>
> So I finally got my truck mostly put back together after Daktoberfest
> last
> night, and discovered a problem. I had to jump start it since while it
> was sitting on the jackstands I guess I left they key on a notch too far
> to keep the wheel unlocked, and ran the battery dead. I jumped it, it
> started fine, idled fine after I disconnected the battery.
>
> I really wanted to take it for a drive to feel the improvements that I'd
> made to the steering but let it idle for about 5-10 minutes first,
> lights
> and fan off, to charge up.
>
> I jumped in, turned on the lights and defrost and started backing down
> the
> driveway to turn around, and the truck gently died. Battery needle was
> around 11.5-12v, so I shut everything off and restarted it. cranked a
> bit
> weakly but fired, didn't want to stay running. would just idle down too
> far and die. if I held it above 1500 it was fine. after a minute or so
> it would idle at 650 (normal idle) hapilly. it would idle in gear
> stopped, but when I went slowly at idle it would die.
>
> I ran it for long enough that it would hold 13v even after it died with
> the lights on so I don't think it's a battery issue. I took it for
> about
> a 5 mile test drive so if it's a PCM learning issue I'd expect that to
> have cured itself. My only other thought is maybe something related to
> transmission control + cold weather (30deg F or so) + bad RWSS = maybe
> not
> bumping up idle speed when in gear and rolling slowly?
>
> I'm going out of town for 9 days starting tonight so it will get to sit
> and think about it's problems and if I'm lucky fix itself but this
> strikes
> me as very strange. Ran fine and had power on the road, battery seemed
> to
> hold its own just fine after the truck ran for a while.
>
> guesses?
>
>
> BACKSTORY FOR THOSE WHO CARE:
> why did my truck sit for a month after daktoberfest? becuase it hates
> me.
> I thought I broke an axle at Daktoberfest, just turning a corner on the
> trail, so I got fed up and upgraded my front axle shafts (Moser chromo
> shafts and CTM joints for those who care) but once I recieved the parts
> and got it torn down I found that I hadn't broken a shaft, but skipped a
> hub and it hadn't relocked. It was full of crap and I had a spun outer
> wheel bearing due to a missing spindle seal. So I got all that put
> togther, breaking a caliper key lock bolt in the process (which is still
> one of a few things in need of fixing) along with taking care of a
> long-standing steering design flaw - a process which took a few
> different
> tries at parts purchasing and some pretty significant grinding and
> drilling of the Ram pitman arm I finally went with. This was
> accomplished
> last night along with replacing my rear axle pinion yoke which had had
> the
> ujoint caps spinning for long enough to introduce side-to-side slop in
> the
> yoke. Of course I didn't manage to get yoke completely seated so I
> can't
> let the truck coast right now, I found on my test drive. so I need a
> bigger cheater bar to keep tightening the pinion nut. but aside from
> that
> pinion backlash issue and the broken bolt, it's almost back to 100%.
> There's a bit of paint work that needs to be done before it sees salt
> and
> some t-case fluid topping off to do since it didn't have a rear
> driveshaft
> in it for a while too..... so like I said, my Dakota has that Jeep
> Thing.
> I think it burns when I pee now =( ;-)
>
So it did fix itself as I had hoped for - the problem has shown itself a
few more times though, and what I'm thinking is a gummed up idle air
control solenoid. Need to look up how to clean it, I guess.
-- MikeM Dak on 40s
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sun Jan 01 2006 - 00:39:43 EST