Archived Fuel soleniod or something worse ?

[SMalafy]

I was going down the road yesterday when my truck died because of lack of fuel.

When I checked things out under the hood it looked like the shut off soleniod quit so I wired it up the truck started up and I drove home. As I was driving home I noticed that the speedo and tach were not working although the other gauges were. The truck would not shift above 2nd gear (automatic) and the batteries were showing a discharge on the volt meter. Does a bad soleniod cause this or do I have electrical problems ? One person told me it might be my ignition switch as they had a recall on that but I checked with Dodge and they told me I had that fixed 4 years ago. I have a 95 12 valve.

Thanks Steve Malafy

-- email address removed --

 

[bmoeller]

If the voltmeter was right, I would first check the 120amp alternator fuse in the Power Distribution Center (PDC) that is under the hood. It is attached with a screw on each end of the fuse.



Bad ground somewhere?



On these trucks, the PCM controls the voltage output of the alt. Maybe something is up with it.



Just because the ignition switch is only 4yrs old, doesn't mean it still couldn't be bad.

 

[Bob4x4]

If the engine speed sensor(crank sensor)fails the PCM will not turn on the charging system,tach will not work,computer controlled trans will not function correctly... . anything controlled by the PCM will not work.





Bob

 

[blacksheepdiesel]

Had a similar problem recently... the two smaller wires that hook into the positive battery terminal on drivers side had corroded off which caused the solenoid to not engage.



Trent

 

[Missouri Mule]

SMalafy,



Missed the speedo not working on 12 valve post.



The engine speed sensor has nothing to do with the speedometer, but interacts with pcm for tach,ac,alt,shifting.



With the speedometer not working I would say a broken ground wire or loose ground connection to the speedo, tack, voltemeter.



Of course you could have multi-problems in different areas. Which would be a real pain.

 

[SMalafy]

Thank you all for your help. It was the engine speed sensor on the front of the motor.