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Absolutely agree with above. All I am saying it is so difficult to have a hard and absolute rule that a particular trouble code means an absolute particular hardware failure. Often it can be incidental as I have learned the hard way when I have written diagnostic software myself. I absolutely think this is best diesel site with Michael so dedicated to teaching and advising us on how to handle diesel truck problems. I only bought a vacuum pump and gauge set for HVAC problems because of Michael's excellent write-ups. Paid for itself several times already.

I had the P0216 in my truck when I checked codes before purchased my 2000 Ram in 2010. Mine was seized at minimum advance because of aluminum timing piston bore gauling which was apparently fixed in the new Bosch rebuilds. Caused a poor cold idle and lousy mileage. I am not sure how they fixed it but I they definitely identified the problem and improved things on the new one. Another big problem was the tiny circuit board in the pump. They used a soldering compound that broke down with engine heat and finally fixed that too in the new pumps. I have over 120Kmiles myself with no VP44 codes now. Apparently Bosch was using solder + flux as a paste applied to bottom of cct board and melted the component leads to the board in a quick convection oven pass. This new procedure replaced wave soldering machines but could not take continuous engine heat. I gather they have a better heat tolerant solder + flux compound that is more long term heat tolerant that does not cause open circuits like the original stuff. This same problem could be in our ECM failures as the engine block gets quite hot? Wave soldering machines are now obsolete. The way TFaoro remounted the ECM on the wheel well will make the ECM a lot cooler. Mighty impressive 64 page thread by Tfaoro on his rebuild - I learned a lot!

I have not signed in here for a couple of years but I can tell you that P0606 code is NOT the death of your ECM. I had exactly the same code plus P0123 for the APPS voltage. I bought a junkyard ECM and had Northland Dodge in Prince George install it. There were no ECM's in ALL of CANADA! The mechanic, Dave, told me there was a problem programming my VIN into the junkyard ECM but I had an Email from Bob Wagner at Smarty the day before. I had been considering a Smarty to do my own software VIN update. Bob said there are two copies of the ECM software in EEPROM and when you do a "Recovery Procedure " on the ECM it will take the factory VIN from the ABS braking module and and join it with the backup image and write it into the "Operating image". There was "Bingo" in mechanic Dave's mind when I told him this and he did it and it made the junkyard ECM work that day. Dave owned an identical truck to mine so I was confident with him and the service counter let me talk to him freely. By the way our software tools at the Dodge dealer is two generations old now and many are being sold off by dealers. Two weeks later and I have the same code INCLUDING P0606 which everyone here said is a guaranteed death of ECM. Not so. The OEM APPS unit is an active component with 4 operational amplifiers that appears to take the average of four physical wipers on the potentiometer (I am surmising by what I saw under the seal). I lost the hermetic seal on the APPS and frost formed on the thin film pot surface and electrically put the ECM 5 volt supply into current limit and set the P0606 code. The ECM had it's 5V supply dragged down by the APPS and set the P0606 code in my mind as I am an electrical engineer that used to design microprocessor boards. I changed to a simple Timbo APPS (which is really just a WILLIAMS passive potentiometer, no active solid state components ) and no further problem. I still have my original perfectly okay ECM sitting beside me as I write this but the junkyard one has cold high idle which I prefer so I keep original ECM as spare. No further problem for last two years. By the way, by luck only my Cummins engine number was only about 200 diference from the donor ECM - pure luck.

The drive shaft splined shaft near the front U-joint absorbs different drive shaft effective lengths as bumps and weights are absorbed by the suspension. Length changes as angle of drive shaft changes WRT transfer case and front axle geometry. If you changed the front axle this can change things and spline can hit the stop and give a jolt sensation. Something worth checking? You can disconnect one end and check the travel by pushing and pulling on it as it has a rubber boot hiding the splines visually.

I went through electrical engineering in 1969 and we were taught that they were functionally the same as a regular diode but with much lower voltage drop and much faster switching time, ideally suited for switching mode power supplies that rectify in the KHz range rather than 60hz. So I do not see how they would block ripple? They are better specs these days but functionally the same as far as I know, and 1969 shows how old I am. I agree that the alternator full wave bridge will probably be the culprit for ripple and should be replaced instead of trying to mask the root cause.

I just uploaded the whole parts document for the 2000 Ram in the DOWNLOAD section. It is what the dealers used at the parts desk at the time. Look at 47RE "Gear Shift Lever" in the directory section. Once you get familiar it becomes easier to get around. When in Adobe Reader you can go under "Edit " and then "Find" the part no. It takes a few second to search that big document.

