97 Ram troubles

From : donald soito

Q: hey all this is my first time here and i didnt see anything relating to this so far so forgive me if its been discussed. i have a 97 1500 4x4 318. prior to rebuild it was hard starting like a 6-8 second lag on start and missing occasionally throught the range. after rebuild which included new everything including heads and block. same problem. new plugs wires rotor coil and k&n filter kit after rebuild. after 4000 or so miles problem is worse. have to put the throttle to the floor to get a start and miss is worse lack of power and down on gas mileage. ive read out all the sensors and cant find a vacuum leak anywhere. any help would be appreciated. don .

Replies:

From : miles

donald soito wrote by the way when i pull codes i get five 43 codes in a row then a 42. reset computer and within a week same codes. heres some info on code 42. http//autorepair.about.com/library/faqs/bl561g.htm maybe someone else knows what 43 is. .

From : budd cochrandonald soito

now thats cool but i gotta ask . . .who makes a v-8 light enough to be picked up by two men toyota -- budd cochran in tribute to the united states of america and the state of israel two bastions of strength in a world filled with strife and terrorism. ------ this looks like something nate would use. bfg http//snipurl.com/ultimatechainsaw .

From : donald soito

by the way when i pull codes i get five 43 codes in a row then a 42. reset computer and within a week same codes. don hey all this is my first time here and i didnt see anything relating to this so far so forgive me if its been discussed. i have a 97 1500 4x4 318. prior to rebuild it was hard starting like a 6-8 second lag on start and missing occasionally throught the range. after rebuild which included new everything including heads and block. same problem. new plugs wires rotor coil and k&n filter kit after rebuild. after 4000 or so miles problem is worse. have to put the throttle to the floor to get a start and miss is worse lack of power and down on gas mileage. ive read out all the sensors and cant find a vacuum leak anywhere. any help would be appreciated. don .

From : tom lawrence

that would be in cdn gals so that would be a little less in amer gals that would be around 29 and 19 mpgal dale controls johnboyd@shaw.ca wrote i must be one lucky diesel owner i get 33 mpg on the highway and 21 around town. 2002 3/4 slt 4x4 good luck. ive got the 5.9and nothing seems to help around town. highway is only decent at speeds between 45-60mph too. just wanted to see if anyone has tips on how to indrease mileage mine gets 12 around town .

From : tom lawrence

by the way when i pull codes i get five 43 codes in a row then a 42. reset computer and within a week same codes. a few things come to mind. first - make sure the battery is putting out the required voltage. measure its output both standing and while cranking. if the voltage drops much below 12v while cranking that could have a lot to do with the starting problems and the codes as well. after that check the ground connections particularly the ground by the power steering pump. make sure its not corroded loose busted etc. several different electrical problems usually point to a bad ground path. if everything there checks out ok the battery is strong grounds are good youve double-checked the tps and the iac motor remove the iac from the throttle body and make sure the pintle cycles in and out smoothly when the ignition is turned on youve measured proper resistance on the coil 1 ohm across the primary 12k ohms across the secondary... then id bite the bullet and try and find another pcm to swap in. by the way... im assuming that when the engine was rebuilt the timing chain was installed correctly and the distributor timed properly as well. this is a big assumption since an incorrectly-timed engine would display a lot of the symptoms youre describing. if youre not positive that this was done properly id pull the timing cover and make sure then id roll the engine to tdc #1 compression and make sure the distributor is indexed properly rotor should be pointing directly at #1 terminal. .

From : donald soito

thanks for the suggestions tom. ive already done everything except checking the ground by the pump. didnt even think of that. will check it out. my next step was to go after the pcm. i was just hoping for a clue that i wasnt thinking about. hopefully that ground is bad. read through my original post and forgot to mention that 90% of the time it starts on the first crank after sitting all night. compression is perfect and same exact problem after two sets of head gaskets. the problem is definitely intermittent too. by the way when i pull codes i get five 43 codes in a row then a 42. reset computer and within a week same codes. a few things come to mind. first - make sure the battery is putting out the required voltage. measure its output both standing and while cranking. if the voltage drops much below 12v while cranking that could have a lot to do with the starting problems and the codes as well. after that check the ground connections particularly the ground by the power steering pump. make sure its not corroded loose busted etc. several different electrical problems usually point to a bad ground path. if everything there checks out ok the battery is strong grounds are good youve double-checked the tps and the iac motor remove the iac from the throttle body and make sure the pintle cycles in and out smoothly when the ignition is turned on youve measured proper resistance on the coil 1 ohm across the primary 12k ohms across the secondary... then id bite the bullet and try and find another pcm to swap in. by the way... im assuming that when the engine was rebuilt the timing chain was installed correctly and the distributor timed properly as well. this is a big assumption since an incorrectly-timed engine would display a lot of the symptoms youre describing. if youre not positive that this was done properly id pull the timing cover and make sure then id roll the engine to tdc #1 compression and make sure the distributor is indexed properly rotor should be pointing directly at #1 terminal. .

From : curmudgeon

save some money and check the cat converter first. the symptoms youre getting are what youd expect from a cat thats breaking up inside and slowly choking off the engine exhaust. particularly the no power symptom. by the way when i pull codes i get five 43 codes in a row then a 42. reset computer and within a week same codes. a few things come to mind. first - make sure the battery is putting out the required voltage. measure its output both standing and while cranking. if the voltage drops much below 12v while cranking that could have a lot to do with the starting problems and the codes as well. after that check the ground connections particularly the ground by the power steering pump. make sure its not corroded loose busted etc. several different electrical problems usually point to a bad ground path. if everything there checks out ok the battery is strong grounds are good youve double-checked the tps and the iac motor remove the iac from the throttle body and make sure the pintle cycles in and out smoothly when the ignition is turned on youve measured proper resistance on the coil 1 ohm across the primary 12k ohms across the secondary... then id bite the bullet and try and find another pcm to swap in. by the way... im assuming that when the engine was rebuilt the timing chain was installed correctly and the distributor timed properly as well. this is a big assumption since an incorrectly-timed engine would display a lot of the symptoms youre describing. if youre not positive that this was done properly id pull the timing cover and make sure then id roll the engine to tdc #1 compression and make sure the distributor is indexed properly rotor should be pointing directly at #1 terminal. .