My truck is stumbling (not an A-Body)

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Coyote Jack

Coyote Jack

Member #55, I'm old
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I have a 98 Ram 1500 4x4 with a 5.2L (318). Sometimes when I am driving very slow the engine stumbles badly. If I let off the gas it will idle so/so but if I give the gas a pump or two it excellerates like normal. I have also noticed a couple of times that when I am coming to a stop the engine will give a short surge and then idle properly. The check engine light comes on and goes off by itself and has been doing this for about a month. I had a diag done and nothing showed as far as error codes.

Anybody have any ideas?

Jack
 
Fuel pump?

Not a new vehicle, but had a 383 Belv and it would do the same sort of thing to the point of stalling. If you put your foot down on it it would run fine and take off no problems. If you were just puttering around town it would try sputter every time you came to a light.

Replaced the fuel pump and fixed the problem.

Maybe fuel filter would help too. Bad gas perhaps?
 
HAd a recent tune up? Fuel filter, plugs, cap, wires etc... if you cant remember the last time they were replaced, you need new ones. Clean the IAC and throttle body as well. I'd also do a fuel pressure check first to rule out a bad pump.

Then if I was gonna start throwing parts at it. Oxygen sensor, MAP sensor then TPS in that order.

Sounds like an intermittent problem. Should become obvious as it gets worse. Odd you are getting a CEL but no code history.
 
Tune up was done in the spring. Did not change fuel filter. Everything else was new. The throttle body does look pretty bad so I think I will start there.

Jack
 
Jack,
The fuel filter is on the pump and in the tank and the only way that I have heard of to get it is to buy the new pump for about $200.00 or so. I had to do this to my 97 just a few months ago.
 
Yep, there is no fuel filter on the Magnum truck motors.....the only thing is the sock on the fuel pump. If you don't run a bottle of injector cleaner every so often they will gum up. Get a bottle of Lucas Injector cleaner and dump it in with a half tank of fuel and run it until it's almost empty. That's easy and cheap to do. I also Cheif's order of cleaning.....those are the most common issues with the trucks.
 
Have you asked on the AllPar site? They're more 'modern car' centric.
 
I'm thinking TPS. You should be able to test it with a multimeter if you can find the resistance specs. It's basically just a variable resistor with multiple taps. Good luck!
 
I have been leaning towards the TPS right from the start. It would be good if a good fuel delivery system cleaning would solve the problem, but I won't know for sure for a while as this is an intermitant problem. This will teach me to let maintenance on the truck slide while I build a car. LOL

Jack
 
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