I just bought a 2002 ram van 2500 with 80k miles on it. The battery was dead after parking it for a week, so I put a new one in. The van turns over but dosent fire off. It wasnt getting spark but i figured out that it was because the belt was way too tight and it wasnt cranking fast enough. i loosened the belt and it is getting spark but still wont fire off. any Ideas or help? thanks...

Also it was sputtering before i parked it. It has a carb looking thing for the intake and i have little to no experience with those.

 

The first thing I would do is check to see if there are any codes stored in the PCM. If you don't have access to a code reader, you can turn cycle the key on off three times then look for code readouts where the odometer display is. That is a quick and easy place to start. Once you get the codes, post what you find and someone will chime in on next steps.

 

Ya since I changed the battery there are no codes, I know before there was a blinking cel which indicates a misfire, but that had to do with the sputtering. I am getting fuel as well, still not firing... thanks

 

Sorry I should have paid more attention to your original post. If you leave the key on for say 10- 15 secs, does your odometer stay with the miles, or do you see the dreaded no bus message? Assuming you do not see no bus, it says your PCM can communicate, which only really means that the various sensors are not shorted which will hold down the 5V reference signal. Since the cam sensor inside the disti actually handles the timing, it would be where I would go first. You have spark, fuel, air & I assume compression, that says the order of things is off, (backed up by the misfire code). Hope that helps some.

 

Ok thanks, no nobus light, ill try to replace the dist cap and rotor first. thanks

 

Ok I changed out the dist cap and rotor. Getting a really good spark now but still not foring off. I took out the plug and it was covered in fuel, so still getting fuel. I assume it is flooded so I let it sit for like 6 hours and still no dice...How can I have spark fuel and compression and no fire?

 

On a fuel injected vehicle if its flooded with gas to the point that the plugs are soaked, you usually have to remove all the plugs and wait for all excess fuel to vaporize & escape. Even on warm (75F) day this usually takes over an hour, on a cold day (40F) it'll take a lot longer.

Once the combustion chambers are dry I'd try starting it again but don't even touch the gas pedal. If it won't even try to start and you still don't have any codes to go by, I'd say the crank sensor is bad. It could be the cam pickup in the distributor but 99% of the time - assuming the PCM is good and you arent getting the dreaded "No Bus" error - it winds up being the crank pickup.

 

Where did you test for spark, at the coil or at the plugs?

 

OK so i replaced all the plugs that were all soaked in gas and it fired up. Must have been really flooded. so here is the whole thing
1. wasnt turning over fast enough to start.. belt was too tight and restricting the rotation.
2. still no start/weak spark...replaced dist cap and rotor and plugs.
3. flooded...took all pluga out and replaced them....good to go now

....If anyone else has this flooding problem another way to resolve it is to pull the fuel pump fuse and crank it over a bit then put it back in.
Thanks for the help!