so i just bought a 98 1500 w/ 318 & 5 spd, 155k on the clock. everything was ok on the way back up yesterday, but once we pulled off the interstate and were headed though town she suddenly started misfiring and bucking doing ~30 in 4th. it'll do that intermittently at lower RPM through town and it did do it WOT once right before a shift as well.

the prev owner said it had sat for 8 months or so. added 2 bottles of HEET and a couple bottles of injector cleaner, as well as putting new plugs in it today. still sputters and coughs from time to time. did a search here and came up with a few potentials (?). Maybe the O2 sensor, or needs wires and a reroute, the cat, or fuel pump?

i'm lost as can be on this thing. i haven't spent time in a gasser in many many months. thanks in advance.

 

plugs plug wires cap then check o2 censor. but its probably one of those you might get a fuel injection cleaning

 

Well Spence13e, I give you much credit for searching first! haha

The first question is, during any of its little "fits" does it blink/throw a CEL? With the 5 speed you have ruled out a lot of the odd Torque Converter shudder issues, and you are right on track with the engine maintenance items.

If for some reason you 1) have no CEL, and 2) it continues after the basic tune-up troubleshooting, you may start looking at bent valve(s) with those kind of miles. I have had both a clogged CAT, and a bent #5 exhaust valve right around 180k on mine, and they were related I am pretty sure due to the heat caused by the clogged CAT.

Good luck to you!

 

ok, so it had a CEL that was intermittent. it might be on when it would backfire at speed. never was on with rough idling. CEL came back on, got the codes read (P0132 AND P0135). we all figured it to be O2 sensor, bought one and put it in. everything seems ok so far, going to drive the **** out of it this weekend.

oh, and any recommendations on the 4x4? it engages and runs fine, but man it sure sounds real klunky. might need greased good? serviced? heck i dunno, my ford has never sounded this interesting.

 

As far as the 4wd goes, you just got the truck, so you should change all the fluids in the diffs,TC and transmission. This way you can check the condition of each. And the clunking, you need to check the drive shaft ujoints and front axle ujoints, ball joints, tie rods, shocks, etc.... In other words, evrything needs to be checked out.

 

ok, figured as much. but there's time, so it's not a MEGA huge hurry...

 

Since it's a 98 and you might not know much about the history of it. You should have the cat checked and check the lower intake gasket , which you can do yourself if you have a vacuum gauge.http://dodgeram.info/tsb/2000/09-05-00.htm