Just Shoot Me!!!!!!!

:banghead:
Hi Guys! I'm a newbie from The Dirty South (GA).
Inherited a 94 Ram 1500 from my uncle who recently passed away.

Problem:
Had to p-u truck in another state - driving back home everything OK til about an hour into the trip...cruising along the interstate about 70 mph and all of the sudden there's a MAJOR loss of power...drops down to around 35-40mph - then truck begins to shudder pretty bad. Seems as if the engine will "catch" and speed on up - then looses power again..up and down like this the whole way. Never shut off on me - just had to "baby" it for the rest of the trip. If I shut motor off and let it cool everything seems okay again. After getting home with the truck around-town driving was fine - this was just happening intermittently during highway driving. Had diagnostics run at three different shops. Two tests indicated O2 sensor - one test indicated EGR valve.

So I finally BREAK DOWN (bad as I hated to!) and take it on in to the Dodge dealer as they are supposed to have the MEGA diagnostic equipment, right?! Ha. NOTHING shows up at all.

End up having $700 worth of maintenance-type work done (new plugs, wires, rotor button, dist. cap, injectors cleaned, yada-yada-yada, etc. ...).

Leave Dodge shop - it's doing the SAME thing.

Now (disgusted) I take it to muffler shop cause I've had 2 vehicles in the past that acted the same way and both of them had clogged catalytic converters. BINGO. Bad converter. Replaced converter. HOWEVER - fellow at muffler shop can't give me a warranty on new one cause truck still isn't running right (too much raw fuel he says - if problem not corrected new one will just burn-up) but if I can get problem(s) resolved within 15 days come back in and he'll issue warranty for the new converter.

Still running the same.

BACK to Dodge dealer. They agree to run diagnostics again to see what they can come up with. Still nothing. I ask the manager there to let whoever is working on the truck to drive it - take it home if necessary - drive it til it happens again...whatever it takes! I get a call a few days later - truck has not acted up once. Says they left truck running for four hours then drove it - no problems - also said they started it up a couple of hundred :disappoin times - checking it again each time with the diagnostic machine - NO problem showing up. Head mechanic tells me that "the fuel pump is making a little more noise than normal so it might be needing replacement soon - maybe a good idea to try that". Well sorry dude...$770+ is just a little too much for changing out a part that MIGHT or MIGHT NOT be the problem. I tell him that I'll come get the truck and next time it acts up during the shop's business hours I'll just try and make it there so they can SEE for themselves what the hell it is doing!

So I go pick-up the truck today and I'm not even two miles down the road and the damn thing starts acting up again. Well the shop was closing when I left so I couldn't turn around and take it back today...and it was the worst today - I just about didn't make it home.

I really want to get this old truck running right - for sentimental reasons (since it belonged to my favorite uncle) as well as the fact that I need a truck alot of the time to haul things.

Oh yeah --- it was a one-owner truck AND IT ONLY HAS 88,000 MILES!

ANY SUGGESTIONS besides just taking it out on a lonely old dirt road - shooting it and putting it out of it's misery??? :shakehead

XOXO

Dang, reading the problem i was for sure it would be the converter. I would check into the fuel pump as well though.

Problem like this the truck needs to be driven with a fuel pressure gauge on it. This way you can tell if pressure is dropping. Also people don't realize there is a filter on top of the pump module it is a regulator/filter. It is listed as just a regulator most of the time. It is not that large and can plug up. Ck with the dealer on this application and see what the say. Why did they do all the tune work and not replace the filter? Something to ask them.

Dodge dealerships are worthless. It doesn’t sound like a fuel problem if the exhaust guy was saying that gas was coming out the exhaust. Tell me have you cracked the air box? If it was sitting for a long time then it might have a mouse nest in it. Sorry I just wanted to eliminate the obvious. Has the air filter been changed? Some cheep easy things are next time it acts up pull over and disconnect the mass airflow sensor. And see if that changes anything. If it runs better (it won’t run perfect) then it’s a bad sensor. You can also try to change the intake temperature sensor. Your truck isn’t overheating right? those symptoms would happen if the thermostat was stuck closed and the truck over heats. One more thing I have heard of the alternator putting the truck into a limp mode when the battery is low on fluid and/or not working properly. Hope this helps. I have been their. I know how frustrating it is working on something that was ether sitting along time or just neglected by the previous owner.

Yes some info is useless. This eng does not have a mass airflow sensor. Now he might be looking for something that isn't there.