I wont be able to work on my truck immediatly, but I would like to get some advice from people who know what their talking about.

I got my truck about a year ago and it's just sat because the transmission was shot (not literally). So I would start it every once and while and let it idle for a while and make sure the battery kept somewhat of a charge. Well we finally got the trany fixed and we put it back in ourselves. Once everything was installed we poured in 6 quarts of oil (guy gave us a deeper pan, said it should hold 12 quarts now) and then started it to put in the rest.

Well we got to 10 quarts and the truck died like someone turned the key off and we figured it just ran out of gas because it was already low of fuel when we got it in the first place. So tonight we put we put in 5 gallons of gas and tried to start it and we got nothing. It will turn over but wont get any ignition, and when I put the key in and turned it, the fuel pump would come on.

Anyone have any ideas as to what would shut it down? like a sensor or something?

 

Did it die while you were putting the OIL in? I hope you mean that you were putting oil in the engine and not the tranny. There is an ASD(automatic shutdown relay) that could possibly have gone bad but it sounds more like you way overfilled either the engine or trans.. What has the larger pan the engine or the transmission? If it is the engine you are referring to, I would check the dipstick to see how high the level is on there. You may have hydrolocked the engine. If it is the tranny do the same thing as you may have overfilled it which is worse than underfilling it. If either are overfull drain it down to normal and try again. If it is the engine pull all of the plugs and pull the coil wire off the coil and crank it over a few times to evacuate the cylinders. With any luck you didn't damage the rotating assembly.

 

No, the transmission has a deeper pan. I put in the 10th quart of ATF and went to open a new bottle and that's when it died. Plus you have to check trany fluid levels when it's running and warmed up or you wont get good readings.

 

I am aware of checking the fluid levels when it is warm and running in either park or neutral with the parking brake set. I was trying to decipher whether or not we were talking tranny or engine since you said oil which threw me off. Where was the level on the trans dipstick showing when it died or are we assuming that it is actually a 12 qt. pan and were going for broke on the guys word. i am not trying to bust on you. I am trying to help you figure out what happened as to why it died. Have you tried cycling the key several times to prime the fuel system back up incase it did run out of fuel? do you hear any relays in the fuse block clicking when you try to start it? That is where the "ASD" relay is located.

 

Yea, I cycled the key back and forth to build pressure but the truck didn't start so I don't know if I actually have pressure or if it did nothing. When I turn the key over the fuel pump would buzz on for a second then turn off and I would hear a single click after the pump turned off, that good or bad? Umm the dipstick said something on it like do not fill past this when truck is off, and I didn't so I would say fluid levels are safe. Not exactly sure what the dipstick said, but I didn't fill it past what it said.

 

Ok. It sounds like maybe the ASD relay shut the truck down for some reason. You could try swapping it with a non essential relay like the one for fog lights etc.. If you were out of fuel all together the fuel pump should have ran for more than just a second. You could check for fuel pressure atthe schraeder valve on the fuel rail. You need a fuel pressure gauge for fuel injected vehicles. Sounds like your fluid level is ok.

 

K, tyvm! This is my first truck and a lot of money has been spent on getting the transmission and everything in working order, and I don't want another problem. Would you know where it's located by any chance? it's a 97' Dodge Ram 1500 4X4

 

I have the same truck. What are you asking shere it is the schraeder valve for fuel pressure or the ASD relay? The relay is inside the fuse block to the rear of the battery toward the firewall. It is a rectangular box with a black cover on it. the schraeder valve is on the fuel injector fuel rail. If I remember right it is on the driver side rail.

 

Oh, well that's simple enough because my step dad looked inside the fuse box for burnt fuses (didn't check all of them, only the fuel pump fuse) and my Uncle who worked at an SJ Denham for 10 years said to check the fuel pressure by pulling off the fuel lines at the fuel rail, so hopefully I will be able to fix whatever the problem is.

 

The easy way to check the ASD relay is to have someone turn the key while you hold your finger on the relay and feel for it to click when trying to start the engine.