Cleaning throttle body on a 1999 3.9 V6
 

My 99 Ram has a rough idle. I changed spark plugs not to many miles ago and have never cleaned the throttle body. I have owned my Ram since it has had 8,800 miles. It now has over 200,000. I have googled how to do this, but have not found anything on it. Does anyone have a step by step instructions, or a link to a video? As you all know the throttle body is almost under my firewall. How hard is this to do?

Four bolts, three electrical connectors, and two cables. (three, if you have cruise control) If you have a basic socket set, and some torx bit screwdrivers (or sockets....) you are all set. Disconnect the electrical. (one in front, one on drivers side, one in back.) Disconnect the cables. (all on the passenger side) Careful with the TV cable, (the one coming in from the back, and only if you have an auto trans) the clip for that one gets pulled toward the front of the truck to get it to come off. Don't break it. :) Then, it's just the four bolts. (and of course, you have to take the air filter housing off.....) Have a new gasket on hand for the throttle body, parts store should have it, less than three bucks.

Once you have the throttle body in hand, take out the IAC motor, (on the back, two torx screws) and then thoroughly clean the whole thing with brake, or carb cleaner, and an old toothbrush. Make sure you clean out the IAC well really well. :) Don't have to take off any of the other sensors. Assembly is the reverse of removal. Should take about an hour for the whole job.

Thanks for the reply. I always have bad luck with simple things.

Gotta change sometime. :)

When I cleaned my IAC carb cleaner trickles out of where the pintle goes into the body of the sensor. Will that hurt anything? I'm going to let it dry out over night. I got it sitting so it can drain out.

Not really. It'll make the initial crank take longer than normal, but that's about it. Just start the thing and let it go, and a few seconds later the excess carb cleaner won't matter at all.