92 Ram Van

Trying to get this thing started, 5.9, no fuel to ‘ carb’ is there a fuel safety shut off switch? And where would it be? I have a 92 pickup SM but it’s no help. I can put gas down the ‘carb’ and it’ll run for a few seconds, injectors are clean but like I said pulled line and no fuel flowing. Man said he had it running a few weeks before he brought to me. Good friend I believe him.

Try banging on the bottom of the fuel tank. Sometimes a fuel pump will lockup. I also believe there is a fuel pump relay somewhere in the system. Might want to look it up online.

Start with the fuel pump relay. We had a fuel pump failure @ 200,000 miles, started running lean, after ~ 200 miles it was barely running. If you need a fuel pump, I'd pick something besides Airtex if possible. 2¢

X2 on banging the tank while cranking. Don't be afraid to wack it.

Tried the banging but maybe not good enough, tried another relay no change, will be just using for storage and engine-trans for the $9 truck so don’t want to spend money on a pump.

Since it's not a driver, just pull the relay and jumper power directly to the pump wiring. You'll have a better chance of knowing if the pump is good. Give the wiring a quick look as well.

I checked the relay to see if power is to it when key is on and it has. So either wiring or pump I suppose. It I’ll still try what you said just have to figure what wire goes to pump.

Every so often my 93 Dakota decides to "play dead". Checked the obvious: wire harness, battery voltage, sensors, relays, coil. Believe it or not, I'll swap the ECM to a spare I bought from a member here and it will fire right up. Then I'll swap back to the first ECM and it'll be fine until it happens again and the cycle repeats itself which is trending to once a year.

I’m beginning to think all Dodges are that way. cave man electronics. Now my 01 has water in the trans fluid (it’s pink) I think the 3 year old new radiator sprung a leak. Every time I get one thing fixed up pops another gremlin. Might just roll em all down in the field and have a bon fire

I guess the fact that the 92 is 29 years old and the 01 is 20 years old, its still Dodge's fault the stuff no longer works like new?

They just don't make stuff like they used to.

Back in the 60s and 70s, very few 20 year old vehicles, and even fewer 30 year old vehicles were still daily drivers, most would have already been dead. Back then, few vehicles made it to 100,000 miles, I suspect both trucks mentioned here have well over 100,000 mile on them as well.

The reliability of these newer vehicles has screwed up our perspective on how things work. Gene

And the 01 has had EVERYTHING replaced except the heads- block over a 3 year period. I’m so deep in it now I don’t know which way to go. Parts today are crap compared to 30-40 years ago. I won’t even go into how many things I’ve fixed-replaced and will have to fix-replace in the future on my 06 3500 4x4 diesel pickup. Be nice for one of them to go 6 months without working on either. I have a 15 SRT that’s been in the shop four times and only 20 thousand miles on it. Warranty runs out on the first and scared shitless with what breaks next. I love Mopar but they’re junk today. I’ve had many old mopars and drove them till the wheels fell off, so been there done that.
Oh and if you’re 30-35 20 years is a long time but at 71, 20 years is a blip

I sympathize. My Dad's 01 Dakota was bought new. Very little left of the original truck! I won't even start with the adventures that I have had with my 2000 LHS or the 2002 Durango that STB at a young age. IMHO ALL the DAIMLER era Mopars were cursed by the boys in Stuttgart!

Cudaman, I like you and many others have found replacement parts are now crap for the most part. I have gone back to having starters and alternators fixed locally rather than replaced. I also will not buy any part made in China if there is any choice. Lastly I surf ebay all the time for OEM parts for my 2002 Ram van, and buy them up when they don't break the bank- even before they are needed. If I can't find OEM parts, I try to buy from the original OEM supplier at least. Just a couple tips trying to help out sir.

Thank you

I fully understand your position. The parts available today are no where near as good as they were 10 years ago.

The last "new" car I bought was a 2004, and as far as I'm concerned, it will be the last "new" car I buy. From here on, when I absolutely need a different car, I will buy the used car that is in the best condition I can find. I can put a couple of months worth of car payments (I can't imagine what the monthly payment on a 70K truck looks like) in car repair on the 04 I already own, every 6 months and still be way ahead of the game, and I know what I have.

Oh, and for the record, I was born in 56, 30 years old was more then a 1/2 of life ago. The 20 years I was referring to was in car life, and that still stands true today, like it did back then. Modern vehicles are designed to last to the end of the payment book, or to the end of the warranty, whichever comes first. If they make it to the end of the payment book, the odds are pretty high, the manufacturer got a replacement sale. The problem with Mopar is it has changed hands so many times in the last 20 years, concerns about returning sales have gone out the window. If they don't expect to own the company in 10 years, why would they care if anyone returns to buy another car or truck? Once it gets through the warranty time, their burden ends.

Agree on all you said. On the warranty thing I’m gonna put $200 in my other checking each month, end of year I’ll have $2400. Keep doing the same each year. After two years if lucky that’ll but a lot of parts, tires and upkeep. If you paid the warranty people that money and not need them, that money is theirs.!
That $200 comes from the SS check anyway (1949 here)

That is a solid plan. When we made that last payment on our 04, all those years ago, I told my wife to keep track of how much we were saving by not having a car payment. She didn't really understand, but when we did the timing belt a couple years later, she was crying about the bill. I asked her how much would she had spent doing car payments for those two years, then suddenly, the light came on.

I think she has actually been putting money aside for car repair, along with all those other things we need to get every so often.

We are both retired. Everything is paid for, all we need is to cover utility bills, food, and upkeep on the stuff we have. We each have an allowance to get stuff we want. I'm building a 49 Dodge pickup, and we just finished a kitchen update she has wanted for years, both paid for with money already saved for those purposes. Being debt free is a great place to be. Gene

Totally agree with what your saying. 50 years ago my uncle who owned the Dodge AM dealership told me to take out a loan then stick it in a savings account. The reason is you’ll make sure the payment is payed each month but you might skip putting money in savings each month but you’ll have emergency money if needed. Smart man, we got along great, even worked for him awhile