I was out in the country doing some camping. Pretty rough roads out there, but I didnt go crazy. Played it safe. Anyway heres the deal, I was out collecting wood and saw a nice pile someone left behind around a firepit in the backwoods. I backed up to about 3 or 4 logs, and I went a little to far and slowly backed into them. It started up again fine, I drove another 30 meters and turned it off again to picked up more wood.

I parked it for quite some time, and realized I needed to fill up the gas tank because I was running low. I drove it to the logging road and on the slight incline and some minor mud it just died.

I was thinking it went that far from the time I ran into the wood to the time it died from just the fuel in the fuel line. But if the fuel pump died there, it wouldnt have made it to the TBI. I am getting spark, the jolt I got confirmed that from the center coil wire. No fuel is getting past the TBI, or the small fuel hose that goes into the Carb.

I replaced the expensive fuel pump. The original fuel pump had a small tea bag like thing on the end of it, clamped securely. The new one I got is probably a universal pump. It was 3" long by 1" wide, with a rubber ring, plastic adapter and the fuel pump filter bag. It does not fit properly in the big thing/fuel pump peice. I made a big boo boo and was rushing and the new tea bag thing cracked. I will replace that, along with the frame rail fuel filter on the passenger side. Hopefully its just the frame rail fuel filter gone bad. Maybe a few of the big pot holes on the logging road hit it, or maybe the fact I always fill with like 15 liters to 25 liters may have something to do with the garbage in the fuel, or fuel tank clogging up the frame rail fuel filter.

I also replaced the 2 black bubble fuel injectors on the top of the carb.

I have already gone through one PCM, due to the coolant spraying everywhere and my stupid hose down of the engine compartment. That had a different symptom of nothing coming past the coil. On this problem I have today, I have spark. But the PCM also controls the injectors, so I dont know. The town I live in has a Pick N Pull yard, and they downsized the truck/van isles from 6 rows to 2. They only had 7 dodge ram vans, with 1 having my computer setup.

The next major city is north, same population size, but maybe they have the correct PCM for me.

Is there a way I can tell if the PCM is pooched on my van?
What else should I change????? fuel filter, fuel filter bag, and?????????????
THe fuel pressure regulators dont go, buddy told me, so that should be alright.

I think I am going to get buddy to do a pressure check and I am going to measure the fuel injectors to see if they get 2 ohms of resistance.

 

1988 Dodge Ram B150 Van, auto, 3.9L V6.

 

The regulators do go. There was a recent poster who just found his regulator diaphragm disintegrated.https://dodgeforum.com/forum/dodge-r...-backfire.html

It sounds like you did not get the right fuel pump. I don't think it is something you can just get away with using a similar part with, and not having the sock installed, or if it is ripped is no good. Your tank has had 23 years to accumulate crud. Did you stick a flashlight in there and have a look?

Have you put 12 volts to the old pump you removed to see if it is indeed dead? If it does make noise, see if it stops after a couple minutes of running and after it gets hot.

I replaced my fuel pump on the side of the road in Baja with the help of a local rancher. I had at least 25 gallons of fuel inside it, and thankfully he had a large Chevy fuel tank to empty my tank into. There was a lot of crap in the bottom of mine, and I only returned about 15 gallons back in it because I was afraid of re introducing all the crap inside.

You mentioned backing up to the log pile and going too far. When you dropped the tank you had to have noticed the fuel pump wires. I believe the 12 volt feed wire is green, and the fuel pump motor is grounded to the cross member right in front of the tank. The green wire runs around the perimeter of the roof, down by the passenger side brake light, down through the floor, up forward along the inside frame rail, and over to the fuel tank. Perhaps you pinched it backing up to the woodpile somehow.

Does your fuel gauge work?
Can you hear the fuel pump operate for ~2 seconds when you first turn the key to on?

No?, Then Try feeding 12 volts directly to this green wire, and also check the ground wire to the cross member.

Also do the key dance and post any codes.

 

Is it safe to assume that you've been able to get the engine to fire up by spraying carb cleaner or starting fluid in the TB?

 

Was a loose fuel pump connector thats located on the top of the fuel tank. Those wires go to another connector on the cross member frame just up towards the engine a foot or two. There are 3 or 4 hoses that go into the fuel pump contraption along with the connector. That connector also sends fuel level information to the dash. New fuel pump was $180 CDN. Fuel Filter was clogged and cost me $17 CDN.

The connector wires got caught up on the logs, branches or holes, and got ripped out a little causes it to die and not re-start because no fuel was reaching the fuel injectors on the Multi Port Injectors (MPI). We could tell this by the two black bowls on top of the carb were not spitting out fuel. We dumped a bit of fuel in the carb itself and it would fire and sputter then die. That told me there was spark. Confirmation was done with the middle coil wire touched to the body when the key was cranked. I got a nice shock from that.

Re-wired straight to battery for temporary fix. Will get a new wire hooked up soon.

On your questions.....I am new to wrenching and learning. I did not bench test the old fuel pump at the time I pulled it. It would still be fine, but I got a new one in there now.
Fuel tank itself was fine, no dents just scrapes. If it was damaged I would have been pooched, all junk yards spike their tanks to drain them. New ones are expensive and some radiator shops can repair metal tanks. Mine was a plastic tank. There is some variances between the years. I noticed. My setup seemed the odd-ball from what I saw in the yard. My setup was a special 6" clamp going around the fuel pump contraption to hold it in and seal it up. Some have a spinning plastic peice.

I got codes 12, 23, 33 then the ending code 55. One of the codes is because I unbolted my A/C. 12 scared me a little because I thought I was going to go on the hunt for a PCM. But I think its just because I unhooked it and put in a spare one because of my last breakdown, i just went straight there for a 1st fix, that didnt solve anything obviously.


Thanks for all your help, I really appreciate it.

 

Just for future reference so you don't get wrong parts some day, you have Throttle Body Injection (TBI) not Multi-Port Fuel Injection. (MPFI). With TBI there are the two "black bowls" (injectors) on top of the throttle body. With MPFI there is an injector for every cylinder (6 or 8) and they're located in the intake manifold right above each cylinder.

 

Ya mine had the TBI Throttle Body Injection with the two black bowls for injectors.

Those are controlled by the SMEC Computer...... I think. Because they got wires coming out that go to the plug and the plug I think, goes to the SMEC Computer. I have a spare SMEC Computer and TBI's. I think any SMEC would work becuase both mine came out of a V8 and my van is a V6. When I did some calling around the parts store guy said I needed the serial # off my original one that I burned in a campfire for ceremonial purposes. I guess the parts store has 2 versions. One cheaper version $200ish and one pricier version $300ish. I got my first one for $40 from the junk yard, and the second one for $16 at another junk yard. From what I can tell, these computers burn out as I did see a bunch of them pulled from a few different junk yards. Just dont get water on them and be sure the cooling hose from the grill pipes off into the SMEC.

 

Then how do you put them out when they're on fire?