This has been happening for some time now my 2nd gen ram 1997 has 216,000 miles struggles to turn on I have to keep pressing the gas for it to eventually turn on. It’ll turn on but then out of nowhere it’ll just turn off. I’ve took it to two mechanics for the same issue the first couple of days after taking to them the same issue starts happening again !!!!help!!!!

 

When you say "turn on", are you saying that the truck will turn over with the starter, but the engine won't start and run? Is the "check engine" light on? If so, what pending or stored codes are you getting?

 

Need some more detail of whats going on. May want to check fuel pressure first.

 

Checking the fuel pressure should be a simple thing to do. They have a basic valve on the fuel rail, on my V6 it is very easy to get to.
Places like autozone have tool rentals and should have the fuel pressure gauge .... you could check it right in the parking lot.


A quick google search...The correct pressure for this vehicle is 49.2psi with a variance of 2psi.
So if you are below 47 PSI ... your fuel pump is getting weak and may be the problem ..... I have seen them go bad at 180K miles .... you have 200K+ .... is possible.

 

I think the 97 model year had the plastic fuel rail, that didn't have the test port....

 

Ouch!

 

Yeah, I thought that was a stupid idea..... and as it turns out, that was a single-year 'feature'.....