Have a '97 Dakota V6...running down road at 50 to 60 miles an hour, crazy thing will backfire and die or cough and pick back up....some-days it will start right back up and other days i will grind on it for up to 15min before it will start..

Have changed out ASD relay.. Have check fuel pressure and it holds between 40 and 50 pounds...Shows No Codes...I have ran out of ideas!!!! HELP!!!

 

crankshaft sensor, maybe. when i had my 99 dakota. sometimes it would just die and start back up when driving down the road for no reason. problem went away when i changed the crankshaft sensor. i didn't have any codes either.

 

Maybe the distributor.

 

My Dak ran like that and it ended up being the PCM

But it could be any number of things

 

id hook a fuel pressure gauge up again and drive it while watching the fuel pressure,see if it acts up when this happens..

 

Mine did that exact same thing...running down the road at 45 - 50 mph and it would just shut off. Generally it would restart right away, but occasionally would have to grind on it for awhile. I tried several different things to fix it to no avail. Then on a whim, I checked the coil wire connections and made sure they were connected tightly. After doing that I never had the problem again and that has been about a year ago. May be worth a try, no cost involved.

 

I had the same problem in a different car of mine and it ended up being the crankshaft position sensor (aka engine speed sensor).

 

Mine was the crankshaft position sensor. I had a corroded intake manifold bolt that broke and the coolant was weeping right of the top of the sensor.

By the way, you might want to check those intake manifold bolts. They had to replace my intake gasket and all the bolts. Not cheap. But I still love my Dakota.

 

let it idle and see if it dies once it warms up you might have a bad coil. there a commen thing on these and they dont throw a code. crank malf normally throws a cel. id start there because the crank sensor is a bitch to replace.

 

it's actually not that bad. If you remove the passenger side fender liner, you can get right to it. If you leave the fender liner in...yea, it takes a few wobblies and some luck.