), it sometimes wont start up or even fire.

I am leaving with the navy in a couple weeks and wont be around for 5 months. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

Dug a little deeper into the problem today, I scanned the truck at the local auto parts store and it gave the codes 11, and 37.
11 being "No distributor, camshaft, or crankshaft reference signal detected during cranking (or at PCM???)".
37 being "Torque converter clutch solenoid circuit" or "Trans temp censer voltage too low or high"
I don't believe the code 37 has nothing to do with the current problem at hand. But does anyone at all have any knowledge of what could be wrong? I'm running out of time before shipping out...
Thanks

 

sounds like your issue might be with the pick up sensor in the distributor.

 

Would the part needed to fix this issue be known as the pick-up coil? And what could have caused this part to fail or go bad? Any other possible suggestions on what could be wrong?

 

it would also be know as a pickup coil. sometimes they just go bad with age. it is definitely giving the symptoms of a truck with a pickup coil that has gone bad.

 

Just did some more research on the pick-up coil and you sound exactly right. Do you think it is absolutely necessary to remove the distributor to do the replacement?

 

i think SixGun said he was able to replace his with the distributor still in the truck. there is only 3 screws holding the thing into the distributor. now if you need to removing the distributor is not that hard you just have to mark things good.

 

Got the part today and got it replaced. It turns out on my vehicle it only had 2 screws (one on each side of the outside of the distributor) I've only had it out on one drive so far, but have not had any issues at all. Thanks for your help man!

Oh, and I didn't have to pull the distributor out of the truck!

 

that was going on with my 90 and i pulled out the dist and put in a new "pick up coil."

 

I have a thread with the symptoms almost exactly like yours and it is also probably the pick up coil. I am replanting it next week.