When it rains or early in the morning after their has been some due on the ground, my Dakota won't start. Fuel injector cleaner helped for a while but now its back to not starting all day after it rains or when its humid. After the fuel injector cleaner it ran for a good amount of time through very heavy rain (like Noah's arch rain) after being warmed up, however I drove through a two or three inch deep stream of water that was going across the road right after the rain and it stalls out immediately after going through the mini stream, i kept my foot down but it puttered out non the less. It restarted a few minutes later.
Now a few weeks later I have the bright idea to open the hood while trying to start it to see if theirs anything interesting going on, so I have my bro attempt to start it. He turns the key with a foot on the gas for 4 seconds, it turns over trying to start, now my brother is pumping the gas and as he does this he turns the key back as to turn the motor off with foot still on the gas, a split second after or during this as the motor turns over without actually starting (as it often does after rain) two quick puffs of smoke (exhaust) puff up from what looked to be around the aria of the passengers side header or spark plugs. The truck starts when dry and runs fine, but a little weaker then usual, could the source of my problems be a spark plug that isn't in right? Does anyone have any ideas at all?

 

change your distributor cap and rotor. Its probably cracked and letting moisture in.

 

check to see if crank position sensor or wires going to it are grounding out when it gets wet. you can use a water hose to spray water in the general area to help pinpoint the location. just be careful under a running trk.

 

I would do the rotor and cap and if your going to do that much might as well do wires and plugs. I did mine on my 5.2 couple months ago and it really helped out best part was it was pretty cheap 63.00 for everything from autozone and that wasnt for the cheap stuff either. Took me a hr or 2 to get it all done

 

Im with every one else, change the cap and rotor.

 

I had the same problem and the distibutor cap wasn't sealing well. I was getting condensate in the cap and it wouldn't start.

New cap and rotor did the trick.

 

Was under my trk this weekend changing idler arm, looker up and saw the bottom of the coil. nothing between the coil and ground but air.

could be tires slinging water up on the coil as you drive through water. doesn't account for hard starting after its been sitting all night.

just a thought.