'98 RAM accelleration problems ??? HELP!!

[spatreed]

Hello. I have a 98 Ram 1500 pickup. For the last 6 weeks or so, it has been idling like crap, and sometimes when driving, it is like it has water in the tank, or something. It backfires, and sometimes it even stalls when idling. Then, sometimes, when stopped at a light or something, even when I have my foot on the breaks, it kinda kicks in, and it is like I have to fight the break pedal to keep it stopped.

I took it to several places, and they cannot figure what is wrong. They changed the catalytic converter last week, and also the distributor cap. But to no avail.

Last night, I tried it on the highway, and I got very scared. It will go about 60 kph, and then, it sputters, and it is like it loses power, and I could not get it to even go 80 kph, it backfired like crazy, and I thought it was going to stall.

The two garages I had it at did all kinds of tests, and we are at our whits end with it... Any help would be appreciated.


And, it is not only happening at fast speeds. Sometimes it spits and sputters and backfires even when I pull out of the driveway.

But, it does not happen ALL the time... very frustrating.
The mechanic said that drive it until something breaks, and then he will know what is wrong with it. But we have a trailor, and a 4 wheeler that we tow, and cannot take the chance in this condition.

[BleedDodge]

Take what chance? If the truck left you stranded, use the 4 wheeler to carry on.

[spatreed]

take the chance of being on the highway and something going wrong..

[spatreed]

okay.. yesterday, we had the O2 sensors changed, and all the plugs as well.

But, still have this problem. What a downer. After paying over 30 grand for what I thought was such an awesome truck, and yet NOBODY can tell us what the problem is. With all the things we have had done to it in the last few weeks, it has cost us almost 3 grand now, and yet the problem persists.

[BleedDodge]

The throttle position sensor might be bad.

After I took the tachometer out of my truck, I think I messed something up with the coil, or the positive wire. Sometimes my truck acts like that but it's usually fixed if I disconnect the positive wire and bend it back and forth and plug it in, then the truck usually runs again.

Your EGR system might be messed up too. Is your check engine light on?

Keep that 4 wheeler with the truck.