I bought a Ram Van 2500 and been having the following problem.

When I go to crank, nothing happens.

The starter/solenoid and ignition switch have been changed. The starter relay has been swapped out with the horn/ac relay. The wire connections on the starter have been replaced.

The strange part about my problem is that when I jump out the relay side of the starter relay and put the ignition to the ON position the van will start properly, **and will start properly with the key every crank after that for the rest of the day**.

On the coil side of the starter relay I have a 12v(all the time) to ground on one side, which as far as I can tell is not correct. I did a continuity check on the ground side of the coil and it was not continuous to the battery ground, but as soon as I crank the ignition switch it shows continous. It seems that someone has altered the wiring in this van at one point, but it is wired properly through the immobilzer(yellow wire from ignition to starter relay is interupted by the immobilzer).

Anyone have any suggestions or experience with a truck not starting, but only on the first crank and any possible reasoning the ignition circuit would be altered in this way?

 

The wiring is correct. The relay gets +12v to one side of the coil. The second side of the relay coil goes to the neutral safety switch down on the tranny. If the tranny is in neutral or park, the switch grounds the lead and the relay energizes so you can start it. I suspect your neutral safety switch or the wiring to it is bad.

 

If the neutral safety switch is bad, wouldn't it not crank over after the jump start?

Also, according to the wiring diagram, the coil should not be energized with +12v all the time only when the key is turned to the start position. Right now it seems that the start position is completing the grounding circuit not the +12v circuit.

 

What year and engine is this?

 

1996

318

 

I don't have a 96 schematic, 97 is the closest. I've attached it for you to point out any differences between it and your 96 schematic.

 

BTW, your profile is set to NOT receive private messages, so I was not able to reply to yours.

 

That is the same wiring diagram I have. The way I read it is that 12v+ is supplied to the coil in the start position. What I have is 12+ all the time. I am going to have to dig around inside the wiring harness to find out why.

As for the PM's I thought I edited my profile to allow PMs, I will check it again.

 

Do check the Neutral/Reverse Switch in the transmission before doing anythng else. The PCM requires the center wire of the switch to be grounded before it will allow the starter motor to turn.

Pull the wiring harness off of the switch, back left side of the transmission & has a three wire plug, and using a continuity tester check the center pin (outer pins are for the reverse lamps) to ground. With the transmission in Park or Neutral you should have contact between them, if not then the switch is defective and must be replaced. The switch is less than $30.00 at the parts store.

 

Correct 12v in the start position, but you could be getting a power reading from the PCM backfeeding through the relay coil. Pull the relay, test each of it's socket holes for the coil and see if you're getting the 12V from the switch side of the coil socket or the neutral safety switch side of the socket.