My neighbors 01 ram van 1500 recently died out while driving. Before it died he said it ran like a diesel and was puffing black smoke out of the exhaust. Now it just cranks but no start, we can hear the fuel pump priming when key is turned on, we tried a couple shots of starting fluid also, but still no fire. Does this sound like a spark problem? Coil, crank sensor?

Any help is appreciated

01 ram van 1500 3.9L

 

Check to see if the air filter, TB (throttle body), and the IAC are clean. How is the crankcase breather element? Is the PVC valve good too?

 

Most likely cause is the crankshaft positionsensor, second is the "camshaft" position sensor (pickup coil)in the distributor. Neither one will throw a trouble code either, making it difficult to diagnose.

 

I would check the pickup coil or called ignition coil as well. I forgot that my 2001 Ram Van had that problem too.

 

I had an extra minute today to throw on a spark tester, and it is getting spark. Would this rule out the coil?

Thanks again everybody for all your input.

 

The coil is probably good then and you're looking at a sparktiming issue. I'll stand by my suggestions in my first post.

 

Is that test of spark going to the coil or did you test the coil alone? Just because spark goes to the coil doesn't mean the coil is alright.

With my coil that went bad last summer, the engine took a very long time to crank over before the engine would run. In some instances the hard starting and a few times jumping the battery got it to work. I didn't think that it was the coil at first until the coil just finally went altogether a few days later.

 

When you turn the key on (but not crank it), does the check engine light come on? If it doesn't, then the ECM may not be getting power or may be bad. My '95 ram van with a 3.9L did this. At first you would have to turn the key on, thn wait 5-10 seconds for the check engine light to come on, then crank it. It eventually got to the point of waiting almost 2 minutes for it to come on. Thats when I paid $350 for a new ECM. Stupid thing.