97 Ram 1500 Issue

boogercj7

New Member
Joined
Aug 6, 2005
Location
Jacksonville, NC
My son is having an issue with his 97 Ram 1500 with the 5.9. The engine will start acting like it is being starved for gas and starts to buck and backfire until it eventually just dies on him. It is intermittent, it happened once after only 10 minutes of driving and then it happened after about 1 1/2 hours of driving. I searched some of the dodge truck forums but didn't have too much luck. Just curious if anyone here has any experience with this problem. I will be heading over to his house on Friday to check a couple of things over before I think about dropping the tank and replacing the fuel pump assembly. Thanks in advance for any help.
 
I have the same truck 5.9L 97 auto yada yada, and my fuel pump died at around 140000 and it cut out on my a few times and then would start up again, took longer to start all that. I bet thats your problem but I hate to spend $250 on just a guess, you could get the fuel pressure tested at the dealer, but the 97 model was the only year that I know of that didn't have the fuel test port on the rail so you have to hook up a T and a guage to test it.
Dave
 
The check engine light never even flashes at all. It varies on how long it will take to restart it. The first time it did this, it happened 10 minutes after he started it. The second time, he was driving for over an hour. I am pretty sure that it is the fuel pump. I have already bought one and will be replacing it tomorrow. I am also going to pull the EGR valve and clean it too. I am getting ready to travel for a few weeks and I don't need this thing to quit on him while I am gone.
 
I got around to looking at this issue. I removed the fuel line from the fuel rail and hooked a hose up to it and jumped the power to the fuel pump and the fuel pump would pump fuel for about 30 seconds and then it would just pump air. So I decided to continue with my original plan to drop the tank and change the pump assembly. When I finally got the pump out, I discovered that the filter sock was pretty much clogged. Instead of just changing the filter sock, I figured that I might as well change the entire pump assembly so I wouldn't have to drop the tank again if this didn't fix the problem. So I changed the pump assembly and when I had the tank reinstalled, I once again hooked up a hose to the fuel line and jumped the power to the fuel pump and low and behold, I now got a steady stream of fuel. I let the pump run for about 2 minutes and it kept pumping fuel the whole time. I will say that the truck seems to run better now that it is getting a steady supply of fuel. I still find it odd that 97's didn't have an in line fuel filter. Oh well, the problem is fixed and I can go on travel for the next 3 weeks and not have to worry about my son breaking down and me not being there to help him out. Thanks again for the tips.
 
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