Hey everybody,
Here's my situation. My truck is what I described in the post. Just some background info. The truck has 61,100 miles on it and I had left the truck from a Thursday night until I tried to start in at 4 in the afternoon on Monday. When I tried to start, it just made a clicking noise for about a half a second until I stopped. After that, I tried to start it for the next 10 minutes with small breaks. Nothing doin. So I hooked up a battery charger to it, and after about 5 minutes of trying to start and charging, it started up. The only problem was that I would have to keep the gas pedal down in order to keep the engine going, otherwise it would just die down.
After I got it into the driveway, I checked the battery and filled the water levels up to par, but no go. So I decided to try to charge the battery for about an hour. Once that was done, I started it up and it started fine and quick. However, normally it would idle at 1000 rpm but this time it only idles at 600 rpm. After I started it, it would idle at 600 unless I were to push the gas pedal in. Whether it be hard or not, and after that it would just die down.
So, I tried to drive it around with a mixture of brakes and gas. After about one stop, it would then idle at 600 each time I stopped. So I drove around for about 20 minutes and stopped at a pep boys to get my battery and alternator checked. They wouldn't do it cause it was too late so when I left and tried to start the truck, it almost didn't start. So I went over to Auto Zone and once I got there and shut off the truck I went in to get someone to check it. When I went out to move it closer, it wouldn't start. So after that he checked it and said the battery was bad, but the alternator was good. So I bought a Duralast Gold battery and after that it started up every time just fine.
The only thing I'm worried about is that the idle is down from 1000 rpm to 600 rpm and I have not messed with the idle at all. I wanted to know if anyone had gone through the same thing and what it was. I aplogize for such a long post leading up to the question, but I wanted to give some background for those who know Dodge's more than me.
Thanks for any help any one can give.

 

Get a can of carb cleaner and clean the carbon from the butterflys on the throttle body. You should remove the IAC and clean the pintle also. Disconnect the battery to reset the adaptives and you should be all set.

 

Replace the battery. Common problem with idle when the battery goes south. even a load test may show battery is ok but I see this about 10 times a week. Mike

 

He already replaced it! You read too fast my friend.

Funny how I see more batteries fail in summer than winter. Heat is a batteries worst enemy.

 

My truck idles at 600 rpm all the time when warm. The only time it should idle at 1000 rpm is when cold and then slow down to 600 after a few seconds.

 

Maybe because the computer was reset (from the battery dieing), its telling the engine to idle at a lower RPM. Its a possible cause, probably nothing to be alarmed about. My 99 Sport 5.2 idles at around 600-800.