Try this: I have official Dodge Ram Parts diagrams/list .pdf's for many years. I gave Michael one for Download section but perhaps there is need for others? It is part No 1 and there are qty two in the linkage assy. Google part no. and you will find several places that sell it.

Jeremy, I have been through much of your replacements for slightly different reasons. I replaced my VP44 five years ago due to a stuck timing error code (P0216) and when I replaced the VP44, I increased my mileage by 10%. I did get that P0234 code you have when I chipped it with a mild Diablo Puck. Turned out the waste gate was stuck at the actuator linkage joint and just needed some cleaning and never seize lube. One thing is when you initially get P0234, the ECM goes into limp mode where it de-fuels until boost is under 22 psi again. Very rough and falls on its face. It throws the P0234 at about 24 to 24.5 psi. I used an adjustable boost elbow that bleeds air from the actuator air supply after an 1/32" orifice(to limit air loss) in order to increase the boost by opening waste gate later than stock. I would have needed a "boost fooler" (a zener diode at MAP sensor voltage equivalent to 24.3 PSI boost or so to limit max voltage seen by ECM) otherwise in order to get more power without codes. The 47RE auto would not take that kind of torque anyway. The fact that you are seeing balls of black smoke needs looking into since your "over boost" usually means too much air (and not too little air which is usual cause of black smoke). Perhaps the VP is defective and supplying far too much fuel for the APPS position? Anyway, you should look at Michael's wiring drawing below and fill out your signature so everyone can see your setup at a glance and you will get more replies. Michael's Wiring ECM/VP44 You can get all the wire colors there.

Michael, S165 is hidden in the loom. Read above. KC8KSG has made quite a discovery in my mind.

I think you have really found something that is very important. I am starting to think that splice S165 is hidden under the black plastic loom near ECM connector and somehow has lost its ground tie to the block/negative battery? Many people get this problem and it may be because this splice is just a crimped connection (prone to corrosion) hidden from our eyes by the plastic loom bundle? There are many many posts on finding S165 in other forums but no one actual seems to have found it or shown a picture. They seem to find black/lite blue tracer wire at a sensor and reground it and problem gone like yourself. Must be a mother to unwrap the loom and find it? The 2003 CR trucks have a Figure to give a physical location but our FSM has N/S for "Not Shown". Mopar1973Man wiring diagram says "Near breakout for ECM " for S165 below so I think that is where we unwrap it. I would take that as in the bigger bundle before the ECM breakout and it is probably a crimp jobber prone to the corrosion of winter salt spray.

I went to 1999 FSM .pdf from downloads section and did an Adobe EDIT + "FIND" on "S165". It gave this: "S165 (Diesel) Engine Harness, Near Engine Control Module N/S" on page 8W-95-2, so I am guessing it is a ground wire on one of the bolts holding the ECM to the block. Could always take bolt out, wire brush it, put on dielectric grease and tighten back up. Block threads tend to rust with age. I asked a Dodge dealer mechanic whether he removes the fuel filter when changing the ECM. He said "No, makes too much mess with diesel all over the floor. I just get down in there." Perhaps he hangs his ankles from the ceiling?

You are right Michael as usual with your common sense logic. My own personal opinion is that it is the ground corrosion and perhaps some connector pin and socket corrosion that is appearing on these old trucks. It is easier to mask the problem with filters (or separate grounds) than it is to dig in and find the real actual cause. I would want a oscilloscope to find it and how many mechanics would have a lab quality scope? They do have some specialized scopes but they are not general purpose differential input lab scopes required to trace it down to a particular ground connection. Mopar made a mistake in not going to differential inputs until 4th gen. My career job as an electrical engineer was control of industrial boilers, paper machines, turbo generators etc. and we always used 4-20 ma loops to/from the computer for the I/O. Inputs always had a 250 ohm resistor so you got 1 to 5 volts at the differential input amplifier. Zero volts meant an open circuit. Just about fool proof but expensive. Optical isolators on input amplifiers meant you could withstand thousands of volts difference in ground potential when a substation transformer blew up and automatically shut down the chemical recovery boiler safely on UPS power. A truck has nowhere near the physical distance and therefore potential difference in grounds but it does justify differential amplifiers to cancel out common mode ground noise.

