89 dodge ram stalling-Please help!!!!

[rwfisch]

I own a 89 Dodge Ram with a 5.9 with fuel injection, the problem is the truck keeps stalling at idle or lower rmp(under 1000)in gear at a stop sign. It seems like it has a miss. It mostly happens when it's warmed up and I have driven a half mile or so. But, it has done this when it's still cold. Sometimes it will stall just idling in park, again it seems like a miss but it's not all of the time. I put it in neutral and give it some revs. I was told that the motor was rebuilt at about 10k, but I checked the throttle body(opened flaps and checked for buildup) every thing seemed clean. I have replaced: idle control motor, tps, map, new plugs, wires, cap and rotor, fuel filter, checked all vaccum hoses. I am not getting any codes. The first big snow fall is near and I can't plow with the truck driving like this. Please help. Thanks

[BamaDodgenMX]

I have basically the same prob with my '88 Dodge D100. I just got it out of the fourth shop, and up till now, none, including the ones that put in a Jasper-rebuilt engine, have been able to fix it, or even help a bit. Also, for your info, don't worry about cleaning injectors or buyin a rebuilt or new t.b., like i did, or buying another comp for it like i did. Let me know if you find out anything.

[89ltd]

does it stall when you touch the gas? I would check the hall effect pickup coil in the distributor. Had a bad one in my 89 ram pickup and also in 88 dodge van. They were both bad, would stall at random, sometimes wouldn't start. Also, did not show any codes !!! Should have shown up as " no distributor refrence signal"

[rwfisch]

Usually I can keep it running by giving it gas, around 1500 rpm or so it will smooth out. I never have a hard time starting it even after it just stalled, it fires right up every time. Thanks for your replies.

[fredjacksonsan]

I'd say it sounds like a timing chain. High RPM it's fine, right? When you take off from stop sign, does it run rough until it gets up some RPM's?

[BamaDodgenMX]

haha, no codes eh? well so far only one of the four shops my truck's been to have even been able to access the dang computer, new one or old.

[rwfisch]

It does run good under higher rpm and does stumble taking off, but it doesn't idle bad all of the time. If it could be the timing chain, could I ajust the timing so that it would run better at idle and tell me if it is the problem? Obviously I wouldn't leave it that way as a fix, but at least to diagnose the problem. Any other ways to tell if it is the timing chain? If I pull the dist. cap I probably wouldn't be able to tell if it was just too much slack or jumped 1 tooth right? Thanks

[fredjacksonsan]

Assuming the chain has slack in it:

Distributor cap -EDIT- WRONG, MEANT TO SAY TIMING CHAIN COVER is on the front, behind and below the water pump. Once you get in there, the chain will likely have some slack in it, you'll be able to move the chain left and right some, maybe up to 1/4".

Adjusting the timing I don't think will help much, since the slack in the chain is making the timing off in different directions as it is. OR, it will help at low rpm's, then make the engine stumble at higher rpms.

And I've never seen one that jumped a tooth without having something else bad wrong with it.

[BleedDodge]

Is the distributor really on the front on these engines?

[fredjacksonsan]

Oh, crap, I just checked my post and it's wrong. It's the timing chain cover, DUH.

Editing now....

[fredjacksonsan]

Thanks Bleed.

[BleedDodge]

I wasn't sure, I've never looked at these 360's. I knew the distributor was always on the back side of the small blocks, and on the front of the big blocks.

[fredjacksonsan]

Yep you're right. I just had a brain fart and typed distributor when I meant timing chain cover. That's a real bad mistake when you're buying parts!!

[rwfisch]

I just noticed today that when I am coming to a stop if I put it in neutral and smooth out the engine with some revs then back into gear it didn't stall. So i'm wondering if a bad timing chain would do that? I really don't want to tear apart the front of the engine if I don't have to. Thanks for your time.

[fredjacksonsan]

I don't know what else it would be. With FI, if the fuel pump was going bad you'd have problems at other times. With a carburetor, it could be a float bowl. That's all I can think of, unless....

There's some posts on the Dodge Dakota forum, where the 3.9 V6 is doing the same thing. I just remembered it. You might want to check out that forum to see what they did to fix it. Sorry I don't recall the titles, it was something like 3.9 stalls at lights, or something like that.