Neutral safety switch

 

Neutral safety will only effect starting, Could be cam/crank sensor.

 

My daily! I missed the dieing part!

 

I just went through a similar situation with my '97 Ram 1500 but eventually it became worse to where it wouldn't always immediately start back up. Once it took 45 minutes to start and I almost wasted $150 on a tow. I'm not a Dodge guy but I've done many years of troubleshoot stuff. Something like this is difficult because it so hard to find a reason when most of the time there isn't a problem. Drop by a local auto parts place that will scan your truck for trouble codes. Write them down and clear the existing ones. Go back and have it scanned again after the truck repeats it problem once or twice. A code that repeats is a good clue for an area to look into. You can also try opening to hood while its running and see if you can get the engine to die by manipulating electrical connectors. Don't be rough, just flex the wires and use gentle tugs - don't damage anything. Don't assume anything unless you get real indications that point you in a direction -- keep an open mind. As I understand your post, the problem is going to be something that effects all cylinders at once so you can rule out individual things like spark plugs. plug wires and individual injectors. Its going to be something ignition or fuel related and either of these can be electrical.

I had a couple nay sayers when I posted this troubleshooting method before but I believe its worthwhile in the right circumstances. Set your radio to AM and tune it to a place with no radio reception. Either you will or you won't hear interferance caused by the spark plugs firing - adjust the audio level as needed. If you can't get this "motorboat noise", never mind and don't read anymore. If you do, just drive with the noise and listen to see if the noise stops exactly when the engine looses power as the engine is coasting down from speed. If the noise stops immediately when you first loose power, you are fairly certain to have an ignition problem. If the noise doesn't stop when you have a loss of power, its more likely to be a fuel system problem.

Take note of the circumstances every time you have the problem. Look for common relationship between breakdowns. Its unlikely that you have bad fuel as that usually manifests as general bad performance and if and when it causes the engine to die, it usually won't start right up again and when it does it usually runs poorly for a while.

 

it could be a lot of things honestly, battery tested could be the easiest thing to check. I thought my IAC was bad/shot but after the first time driving a short distance with a new battery when my old one died it was already acting way better, and the other times I've gone out since I haven't had my low idle problem whatsoever, so, battery can definitely play a part in a vehicle in general acting bad and especially these trucks. I even had my idle get so low the truck stalled once when backing up to park in my spot.

it has to be something that would affect the whole engine at once, battery, crank sensor, pickup coil inside the distributor (sometimes called the "reluctor" I've seen), the ignition coil itself. Also have your fuel pressure tested to see if your pump is ok.

let us know how it goes, it's gotta be something simple, these are quite hardy trucks I've come to find out over time and when something is bad it's usually an easy and cheap fix (at least from a good source online like rockauto/amazon,etc)

is there any particular reason water would have gotten into the gas? Bad gas can certainly make a vehicle run bad too. A fuel system cleaner like gumout couldn't hurt to use as well for good measure and put some fresh gas in alongside it.