Driving down the road the other day my truck just shut off. No sputtering, bogging or anything, engine just shuts off. Has happened a couple times in the last couple weeks. Initially I thought it might be related to having changed my catalytic converter and the o2 sensors so I disconnected the battery for a few minutes to reset the PCM with no effect. Engine turns over but doesn't fire. Checked distributor cap, spark plugs, wires and rotor, all good and getting power. Can hear the fuel pump engage when turning the key ON and if I crank it can smell gas heavily as if the engine is flooding. The first two times it happened I took the gas cap off, relieved the pressure and it started up but this time I had to spray starter fluid down the air intake to get it to start up. I'm kind of on a limited budget (new baby) so can't really afford to just randomly go out and buy parts for trial and error. I was leaning towards the fuel pump but my experience with this truck is the the fuel pump either works or doesn't, no grey area. Thoughts? Also, no check engine light and don't have an OBD scanner lying around to check that.

 

What's missing when it won't start? Are you getting spark? Sounds like you are indeed getting injector pulse.....

Check all the electrical connections on the engine, and PCM. Make sure they are all clean, and tight. (that's free)

I am leaning toward crank sensor..... as it sure sounds like it..... temp sensor failing (which would give you the heavy gas smell trying to start it....) would just make it run like crap, wouldn't necessarily kill it completely.

As a test.... next time it dies, check for spark first, if you got spark, hold the gas pedal on the floor while cranking. See if that gets it attention.

Welcome to DF!.

 

checked all the fuses and relays, all good, proper voltage and proper connection. when it does run it runs fine, not rough or anything. happened to have my voltage meter on me when it died this last time so had my wife crank the key while I pulled and tested each spark plug wire and they seemed fine. the CPS is only a $50 part so I'll try that first and see what happens as the TPS, MAP and ICS have all been replaced in the last 6 months, as well as new wires, plugs, rotor and cap. funny thing is none of this was an issue until I changed my cat but I did run without a cat for a few days so I keep wondering if something went screwy before I replaced it (it was clogged and back flowing exhaust). what kills me the most is the fuel smell, the fact that I hear the fuel pump prime and smell fuel when trying to start it (with or without pumping gas pedal) tells me that it isn't the pump. almost 200k miles, may be time to retire her.

 

also, this last time it died it backfired right before it did which did not happen the two previous times.

 

If you go the route of replacing the crank sensor get only the OEM sensor aftermarkets are garbage!! I screwed around with mine for six monthe's after replacing mine with a NAPA sensor.
Got an OEM and its been running strong every since(2010).

Dave

 

It's made it this far why abandon her now?

Find a fuel pressure gauge somewhere. And test it. Could be getting too much fuel? Could be the regulator in the fuel pump. They are supposedly replaceable but not worth the time.

My fuel pump has 212xxx and I have never smelt gas just when it was priming. In fact the only time I have was when I did a compression test and forgot to take the fuel pump relay out. Oops lol

Hope you figure it out!

Congrats by the way

 

Crank Sensor, Fuel Pump. If it was running fine then started having problems

 

I don't know how many times I tried to diagnose something for it to only be the Crankshaft sensor

 

I just went through the same thing with my 97. At 240k the crank sensor was bad...same symptoms as you. It would be running perfect and the truck would just shut down at any speed. It did that a few times before it wouldn't start at all, it just cranked and cranked. With the help of the forum I narrowed it down to the crank sensor. I originally put in a duralast but switched it out for a mopar. Then, doing 70mph on the interstate about 6 mo later, it did the same thing again, just fell on it's face and cranked and cranked. Got it home, checked the CPS again, and punched the gas tank just for the heck of it, and it fired right up. It would actually run for a while after hitting the tank. I put in a new fuel pump and it's good to go, for now. For what it's worth, AFTER replacing the CPS the truck shut down on me a couple times driving around, just like the CPS did the first time, but it would always restart after a while. I wrote it off at the time as some fluke sensor issue, but I'm sure it was the fuel pump giving me early signs.

 

test the crank and cam sensors both were good. finished doing the new exhaust (including 02 sensors) and let the truck run in my parking spot. after almost ten minutes it just shut off, no code. tried again this morning and finally got a code p0351 (ignition coil), gonna check it out but could a bad IC cause the engine to just shut off while driving, parked so on and so forth?