all crank no start

1999 ram 1500 sport
5.2L 318

My truck wont start. All I get is a crank. It ran fine. I went to work and when i tried to start it...nothing.I have 1/4 of fuel. Temp dropped to around -20 with windchill. I thought my fuel line may be frozen, but i had someone spray some starting fluid into my air filter and still no start. I checked a plug for fire and It does spark. The plugs are new. I can hear the fuel pump prime when i turn on the ignition. im no place close to a garage of anykind to warm it up. Ive read posts from other sites. They mention heating the coil, distributor and fuel lines with a hair dryer, but i have no electricity in the middle of a parking lot. If i have spark, why would the starting fluid not have fired? I know nothing about engines. I only checked one cable for spark. Should I check them all? Im out of ideas and I need the truck.

update....I added more gas just for the hell of it. so I have just under a half of a tank. I took a new plug, measured correctly, and tested each wire. The spark was orange and only fired once every 2-3 seconds. What does that mean?

I had the same problem and i reversed the coil wire and it fired up, so i put a set of wires on and no more problems. I know it sounds weird but that's what happened.

Cliff

Reversed the coil wire? You mean like you took it off and turned it around and put it back on the other way?

Which trans in this truck? Let us know if you fix it also.

I was wondering if anyone has found a solution to this problem yet? I have a 1986 Dodge ram 50. My truck was running fine on Monday, but Tuesday morning I went to crank it up, it fired up fine so I went back in the house to let it warm up. I came back out and it had uncranked, so I cranked it back up and waited a few minutes, then I pulled out of the driveway and it died. I thought maybe I was out of gas so I poured some gas in the tank and some in the carb and nothing happened. I checked a spark plug, and the distributor and they were sparking, but the gas in the carb wasn't burning or cranking. Any ideas?

so here is my status as of today. I pulled my + terminal off to do a reset. I let the battery charge for a minute. It was a hard start but it finally kicked in. I drove it about about a mile and the oil pressure went from 40 to 0 then back up to 40 after a few seconds. I continued to drive and it continued to go from 40 to zero and back up. it seemed to only go down when i accelerated so i pulled off the road and had it towed. i was told i may have gas in the oil from crank'n it so much. could my oil pump be failing?. please excuse me, but i do not know what they are called....if I have a mechanic hook one of those reader things up to it, would that tell me exactly what the problem is? I dont want to pay money into something if i dont have to.

one more thing...i have to jump my truck to get it to start, I could leave it run for an hour (im not, but just for example) and the moment i turn my truck off, i have very little juice.....alternator? not even enough juice to turn my starter.

few days ago, you may be fixed but here goes......check your distributer cap and rotor button, bet you'll find moisture and corrosion. change the oil and use a quality filter (dont use a fram, get a wix, I have had a number of dodges especially show lower oil pressure using a fram, ok now some will argue against this, but thats the way it is).

I thought I got my truck to start without my oil pressure dropping. . When i cleaned up my battery terminals the pressure just quit going down. I drove it back to my home and the oil pressure fluctuates between 0 and 40 again. I can hear a ticking noise when the pressure drops. its very fast (about as fast as a cat purrs...thats the only way i know how to describe it) and does not move with my rpm's Does this sound like my oil pump. Ive never changed an oil pump before and If thats what i need to do, I would appreciate some advice on what to look out for. Ive read on a post from another site that I will have to remove a transmission brace, the dust shield and the starter. I dont have the money to take the truck to a mechanic. Being my first time doing this, if that is the problem, how long should it take?

99 dodge ram sport
318 5.2L
95,000

It's finished if you hear lifters when the pressure drops.

I pulled off my pan which was easier than I thought, I only had to remove one bolt from the transmission brace and push the brace 1/4 inch to drop it. The bottom of the pan was about 1/4 of sludge with very little traces of metal inside. what was there was extremely small. I took of the pump, removed and cleaned the pickup tube and screen and placed it on a new pump. The truck seems to be okay, but I have yet to drive it. The pressure is holding at idle just fine with no noise....for the moment. lets hope it stays that way.

Same I did on our other vehicles when it developed ticking noise. Mechanic wants to overhaul immediately and even other friends recommends overhauling the engine. Since the pressure was going down and developed a ticking noise, I thought that it has something to do with the oil pump not able to provide enough oil pressure. I replaced the oil pump and cleaned the oil pan of all gunks and I no longer have a ticking noise and oil pressure is back to normal. Simple repair compared to what they want "overhaul".

Simple repair compared to what they want "overhaul".
Yeah but that's not repairing it. That's the sludge that was just in the pan. Try pulling a valve cover, and take off the intake and tell me what you see. If the engine is ticking, even if it isn't and you've got no pressure because there's sludge you found in the bottom end, it's all over the motor and it's certainly due for an overhaul. You might have bought more time from replacing the pump, but your problems aren't over yet.

If you looking into an overhaul,price a rebuild and a reman engine.The reman engine is cheaper sometimes than a rebuild.Stay away from the remans from the auto parts stores.The reman engines from the parts stores use cheap parts and that is the reason why they are cheap.The warrenties suck too.You have to take them to a differant place for warranty work.Look into a reman from Jasper,they use high quality parts from Clevite for bearings,Fel Pro for the gaskets,put in all new parts with updates and their warranty is the best one on the market.If you have a problem with a Jasper,you can take it to any Jasper dealer for warranty work.

My son has a 99 Dodge 1500 pickup and had a crank, but no start problem. Ended up being the crankshaft sensor. Also had gas in oil from trying to start it.
I'm an old fart from the old school and can't understand how gas can get to the crankcase without getting past the piston rings. Seems to me it should go out the exhaust !!!

I'm an old fart from the old school and can't understand how gas can get to the crankcase without getting past the piston rings. Seems to me it should go out the exhaust !!!
Engines used to have compression.

Just an update for everyone, my truck is still running strong, no problems and about 8,000 miles later.

that 318 will be ok i've seen them run 100,000 after running with no oil enough to make it knock like someone was beating a piece of scrap iron with a sledge hammer. ole boy just put a new oil pump in and ran the wheels off of it. if it had been a 360 you would have to put new bearings and probably have the crank turned. but being that it is a 318 it takes alot to do damage to these motors.

thats a 318 you'll run another 100,000 miles on it even if it did tick a little these are some of the toughest motors chrysler ever made .