Well, the Dak stalled again. :-P
It happened when I left work. I started up the Dak, and let it idle
while I was screwing around with my cellphone. It was idling for maybe 10
minutes, and it just quit. The outside temp wasn't extremely hot (about 80
I think), but the truck *was* idling for a while and the engine was pretty
hot. I'm thinking heat has something to do with it. The other times it
has stalled are after running for about 30-40 minutes on the freeway with
the A/C on (on a very hot day). (It also stalled a couple of more times on
that hot day.), and also at stoplights on a warm but not overly hot day.
(though in all cases, the engine was quite hot)
I let it sit for a while thinking I'd let it cool down a but, but it
still didn't want to start. According to my fuel pressure guage, I've got
fuel, so I thought maybe I'm not getting spark. I pulled the wire off the
coil, stuck a screwdriver in the end, and braced it up on the air cleaner
next to the S-bolt so I could watch for a spark while cranking the engine
(I've gotta get one of those trigger things so I can crank the engine from
the engine bay.) After realizing that I was being a complete idiot (hey,
it was a bad day at work) :-), I re-connected the coil wire to the coil,
pulled the other end off the distributor, and tested THAT. I didn't see
any spark. I tried a few times, but didn't notice anything. So, I
reconnected the coil wire, pulled the #2 and #4 spark plug wires (they are
in a loom together so its easier to pull both than take 'em out of the loom
so I can just pull one). ANYWAY, I did the screwdriver thing again (with a
plug wire), got inside the truck, and cranked it. This time I definitely
saw sparks, and the engine started. I shut it down, reconnected the plug
wires, and fired it up. Its been running fine ever since.
Interestingly, the first time this happened, (several weeks ago) I was
checking for spark, and as soon as I pulled the wires from the plugs to
check, it started. I don't know if its just a coincidence or not, but if
this happens again, that's the first thing I'm going to try. Of course, it
may just be that by the time I got around to that, the engine had cooled down.
The things I've done already to try to fix this problem are:
replaced fuel pump module (prior to getting a fuel pressure guage)
replaced distributor pickup
tried using a different relay in the starter relay slot
I'm starting to think this may be an ignition or coil problem. I thought
I'd post here to see if anyone had any ideas before I try to explain this
to the dealer. :-)
Thanks!
-Jon-
.--- stei0302@cs.fredonia.edu ------------------------------------.
| Affiliations: DoD, EAA, MP Race Team, NMA, SPA, USUA. RP-SEL |
| '96 Dodge Dakota v8 SLT CC (14.58@93.55), '96 Kolb FireFly 447 |
`----------------------- http://www.cs.fredonia.edu/~stei0302/ ---'
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