1996 Dakota troubles

Hi all, I just recently purchased a 1996 Dakota SLT club cab 2WD with the 3.9 Magnum V6/auto tranny. I love the truck a lot, but today she started some stuff that is worrying me a bit.

First, this morning, she would not start. If she did, she died right away. If I gave her some gas and put the idle up around 1500 or so for like 30 sec, she would be fine.

Second, she backfired on me a few times today.

Finally, there seems to be a ticking noise coming from the engine. I spoke to someone about it, and they said that it's the timing chain. Could it be that the above problems are because the chain has jumped a tooth or two and is no longer in perfect timing? Or, sould it just be a normal sound (the truck has 106,200 miles on it) that I don't hafta worry too much about? Also, any other thoughts about what could be causing the above problems? I'm unsure about whether or not the fuel filter has ever been changed or not.

Any help would be AWESOME :biggrin:

Kevin :evillol:

Yeah 3.9's eat timing chains. Mine was recalled. My 3.9 also pings and rattles and whatever else I don't really care. If it blows up, that's cool, in goes an 8.

You shouldn't have to change the fuel filter at that kind of mileage, unless you've been running old dirty fuel in it.

When my cat clogged the first time, the motor would fire up, sound like it was running on 3 cylinders, and then die, even with your foot on the floor.

Take it to a mechanic or something.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention codes. Is your check engine light on?

nah there are no codes coming from the PCM...and 95% of the time, it's OK, but if i mash the gas, i can feel backfiring through the pedal.

kevin

My 96 dakota SLT did the exact same thing as you are describing. It happend when my wife left the lights on, and the battery went dead!

Only means I had to Recessitate was another vehicle jump for a while, and let the poor alternator help the rest of the way. I know your not supposed to do that but I had little choice and resources.

Any way, So the damn thing woul not even idol. Had to hold the gas down and try to shift at the same time.

Too be honest I dont know how I finally stopped it, but I took the battery terminal off a couple times to see if this would clear the ECM. It did not make a difference. At least the first time. Possably after letting the battery come back to life, it made a difference. Dunno if the Computer was getting enuf juice er somthin.

I do recall maintaining around 1300 RPM and then shifting into drive, would keep the idol, I'm guessing due to it adjusting the idle for the RPM drop when put in gear. I could then let off the gas when the truck was in gear. and hold the brake and it would idle. I then shifted it into Nuetral and it did not die. It maintained its idle as before.

However, Once I turned the ignition off and killed it, tried to fire it back up, and it did the exact same thing again, so I was pretty frazzled to say the least. But i continued to let it run for almost an hour to charge the battery, and took it around the block a couple times to stretch its legs.

After running for almost an hour and taking the truck through its range of RPM, and general driving conditions, I returned it to the garage, and shut it off.

Gave it one more chance and told it it would be fish food if it didnt behave and werk fer me, and started it again. It amazingly held its idol. I shifted through dif gear with the brake still on to put a load on it, and it behaved as normal.

I'm leaning toward some sort of power disruption with the computer, But I really think it was the alternative I gave it.

:)

JG

Idle air control valve.

It's that simple.

i pulled the IAC today, but it looks real clean. i know that it could still be bad, but i don't want to go dumping money I don't need to on getting a new one if it isn't needed. i'll look into it more.

i also found a post on dodgedakotas.com with the same issues. turns out that there is some metal plate under the distributor cap that has a tendancy to come lose and screw up the timing or something. it's only on the older magnum v6 engines. i'm gonna check that as well and see what comes out of it.

kev :screwy: :icon16:

Kevin, did you ever figure out what was up with your truck? Have the same problem in my 88 V6 Ram.