lol i had a coworker work the pedal and watch the gauges. and i will, on a back thought. the truck was a little warm and by little warm i mean around 210 maybe a little higher due to my efan wires getting accidentally broken. maybe the high heat had something to do with it?

 

Off subject I know, but PLEASE READ THIS THREAD, https://dodgeforum.com/forum/2nd-gen...e-tragedy.html

 

already on it Z, i have to wait till i get home because i cant get on paypall on my computer at work

 

Backwoods, this just sounds a LOT like the crank sensor problem I was having. Really crappy idle (I mean REALLY crappy), but when I revved it to four grand it sounded great. If an engine is misfiring, it makes perfect sense that it would be most noticeable at idle, when there's not nearly as much momentum inside the engine.

I know you said you were getting a good spark, but I finally settled on the CKPS as the culprit by seeing how far, how strong, and how regular a spark would jump between a screwdriver stuck into each plug boot and a good ground. A proper spark will jump about 3/8" by my reckoning, and some of mine were lucky to jump 1/16". I also tried an inline spark tester, but it gave much more ambiguous results. It was too easy to fire; even the weak once were firing it off about the same as the strong ones.

Some people (cough zman cough) frown on this method, but it's actually pretty tried and true, especially in HVAC. It's a great way to test an oil burner transformer; just hold a (well-insulated) screwdriver across the contact springs of the transformer, then draw it away and see how far away you can maintain an arc. I just diagnosed a bad transformer this way - the old one I could get about a 1/4" arc, the new one could pull an arc about an inch long.

So maybe give it a shot; if they're all consistent and strong, great; if not, I'd highly suspect the crank sensor. They're not all-or-nothing; a bad one can cause the PCM to fail to allow the coil enough time to build up a proper charge before sending it to the distributor, resulting in a weak and/or intermittent spark on certain cylinders.

I'd like to hear the results of this test, if you do it, and of course, what the problem finally turns out to be.

 

lol John D, ive been keeping an eye on your thread, and ive already done a spark test, ive got solid spark on all 8. as of right now shes runnin fgood, but so far every time i think i have it fixed the old girl starts runnin rough again. if she starts acting up again thou shes gonna get a new CKPS any way, since thats pretty much the only old one on the motor

 

OK, just re-read this thread. I still think my 5-cent bet is fairly safe. It seems to me that random, intermittent problems, like your stalling, are usually electronic in nature. Could just be that when you check for spark, your CKPS just happens to be behaving itself. When you stall, stall, stall, it's not.

As you say: "if she starts acting up again thou shes gonna get a new CKPS any way, since thats pretty much the only old one on the motor".

My nickel still says that if you replace it, your stalling goes away for good.

***

Joe, I don't know if you saw this thread that I started way back about my 318 "stalling, stalling, stalling", but maybe give it a look and see if it sounds familiar: https://dodgeforum.com/forum/2nd-gen...-stalling.html

It was the same problem as my "Interesting spark problem"; CKPS on the way out.