I have a 94 dodge ram 5.2 v8 that wont start/crank

day 1-woke up on a cold morning to go start it. turned key and got absolutely nothing. But the hazard lights blinked 40 times and a Bosch relay in the engine compartment clicks for some time then stops. changed battery and starter. still nothing

day 2- tightened and cleaned all connections at the battery, starter, and computer. tested for spark at the plugs and all are good. tested/checked all fuses which also turned out okay.

day 3- still not doing anything other than clicking. found out i can pull up the trouble code by doing the key sequence. I got 3*3*7*5. from what i understand its supposed to only flash the first digit, then the second, then a set of 5 to end the code. it only blinks five times once. I dont know what that means. a 33 is an ac clutch relay and a 37 is a ckt clutch?

day 4- touched terminals on the starter together and it cranks but wont turn over. disconnected battery and brought it in the garage to try and save the new battery from the cold.

day 5-put battery back in and i dont hear the clicking. before i heard the clicking when the battery was first reattached and when i turned the key. went to start the truck and it cranked but wouldnt start. disconnected battery to pull the distributor. never had time to pull it and reattached the battery after adding HEAT to the gas tank. its clicking at the bosch relay outside of the computer again and no cranking. pulled bosch relay and clicking moved to fusebox in the truck

 

Check the ground connection and check to see if the rotor inside the distributor cap turns when you turn the key and turn it over. If it doesn't then the timing chain is broken. Then check to see if there is fuel making the trip to the front. I have a 5.2 318 also and there is only one fuel filter on it and it is in the gas tank. I found out my fuel pump went bad by spraying starter fluid into the intake and it would fire then but wouldn't keep running. There are 2 different types of fuel pumps on my 96 Dodge and I bought the same model truck from a kid for $500 to use for parts and wouldn't you know it they were different plugs going into the starter but they make a "jumper" to switch from one type of plug to the other and it's 15 bucks at the Dodge dealer. If this helps or you have any other questions just e-mail me at gonefishinginmd@aol.com
Merle

 

Moving this to 2nd gen Ram, you'll get more answers here.

 

Well that's some sketchy sh*t you've got going on there. One minute it won't crank with the key, next minute it will, and it won't start when cranking although you say you've got a spark at the plugs. (Do you mean that there's a spark present at the spark plug end of the wire, or at the spark plug gap?)

Also, a note on terminology. You say that it will sometimes "crank", but not "turn over". I've always taken these terms to be synonymous. What you describe as "turning over", I would call "starting".

I think your first step is to find out why your engine won't reliably "crank". Since at one point the starter wouldn't engage using the key but would engage when you jumped its posts, I'd look harder into the relay or ignition switch. For starters (no pun intended) see if you get voltage at (the 87 terminal IIRC?) when you energize the relay (turn the key).

Once you get the starter to work reliably, then you can make progress on why it won't start. Simple stuff first; no fuel/bad fuel (will it fire with starting fluid, then quit?), bad plugs, no/low fuel pressure ......