I recently bought a 1999 Ram 1500 about two months ago. Fella I bought it from sold it to me for $300. It needed a battery, front brake pads and rotors and rear wheel cylinders. I did all the brakes front and rear as well as brake lines. A few weeks later I did a fuel pump and relay as the sending unit stopped the gauge from reading. Then disaster struck a few days ago maybe longer. I was driving back to my house after picking up some T posts and the truck began to sputter real bad. No CEL appeared but I was watchin that tach go wild. This truck is an automatic by the way with no 4x4 if that matters to anyone. Anyway I got it back to the house and I pulled it up next to the barn and as soon as I let off the gas it shut off. I cranked and cranked ane cranked, but it just wouldnt restart. No CEL on the dash. Next morning I checked to see if it was getting gas and it was. I pushed the valve in the service port and hooked up my pressure gauge and she is getting gas. The raw fuel is stenchin out the exhaust pipe. I took the Idle control valve off and cleaned out all the gunk as many on this forum did and I cleaned the MAP sensor on the front of the TB. I checked for voltage and ground with my meter and I am getting it. Next I pulled Plugs and found them all soaked. I threw in some new Autolite Double Iridium Plugs and the truck fired right up but immeadiately began to sputter and would only run if I had the gas pedal on the floor and even then it was only just above 1000 RPM on the tach. Just for Sh*ts and Giggles I checked thr Dizzy to make sure all the wires were on right and they were. I began checking for vacuum leaks and found none. Still no CEL by the way and no codes present when I scan. Then I noticed something. There is a cable that I know is called a Speed Control Cable. That cable runs off the throttle body and goes down to a Servo under the battery tray. The rubber diaphragm is dry rotted and the servo housing is rust rotted. I noticed as my father would let off the gas pedal to let the truck idle the TB plates would slam shut. If I took the slack out of that Speed Control cable the TB would stay open a bit and the truck would idle just like when I bought it. I read online that the servo is for cruise control. Does the cable also help keep that TB open when Idling ? Right now as soon as I let off that gas pedal the TB slams shut and kills the engine. To get the engine to even start I have to keep the gas pedal down to keep the TB open. No one local has one but there is a guy about 10 miles from me with a NOS Mopar servo and cable he was gonna put on his 5.9 V8 before he cummins swapped his truck. Am I on the right track here ? I see a lot of people having these crank no start issues on 98-01 trucks. I see people replacing IAC, Fuel Pumps, Spark Plugs and Batteries. I'd really hate to just throw parts at it and the local garage is sayin $300 just to diagnose it and another $250 cause its 25 years old and they charge an additional $250 for model years 25 years and older. I live on a farm with not a lot around so I really need to fix it myself. Truck only has 146,000 miles on it and runs like a top with barely and rust on the body, I would hate to see something simple keep her down. Thanks to all who reply.

 

It's a common leak point, If you can live without cruise just block off the line. The throttle blades are not adjustable and should be in the closed position at idle. The IAC adjusts the amount of air to control idle. Also shouldn't use Iridium plugs, Plain copper work best.