While towing my travel trailer, I lost power and the engine started running rough. After a couple of miles cruising at 30 mph on the shoulder the check engine light came on and I managed to limp into a service station. They checked it out and said that the ingition coil was failing, and they had another dodge van in for the same reason. They replaced the ignition coil and I headed out with no problems. 15 miles later the same type of failure. They sent a mechanic out and he replaced the coil on the side of the road, and I took off again. Made it to the campground without any problems. On the way home I made it about 90 miles when I experienced the same failure. Got towed the last 20 miles. Dropped the van off at the garage and it sat for 2 days before they could look at it. Now they are saying that it runs fine and they cannot find anything wrong.

While at the campground, talked to another Dodge van owner, and he said that his '96 has only broken down twice (both times, ignition coil) but he wasn't towing.

Does anyone have any history with this issue? Any solutions? I am handing over the van with the trailer on it to the mechanic tomorrow, hoping they can get it to fail while pulling.

 

Where are you getting your ignition coils?? I would probably, at this point, get one from a Dodge dealership. Something is evidently overloading and overheating your ignition circuit -- have you changed plugs, rotor, wires lately ??

 

Any ticking noises that might indicate an exhaust leak blowing at the coil and heating it up?

 

How old are the ignition wires? What condition are they in? How is the one from the coil to the cap-n-rotor?

Are the ignition wires crossed or grounding to the engine? See the Chrysler TSB for re-routing.

How is the cap-n-rotor condition? Is it a good copper/brass type or the el-cheap-o aluminum type?

 

Upgrading everything from coil to the plugs later this week. Hoping this solves the problem. Don't understand why I only have the failure when towing the trailer.

 

Here's the Chrysler TSB to check the ignition wire routing ...

http://dodgeram.info/tsb/1998/18-48-98.htm

 

I have recently had a similar problem with my 94 RAM 2500 pick-up. Last week, while hauling a load of patio tiles the engine suddenly quit. Had it towed to Dodge dealer. They replaced coil and all was well. Drove the truck a couple of hundred miles no problem. Today, towing my boat (7,000 lbs) I got about 50 miles down the road, the truck quit, backfired and I coasted to the side of the rode. Local good samaritan with a BIG truck pulled the whole rig into his yard. No spark from coil - again. Could the PCM be cauing this?

 

After replacing the entire ignition system and pick up coil in the distributor, I still had power loss while towing the trailer. It is now looking like the problem is in the fuel system. When I experience the power loss, I also have decreased MPG.

I am replacing the fuel pump module this weekend, and trying again.

Running out of things to replace.

If you have a failure again. Let the truck sit for 20 minutes and see if it fires back up. If it does, it is not the electronics.

 

The truck sat overnight and did not start after sitting until I put a new coil in it, then it fired right up.

 

What is the actual model of your vehicle?

How far were you travelling?

how much were you towing?