Since this is my first post i'll hit you up with a problem...nice huh?
My 97' Dodge Ram 1500 Sport extended cab w/towing package..sheez, thats a mouthful, has.. since it was new...had a qurik that has allways been a nusence but has as of yet never been a problem. When driving..time of day or speed or time of year does not matter...its as if someone has just turned off the engine or perhaps the trans has missed a tooth on one of the gears...just for a slit second...the first time it happened I was on the highway crusing along and I swear it felt as if someone had just hit me from behind.
There is no ryhme or reason for this happening...just out of the blue...but I do notice it more with the truck in overdrive than I do with the overdrive disabled.I have grown to just accept this as time has gone bye, but i am noticing it more and more often in the past year or so. I know this is kinda one of those problems that may only be found after the part fails...but its been 10 years and nothing has let go...any ideas?

 

[sm=welcomesign.gif]
Don't really have an answer for your situation, but I have heard of this before. Kinda like a hiccup.
Some items to suspect would possibly be a balky injector. Does any one plug seem to look worse than the others?
Another area might be the crank sensor although being intermittant, not the most likely cause. Along those lines would also be the cam sensor in the distributor. Again, not AS likely.
It would also seem that there may be a wiring/ground fault somewhere that may vibrate loose or arc from time to time. This could be especially true for the PCM wiring/grounding.
Without an engine code to point you in the proper direction, anything is just a guessing game. This is a case where a scanner would be an enormous help as it could be left plugged in and give a real time indication of the engine parameters at the time this ocurred. I don't expect you have one of those or you wouldn't be here. So the only other way to get this information will be to go to a shop that can perform this. If you do go this route and they make a repair, get a guarantee in writing that this is what it is so you are not paying them to guess. You can guess for free.
WC

 

Thanks,Those all sound like great places to start.....ill let ya know!

 

set the TPS voltage... drill out the rivets on the TPS and adjust it so that the output is 0.75 v at idle. you should feel a snappy throttle after that.

 

Steve,

I've never heard of this one before. How do you go about doing this?

 

after you drill out the rivits, it allows some play in the sensor. backprobe the signal wire and measure the voltage to ground... adjust the tps so you get .75 volts out of it and then tighten it up. verify the.75 and your good to go. and before someone asks... .74~.76 is close enough.

 

Would drilling out the rivets on the TPS work to get rid of my "Hiccup" as Aim4squirrels so accuratly described it?

 

it may.. not exactly sure what your hiccup is but it will help with throttle response.

 

I'm gonna see if I got any hard codes stored in the ECM tommorrow...ill try the TPS Mod.

 

let us know how it goes...