I apologize if this is something already covered, but I couldn't find it by searching. Mostly, I'm posting this to help anyone else with similar problems.

I got my truck a couple of years ago from my dad. He ran it kinda hard and wasn't very good about keeping up the maintenance on it, so it had a small cocktail of problems when I got it.

The most frustrating problems were that it would start stutter shifting seemingly at random and mostly after initial startup, ran kinda rough on startup and at stops, and would occasionally die when I came to a stop, and the cruise control would stop working if it was cold out. If I drove it for a while and shut it off and turned it back on, the stutter shifting usually went away. It also seemed to happen most often when it was cold and either raining or snowing. The engine would not go above anywhere from 2,000 to maybe 3,200 RPM at which point the stutter shifting would start. Even in park or neutral it wouldn't go above it like it was imposing some artificial rev limiter. And the limit it set was seemingly random each time.

I had a local Autozone check the engine codes and I *think* it was P0344. I've lost the paper I had it written on, but I'm pretty sure that was it. Anyways, I replaced the camshaft position sensor and it seemed to be OK for a couple of days and then it came right back. I'm fairly sure at this point that it only reset the codes because I disconnected the negative battery cable.

Anyways, I did some searching around and found the throttle position sensor could be causing the rough idle and I hoped that maybe it would help with the rest of the problems, so I replaced it. The truck became way more responsive than I ever remembered it, but it still had the check engine light on and the stutter shifting was still rearing its ugly head.

So I then went to replace the crankshaft position sensor. It was fastened to the engine in a similar fashion as the camshaft position sensor, so I figured it would be a bit of a pain, but doable. It was even more stubborn. After about 45 minutes, and a lot of cursing, I managed to get it out. Except it wasn't the whole thing. The danged thing snapped off about ½" inside the engine block.

I did what any sane person would do and cursed harder than I ever had before and then asked my neighbors (they both have Dodge trucks) if they had any experience with it. One of them suggested that I drill a hole in it and then stick a screw in and pry the screw out. I didn't have a drill that could fit in such a tight space, so I found an old engraving tool, stuck a drill bit in it, ran an extension cord out to my truck and gradually drilled a small hole in what was left of the sensor and drove a deck screw in by hand. I had a small prybar and used that to pull on the screw. I ended up snapping the screw and now had a nice visual metaphor for my situation. I called a local shop and they wouldn't even touch it, but they did give me the number of just some guy to call. He suggested that I take a drywall screw and heat it with a torch, jam it into the broken off piece inside the engine, wait for it to set, then pull it out. So I tried that and just ended up pulling out bits of burned plastic.

Luckily for me, I had another neighbor that was just coming home and has a decent setup in his garage for working on cars. He offered to work on it for me and I'd just have to reimburse him for parts and buy him some beer.

It ended up being trickier for him than he anticipated. He had to drop the oil pan cover and reach up inside and whack the stupid thing for a couple of hours before it came out. There was also some other problem that involved him bending the oil pan, but he was able to straighten it and he added some extra RTV sealant in case it there were any small gaps. He said that something was blocking the oil pan, but I'm not sure what it was. Total, it probably took him about 6 hours or so over 2 days to get it done.

Now it's about 5 days later and it's not leaking any oil, that engine code has gone and stayed gone and the rough idling and dying seems to be a thing of the past. I dunno about the cruise control yet. I'm definitely happy that it's fixed, but the aggravation almost wasn't worth it. I'd have probably been out about $500 or more if I had to have it towed and had a dealer or something work on it.

So that's my little story. I hope that it helps someone out in the future.