What's wrong?
 

My 1996 Ram P/U didn't start this morning. Acted like battery was dead. Jump started it, but it would not keep running. Any ideas of what the problem is. Could it be just the battery?

low battery voltage causes idle problems with IAC voltage.
charge or replace battery and give it a chance to fix itself.

Could be that a rat worked itself into your truck the night before and found a tasty copper treat...I've seen that happen.

Check the items above, and also go to the FAQ/DIY section and download the service manual and the parts manual for your truck.

If you jump started it and it started keep the idle at 3k rpm for about 10 minutes for the idle to re-learn itself while you have the two batteries in series. This has happened to me at the beach running my radio and killing my battery. Not often but it does happen.

i'm calling BS on this one.

holding the rpm at 3K will recharge the battery which fixes the problem.
but the pcm can't relearn the idle at 3000 rpm.

+1 on this. :icon_attention:

When I said "re-learn" itself it a slang term down here meaning of you jump, start it and it doesn't stay running you have to hold throttle down for about 10 minutes before you can let off. You said PCM not me. So quick to judge dhvaughan and gdstock