86 ramcharger HELP! (Page 1/5)
zetabird JUN 09, 08:18 AM
ok so here it is i have an 86 ramcharger royal se, 2wd 360 v8 and it is kicking my ass.... overall the truck is really fairly nice for what it is but i cant get the thing to stay running, i joinind a ramcharger forum for help but thats slow going with more ridicule on my sentence structure than anything else really, i figured id throw this up here to seeing as you guys know like everything.
heres what i have posted over there on what its doing
ok here we go, so far here is what has been replaced, the distributor, cap, rotor and wires. the ignition control module and voltage regulator along with the ballast resistor are new along with the coil and the fuel pump.

I've also replaced the fuel lines from the tank to the motor and put a new fuel filter on it. i rebuilt the carb as well, tho it was doing the same thing with my known good eldlebrock on it.

what it does is i can drive the truck while its running. it idles a bit rough sometimes, most of the time it idles fine. but i can drive it about a half a mile or so and it will loose power and idle all the way down almost like someone has put there hand over the mouth of the carb choking it for air then immediately lets go and the engine revs back up to normal,

it does that a few times till it just dies, if i let the truck set for a minute or two i can fire it back up and drive little longer before it dose it again.
and heres a picture of the truck, it dosent help with the diagnosis but its just so shiny compared to everything else i own
carnut122 JUN 09, 08:32 AM
Rust in the gas tank? It take awhile to clog up the bag and then when it settles back down you get a few more minutes out of it before re-clogging. But, that doesn't explain the revving prior to dieing(OTOH, my lawn mower and chain saw usually rev up as a last gasp before running out of gas). Take it for a spin, let it die, pull the air filter and see if there's any gas in the carb by opening up the choke butterflies and peering down the throat of the carb while giving the throttle linkage a good tug. Also check for spark by pulling one plug wire putting the cap onto the end of a #2 phillips and while holding the handle, create a gap between the metal shank and a ground (have somebody crank the engine). you'll be able to determine whether your issue is spark or fuel. I'm still voting on rust in the gas tank, so if it's near empty, I wouldn't be filling it up anytime soon. On a similar note, does the problem get worse as the tank empties?
zetabird JUN 09, 08:37 AM
the tanks clean i made sure of that the first time i had it out and again when i replaced all of the fuel lines. and i dont mean it revs up on its own just back to whereever you have it while your driving. when it dies it still has fuel when you hit the accelerator pump so i really dont think its a fuel problem.
when it dies by the time i hop out and pull a plug wire it usualy will start back up on its own. i havent had anyone to give me a hand with it yet
zetabird JUN 09, 11:55 AM
i had a stupid idea, if the battery is almost dead and the alternator slowly stops charging it would die as the coil loses charge correct? now can an alternator work untill it warms up then slowly crap out
carnut122 JUN 09, 09:56 PM
My next vote is for the pick-up coil in the bottom of the distributor. How much rust did you get out of the tank?

I keep forgetting to mention that your Ramcharger looks really good in the picture! I went deer hunting in the Rockies of Colorado back in 1976 in one of those. It was huge, but there was no doubt that whatever we got into, it was going to get us out of it.

[This message has been edited by carnut122 (edited 06-09-2014).]

zetabird JUN 10, 07:35 AM
this one is 2wd but it will go wherever i need to , if i get it running. plastic gastank so veary little rust when i cleaned the tank out one of the 20 times ive had it off the truck, an dthe distruibutor is new it runs better with the new one but still dies out on me
carnut122 JUN 10, 08:55 AM

quote
Originally posted by zetabird:

this one is 2wd but it will go wherever i need to , if i get it running. plastic gastank so veary little rust when i cleaned the tank out one of the 20 times ive had it off the truck, an dthe distruibutor is new it runs better with the new one but still dies out on me



Hmmmmmmmmmm????????????? I'll keep pondering. Does it have catalytic converters? Maybe they're clogged?

[This message has been edited by carnut122 (edited 06-10-2014).]

zetabird JUN 10, 10:23 AM
it has two, the exhaust goes off the manifolds and has a tiny one on the driver side nothing on the pass untill after the two sides y together. the large cat is hollow i dont know about the little one i hit it with a hammer and it dosent sound like theres anything in it but not sure i thought about drilling a hole in it to check and plug welding it, the exhaust is in good shape i didnt want to hack it all up
zetabird JUN 11, 07:34 AM
last night i temporarily hotwired the coil to see if the coil was loosing power when it died but that didnt help, but it looks like the charging problem on the alternator was a broken wire so i need to cut the loom open to get into it mabey something going to the ICM is heating up and killing it
zetabird JUN 11, 08:40 AM
oh and do any dodge gurus wanna take a shot at iding some of these

there the only non new electrical components