friends got a 97 2500 and when ever it rains or he hits a puddle the truck dies and i seem to get it running before i ever figure out what the cause was did a major tune up helped it alot and the cab ground seems to be getting hot melting the tape on it a bit any ideas would be really helpful oh and someone put a motor in it when he bought it.

 

check and clean all chassis and cab grounds ,clean the battery terminals .you have a bad ground somewhere .and possibly a chaffed wire that may be shorting when wet .got some wire chasing to do if you want to find the problem.id start at the dizzy wiring at the rear of the motor and from there the wires that supply power to the coil, and so on look for chafes or cracks in the insulation.is the coil new if not it could be cracked ,you could try a spray bottle filled with water and squirt the coil see if it dies

 

+1... check the crank sensor wires for damage and make sure they are not pinched between the motor and bell housing. Also, you could check for any stored codes for the hell of it https://dodgeforum.com/forum/2nd-gen...code-list.html

 

yea do the key dance........turn the key OFF, ON, OFF, ON, OFF, ON.....then the Check Engine light will flash....

if it goes blink, short pause, blink blink, thats code #12

and Blink, blink, shortpause, blink would be #21

when it does 5 blinks, short pause, 5 blinks, thats #55 and means 'End of code list.

i have what all the codes mean, so tell us what you get for codes and ill tell you what they are.....and this is even if you dont have a check engine light....i dont have one, but i have code #12, 15, and 32 stored in it.

code #12 is battery being disconnected within 50 key cycles
code #15- No signal to Vehicle Speed Sensor
code #32- Egr gases not flowing properly/ no flow detected .........<-----due to my EGR delete

 

i would check to see if water is getting into the distributor cap first

 

well im guessing its the crank sensor wires but cant see it very well but the carlot he bought it from put a motor in it ill give the waterbottle a run see if i can duplicate the issue and never really pulled codes when we got it started checked coil and its a little out of tolerence on the secondary told him to get one after xmas thanks for the tips ill post when i find the culprit

 

i would check to see if water is getting into the distributor cap first +1

 

also since the coil is mounted in a real crappy place..make sure it is not getting wet..If i go through a deep mud hole or creek.. the fan blows water on the coil.. just saying