I just picked up a 94 dakota that was a v6 but the kid put a 95 ram 360 magnum in it. he changed the comp. and harness also. he only got the truck to start 2 times and it ran like crap. then it wont start. its drivin me nuts. I talked to a mopar guy and he said if the kid had put the v6 flywheel on the v8, the crank sensor wont fire right. makes sense. so i asked the kid and he said there is a good chance that he did do that, but he's not sure. so I think, why not bypass the sensor and factory coil by putting on an old style coil with a switched ignition source. that should work right? but it didnt. either the brand new coil was bad or this truck is just smarter than me. any input would be greatly appreciated.

 

yea, I don't think you can bypass the crank sensor. One way to check that is to back probe the cranksensor, and see how many voltage spikes you get for every revolution, or you could also pull the inspection plate off and see how many notches there are on the flywheel, there has to be 8 notches for a v8 and 6 for a v6. My bet is that is your problem

 

Is there a way to test the crank sensor? I'm gonna check for voltage spikes tomorow, but i guess if the sensor was bad there wouldn't be any spikes. Or do you check resistance in it? thank you.

 

no, you can check the resistence but that will not give you a specific answer. Back probe the wires on the crank sensor. There are 3 wires. First try to find the ground, by holding the positive lead on the battery and backprobing each wire(I think the middle wire is the ground, but I could be wrong). After you do that put the black wire on the battery and test the other two wires. One should give 8 volts all of the time(with the key on). The other should jump between 0 and 5 volts(eight times).

You are going to need a person to help you. Someone must turn over the motor very slowly. I recommend, removing the spark plugs(chances are yours are fouled out anyway if you've been crankning on alot). While turning the motor by hand via the harmonic balancer bolt(1 1/4 I think) Count the voltage movement on that 0 or 5 volt wire. If you only get 6 spikes then its your flywheel, if you get 8 then it is something else.

PM me with questions, as here lately I have been working on a jeep with the same drivetrain as our trucks. I still do not have it running, but I have learned how to test and check alot of different things.

I also have come to the understanding, that if the distributor has been removed(which since its a new motor, I think it probably has) that The fuel timing must be synced with the spark timing. The fuel timing is to be 5 degrees in advance before the spark timing. The only way to check this is to take it to a mechanic with the tool to check it and then fix it. I priced a scan tool just to check the timing of both fuel and spark, and it was 500 dollars. The one to fix the problem was over a thousand.

Like I said, pm me if you need too.

Good Luck

 

thank you. ill let you know how it goes.

 

Well it ended up being a v6 flexplate, so I got the engine out and the new plate arrives tomorow. Thats this weeks project. Thank you for your time and support. We'll see how she runs this weekend!

 

No power to fuel pump or coil. Inside fuse panel I'm missing a ground going to the fuel pump. But missing power going the the coil. I can power fuel pump if I use a ground loop. I thought about the crank sensor. But a bad crank sensor shouldn't stop the fuel pump from priming with initial key turn. And it's not doing that. Help me please.

 

This thread is 12 years old.... Please start a new one, tell us what you are driving, what the problem is, (no start?) and what troubleshooting you have done.

 

I have a 96 Dodge ram 1500 with the 5.9 l V8 in it I have changed the camshaft position sensor the crankshaft position sensor with the fuel rail with all eight injectors I'm getting plenty of spark cuz I put a new ignition coil on it the idle air intake valve I have replaced and truck still won't start any ideas any questions oh and I also changed out the PCM

 

Did you read the previous post?