so for my first post i have a problem.. its the usual huh? lol.. anyway.. i have a 98 ram 1500 slt quad cab with a 360 in it.. and here is my problem.. when started cold it runs and idles just fine.. but when it warms up and you run the a/c when you come to a stoplight or slow stop it dies.. you can turn the a/c off and it does not die but when you shut it off and wait for say 5 minutes and then go to start it back up it almost acts like a weak battery and does not want to turn over and when it does finally turn over suffeciently it will start but not idle(you have to pedal the gas to get it running..) and then you can rev it and it will finally idle. going down the road it runs just fine. cruise control.. passing gear .. everything.. just when you slow and the engine rpm's slow down. i have replaced the throttle position sensor and cleaned the idle air control sensor.. cleaned the throttle body.. it starts much easier.. but still has the when it gets warm it wont idle problem? so gearheads.. suggestions? havent hooked it up to a code retriever yet... thanks in advance. joe.

 

Welcome to DF. I not 100% sure but it kinda sounds like a vacume leak. and maybe the alternators going also. could just be the battery too. You also dont have to hook it up to a cod retriever. your truck will display the codes on the screen when you turn the key on, off, on, off, on. I dont remember the sight for your year because I think its different them mine but someone on here will let you know im sure.

 

check your o2 heater wiring, and fuse and relay. I had a similar problem earlier this year and what I found was a shorted wire on the o2 sensor. I swapped the o2 sensor for an old one and it ran ok but would run like crap every once in a while. I finally traced it down to a blown fuse on the heater ciruit for the o2's (I have 4 of them). If your o2 is old, swap it out to start. I dont think yours has a fuse for the heater circuit but you can check the fuse box anyway. the relay's are inner changeable... so you can swap it with another one to test it out...

Welcome to DF!

 

thanks guys for the input... but here is what i did and its running great again.. (dont know which one solved it.. lol).. i checked my battery and it read 12.3 volts.. but i had another battery that read 12.6 volts.. 100 less cranking amps but put it on anyway.. took distributor cap off and cleaned up pickup and cap contacts(corroded a little bit)..im thinking the battery was the problem though because now after getting warm and starting again there is no more drag on the starting.. but im still trying to figure out why a weak battery would make it stall when running the a/c and coming to a stop.. the alternator should be still supplying enough juice to run the ignition system shouldnt it? but anyways.. thanks again and i know quite a bit about automotive repairs(as i have totally rebuilt 4 vehicles total to date.. a 78 luv truck.. a 73 elcamino ss.. an 86 firebird<<total engine swap and rebuild from v6 to 383 stroker.. and a 64 chevrolet pickup.. <<<hardest.. no parts anywhere.. lol.. ) so i will return all favors and try to input as much information as i can along the way.. thanks for having me here.. joe..

 

oops, I missed the battery part... a weak battery will do funny things for sure. battery voltage should be 14v or so with the motor on, is it possible your alt is going bad?

when I had my motor apart last may the battery ran down while I was adjusting the rockers, right after I started it, it ran really wierd and idled bad. threw some engine codes as well. none of which made any sense. so I slapped a charger on it for an hour and reset the comp and fired it back up. no codes, idled perfect and no further problems.

glad to hear it's fixed...

 

was checking batteries with engine off.. was just weird that i had 12 volts or above but lost my crankin amps on one battery.. never had that happen.. just good or bad on the voltage.. with bad cell.. now if i could just make it get 30 miles to the gallon i would be in perfect shape.. lol.. see ya. joe