I have a 95 Ram 1500 4x4 with the 5.2 motor and 5 speed manual. It has recently started choking itself out during take off under light throttle. It is also starting to take 2 cranks to start up. During take off, if I give it a little extra throttle, it will take off just fine. At parking lot speeds it will lurch unless I give it gas and ride the clutch. While driving if I'm in the gas it seems fine. If I back off the throttle to cruise I can feel a slight lurch. I have replaced the throttle body, map sensor and tps. I have also checked for vaccum leaks by spraying with carb cleaner. The truck only has 110,000 miles on it. It's driving me nuts. The sending unit on the fuel pump doesn't work and I have heard that once the sending unit goes, the pump may be close behind. Could it be the pump or fuel pressure regulator? Any suggestions would be helpful. Thanks.

 

before i even got to the end of your post, i had said to my self it sounds like a fuel regulator problem. you can borrow a fuel tester gauge from parts store and see what it primes to, if thats good then start it and what its holding when running if thats good then drive it or put it under a load and see what it does. my guess is its going to drop and not hold. i cant remember what the psi should read you would have to look it up.

 

I believe it's 45 psi. Does it have any codes?
http://dodgeram.info/Engine-Gas/OBDI/pcm_fault_code.htm

 

Thanks guys. It's not throwing any codes that I can tell. I don't have a scan tool for the OBD1 port. I'll check the fuel pressure in the next few days. It's really aggravating cause it only happens in a certain throttle position, but swapping out the TPS kind of eliminated that. Like I said, it seems to run fine while I'm in the throttle. It's just when I back off a bit. That and the trouble getting it started every once in a while.

 

I've never experienced this issue but when the front O2 sensor was going bad, I had some starting and idling issues without codes. Just a thought...

 

Did you reset the PCM when you change the TPS?

 

I'm pretty sure that I disconnected the battery. Is there anything else that I should have done?

 

I would be tempted to test the TPS with a volt meter. (analog please) See if the needle does odd things as you open the throttle.

 

Well, I wish I could say that I fixed it, but the damn truck seems to have fixed itself. I got in the other morning and it drives just fine. Maybe it was something gunked up with the fuel pump unit that has cleared out. Thanks for the suggestions.

 

I am going to say fuel pump, back in 97 my fuel truck started to act up, hesitation and low idle, no codes in computer, Dealer said nothing wrong, well $500 tow bill later they found the problem fuel pump, and they paid me back the tow bill..