A buddy of mine has an 87 Dodge ramcharger, 318, 727tqflite, 2wd thats giving him fits. Its got an electrical gremlin that i can't seem to pin down. The fuel sender suddenly stopped registering that there is fuel in the tank. We've pulled the tank, and sender and can't figure out where the problem is. I'm thinking its either grounds or the wiring harnes going to the sender. He thinks its the sender itself. Is there anything i can do to check both of these problems and get his truck back on the road?

 

Mine is a 1991 Ramcharger same engine & Tranny but with four wheel drive. The one with the chain drive system. Been a remarkably good vehicle over the years. On mine, a few years ago the fuel gauge suddenly quit working, then the very next day the fuel pump went out. It is in the gas tank so I drained all the gas, pulled the tank, took the pump out of the tank and decided to test it before paying for a new pump. The pump worked fine when just hooked up to a spare battery. Put the whole thing back togather being carefull to clean all the connections an tighten them well. Must have been a bad connection either the ground wire or hot, I do not know. You may want to take all the connections loose, clean them well and retighten everything before actually pulling the tank out from under the vehicle. Good luck!

 

I already have the tank out, its been out about 3 weeks now. Its carb'd so i don't have to worry about fuel pump issues anyway. I've yet to figure out why its not working. I'm either thinking lke i said earlier, that the wiring going to the sender went. Or the ground went, whichever, i need to get it fixed fast.. He's about to give it to his gf..and we want it perfect before she gets it.

 

Igniton on, ground the wire to the fuel sending unit. If the gauge goes to full the gauge and wire are good.

If the gauge does not register, put a temporary wire on the gauge terminal that goes to the sending unit, key on, and ground the temp wire. If the gauge goes to full, then the wiring is at fault.

If the gauge and wiring are good, ground the body of the fuel sending unit, hook up the wire from the gauge and operate the float while someone watches the gauge. If it works, re-assemble. If it doesn't work, the sending unit is faulty.

 

Since you have the tank out this should be quite easy if you have multimeter.

Place the sender in a vice a similar angle as it would be if it were installed in the truck. Be careful not to kink the pick up tube , place it in some wood or some rags to prevent damage. There should be two wires on the sender. Connect a lead to each end at the connector. if there is only one connector connect the other wire to the metal base. set the meter to auto range to read resistance(or ohms). It doesnt matter which lead you connect where, as long as they are both connected to different wires. now that the meter is set up and connected lightly lift up on the float watching the meter. if the meter reads infinite resistance in spots then the sender is worn. If it checks out good then you most likely have a bad wire going to the dash or a bad dash gage. The test posted earlier checks out the dash gage and wiring nicely.

If everything checks out get a 5 gallon bucket fill it with water and set the sender in it over night so the float is floating and fully submerged. Check it in the morning to see if its still floating. If its not you have your answer.
HTH

 

Ok so we got the tank back in, the sender repaired and everything. Now we are having problems getting it to start. We've tried priming the carb to get it to fire off, and when it does it runs about 15-30 seconds and dies out, like its not getting fuel to the carb. I'm suspecting that its either the fuel pump has died, or the carb is gunked up from it sitting dry for a few weeks while we tried to work out what was wrong with the fuel sender. We did pull the inline filter off the fuel system, and it was plugged, but only in the direction going to the carb..its a 3 way filter..so it might be hard to discribe. The side going to the carb was plugged at the filter, the line going to the carb is clear, and the side of the filter that is straight thru is also clear. The fuel line going to the carb is also clear and will spurt gas when i hook it up to an outboard marine tank. So i know its getting fuel if hand pumped, the truck just will not start and continue running.

Sorry if this is a bit confusing...i'm just exhausted. Any help is appreciated.

 

When you get it running by priming, try choking it by putting your hand over the carb or by operating the choke by hand when it starts to die out. Maybe if you can draw fuel through like this it will get going.

 

I used to have an '86 Ramcharger 4X4 w/318. Pretty good vehicle overall, but the gas mileage was TERRIBLE, 8-9 at best. Do your valve cover gaskets leak? Anyway, check the fuel pump. I had to replace the one on mine when it was about 10 degrees one day. The fuel filter does look weird, but that's how Dodge did a lot of them. The is not only a fuel filter but a vapor diverter. The third tit on it is supposed to take the vapors back to the fuel tank instead of feeding it to the carb where you could vapor lock the fuel system. If you really want to raise the vehicle a couple inches and give it an aggressive look, try a slightly taller tire. I think I had some Yokohama 31 X 10.5R15 tires on mine when I sold it. Mine also had the factory roll bar. But, for legal reasons, they can't call it a roll bar, can they? I think the proper term was "cargo protector".

 

By hand? Only if you've got an asbestos glove. Ever see one backfire?
My money's on the fuel pump.....

 

Its either the fuel pump or distributor.

I replaced all 8 plugs today, boy were the fuel fouled! I got the truck to sit and run for about 30 seconds before it sputters out and dies...usually with a mild backfire. Sounds to me like the fuel pump is one culprit.

The other, to me seems like the distributor. You can rock the distributor back and forth (towards the firewall and towards the front of the engine) a good 1/8th to 1/4 inch in both directions. This leads me to belive that the dizzy may well be worn out, and not keeping the truck in time when its running, and causing the backfires when it dies.

It seems like solid theory to me... any ideas?

 

Only done it for forty years. I was such a fool that I didn't realize what peril I had placed myself in. Or are you just trying to trick me into handling cancer causing materials. You devil. Now I think that I will go have an anxiety attack.

 

Check for fuel delivery first. No fuel will prevent it from running. The distributor problems may cause it to run poorly, but you do know that it will run. The plugs are probably fouled from pouring gas down the carb. Starting fluid won't foul the plugs.

 

I have a 79 with the 360. It died one day, start idle then die......replaced the timing chain.

 

Plugs aren't fouled...brand new and i've only had to prime up the carb twice. It runs well it just isn't getting gas to the carb. I replaced the fuel pump...but it didn't run long enough to pick up fuel i'd guess. Although it did run longer than normal..it still wasn't quite right. I'm still workin on it, more later guys.

 

If you have an air compressor you can wrap a rag around a blow gun and force air into the filler neck,this will get fuel up to the pump.