NJen42
Member
Hey folks, new to the forum, and to mopars in general. Just recently inherited a 79 power wagon w150 with the 318 2bbl. Not very familiar with dodge or chrysler products in general... I seem to have an issue where my truck will have a hard time starting when it's hot.
From a cold start, it will run and drive fine, and sit and idle fine. After I've driven it any amount, my first test was a half mile little stroll around the block, then let it sit for about 5 minutes idling. When I went to hop back in, I threw it in gear, and it immediately stalled out. When I went to start it again, it cranked about half a turn, maybe a full crank, and is acting like it's got a dead battery, very very sluggish crank. Checked battery, still 12.3, little low but nothing I'd imagine would give issue to start. Just to be sure, I tried jumping it with another running vehicle, to which it acted the same way.
Seems almost maybe like a vapor lock issue, or possibly timing? I'm not really sure.
Let it cool down for an hour or two and it starts right back up as if nothing ever happened. I've spent the last probably 4-5 days now reading just about every forum thread on here and other similarly mopar based forums, watching every youtube video I can find, and I'm just not sure, no exact answer or way to figure out what's going wrong here.
If anyone could give me a little assistance, I would appreciate it a lot. Cheers and thank you.
Edit: Also, the first time I noticed this issue (I have had the issue about every time I've driven it) of hard cranking, it also seemed to lose power at the key in the start position. I had buzzers, good lights, all the inside electronics, but no starter. It cranked hard, but did crank, by jumping the starter relay. This issue with loss of starter at the key only happened the first time I experienced the hard cranking issue, never again since.
Edit 2: I may have placed this in the wrong subforum, I meant to post it in the
-NJen
From a cold start, it will run and drive fine, and sit and idle fine. After I've driven it any amount, my first test was a half mile little stroll around the block, then let it sit for about 5 minutes idling. When I went to hop back in, I threw it in gear, and it immediately stalled out. When I went to start it again, it cranked about half a turn, maybe a full crank, and is acting like it's got a dead battery, very very sluggish crank. Checked battery, still 12.3, little low but nothing I'd imagine would give issue to start. Just to be sure, I tried jumping it with another running vehicle, to which it acted the same way.
Seems almost maybe like a vapor lock issue, or possibly timing? I'm not really sure.
Let it cool down for an hour or two and it starts right back up as if nothing ever happened. I've spent the last probably 4-5 days now reading just about every forum thread on here and other similarly mopar based forums, watching every youtube video I can find, and I'm just not sure, no exact answer or way to figure out what's going wrong here.
If anyone could give me a little assistance, I would appreciate it a lot. Cheers and thank you.
Edit: Also, the first time I noticed this issue (I have had the issue about every time I've driven it) of hard cranking, it also seemed to lose power at the key in the start position. I had buzzers, good lights, all the inside electronics, but no starter. It cranked hard, but did crank, by jumping the starter relay. This issue with loss of starter at the key only happened the first time I experienced the hard cranking issue, never again since.
Edit 2: I may have placed this in the wrong subforum, I meant to post it in the
Small Block Mopar Engine
subforum-NJen
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