Still seeking answers to my ailing 02 quad cab 5.9
Cranks and runs rough the first 60 seconds or so. Then when you get on it, it pulls hard till about 4500 rpm and then falls on its face. The thing bucks and jumps like crazy. Have done wires and plugs pcv and most normal things. Someone tells me it may be one of Dodge's rocket science ideas to put NO easily changeable fuel filter on this thing. They said check fuel pressure and then think abouy taking the bed loose or dropping the gas tank. What dipstick engineer thought of this deal? No codes no ideas

Valk

 

That could definitly be a possible cause. My diagnostics would include a compression, leak down, fuel pressure. Also has the timing been set recently or anything like that. How many miles on the original timing chain? This is assuming the distributor, wires and plugs are good. Any access to good gauges for the compression, leak down and fuel pressure? Also, are all the ground wires making good, solid contact? Many variables. I'm not to familiar with your problems so could you repost them.

 

Thanks for replying.

Mechanic friend told me a few things. He said in the morning when the truck is cold, turn the key to the on position and then back off again a few times. He said his experience has been with the fuel pump check valve going bad. He said over night the pressure drops to zero and the truck has a hard time keeping up when first cranked. The key on /off motion lets the pump run for a second before fire up and will build enough pressure that we could rule out a bad check valve anyway. The other isuue he spoke about was my recent installation of Autozone wires. He said he has replaced no less than 30 sets for customers that were bad. He said the cars all came back for return issues like mine and they just removed the wires and installed good bosch brand wires and the problems went away. Mine started as a MIL light and a code saying misfire #1 cylinder. New wires cap and plugs fixed the problem for a while, now two months later same symptoms no code. I'll keep you posted on my progress, and I'll do the fuel pressure test.

Thanks
Mark

 

Good plugs and wires make a huge difference no matter what you run. The fuel pressure regulator/check valve is a possibility, however, if the pump was going bad, it would do it most of the time especially at high demand times (high RPM). If you turn the key to the on position you should be able to hear the pump running for a few seconds to prime the system. Also, you never stated the mileage. I would seriously take the time to replace/clean the fuel filter. Should take a few hours on a Sat. morning. You'd be surprised how much crap you can get out of the fuel filter. Did my friends Cavalier with 88K miles on it and there was a bunch of debris/junk.