Ah Yes, there is a difference. The ECM on the diesel is directly connected to the APPS wiper on pin 25. Now note Pin 28 of the 50 pin ECM is an analogue OUT signal sent to pin 23 on the C1 connector on the PCM which is an analogue input which affects the 47RE shifting/lockup software. See wiring diagram 8W-30-39 in the 1999 FSM. In the gasser, the APPS is wired directly to the PCM and it functionally takes care of both engine power and transmission shifting with no need for the AO to AI connection ECM to PCM. CAN II Bus is too slow for software passing of this parameter - requires about 1/10 of a second updating response time. Cummins was responsible for all EPA certifications on the diesel while Mopar certifies their own gassers hence no ECM on the gas engines. The newer APPS in the redesigned 6.7 L has two APPS. Interestingly one puts out 1/2 the voltage of the other so that when they are subtracted you get 1/2 APPS Position. Just add one more bit to the A/D converter and you get the lost resolution back. I assume they are doing it this way to eliminate need for a negative voltage power supply which is the most unreliable component in a computer board due to electrolytic capacitors in a regulator circuit. Ah Yes, there is a difference. The ECM on the diesel is directly connected to the APPS wiper on pin 25. Now note Pin 28 of the 50 pin ECM is an analogue OUT signal sent to pin 23 on the C1 connector on the PCM which is an analogue input which affects the 47RE shifting/lockup software. See wiring diagram 8W-30-39 in the 1999 FSM. In the gasser, the APPS is wired directly to the PCM and it functionally takes care of both engine power and transmission shifting with no need for the AO to AI connection ECM to PCM. CAN II Bus is too slow for software passing of this parameter - requires about 1/10 of a second updating response time. Cummins was responsible for all EPA certifications on the diesel while Mopar certifies their own gassers hence no separate ECM on the gas engines. Functionally, this signal is exactly equivalent to the kick down cable that used to go to the transmission modulator lever in a mostly mechanical transmissions like the 618A or 47RH transmission. Our 47RE uses mechanical cable for gears 1 to 3 and computer software for gear 4 and TC lockup so I guess you would call it a hybrid. Dodge was always 20 years behind on this stuff but the transmission was reliable. The newer APPS pedal in the redesigned 6.7 L has two APPS. Interestingly one puts out 1/2 the voltage of the other so that when they are subtracted you get 1/2 APPS Position. Just add one more bit to the A/D converter and you get the lost resolution back. I assume they are doing it this way to eliminate need for a negative voltage power supply which is the most unreliable component in a computer board due to electrolytic capacitors in a regulator circuit. Cheaper than Military grade components I guess. Does this make sense?

I took a look at that 1996 gasser wiring diagram and was surprised there is same type TPS (throttle position sensor) but PCM does all functions of ECM diesel as well as tranny. PCM gets the TPS and fires the fuel injectors as banks of three or four (6 and 8 cyl.). Generator capacity and currents are probably half the that of a diesel though so ground resistance drops are less I would guess. Bet Mopar redesigned this from "single ended" to "differential noise cancellation" in later designs as well, like the diesel.

The above is the 3 phase rectifier bridge in the alternator. The green waveform is what you would see on an oscilloscope with no battery (or capacitance) . ie. the battery tends to store energy (voltage x current x time) between peaks which is why it is so important to have a good battery and good connection to lessen that AC ripple to Michael's 0.01 VAC. When doing this test it is important there is no big loads on the electrical system like grid heaters or headlights etc. The true measurement would be an oscilloscope waveform to diagnose the diodes since a bad(open) diodes makes one of the "1,2, or 3" waveforms go to zero. If the diode is shorted then it is worse as the voltage goes negative but heat usually burns it up and it fails open eventually. The problem is that this AC waveform eventually ends up on every point of ground resistance within the engine bay. That it is one reason it gets worse with age - rust. Mopars biggest mistake was not making the APPS input amplifier a "differential amplifier" with the ground noise cancelling out automatically (via subtraction as noise on two +- signals is identical as long as it is a twisted pair). They started doing that with new design in mid 2000's as I have seen two APPS right at the pedal and they do a subtraction of the two signals. I get away with a low pass filter of a capacitor and resistor to ground but everyone's situation may be different depending on ground rust and alternator condition. I also have a switch to disable lockup at any time which is good for saving wear and tear on lockup disk in the flat city driving and even though filter is adequate. I use a relay to open the lockup solenoid and and switch a resistor in instead - just to fool the PCM into thinking it is still a connected circuit and avoid limp mode on the tranny.

I agree it is not all that bad but I am slower than most others. I was so glad Michael warned against damaging spring loaded door since I had to chop foam off to fit evaporator again when joining the two heater box halves. I finally took the spring door out and made sure it fit together then put the spring door back in and bolted it up. Also, I should have dry sponged the wet foam seals with paper towel as I could smell antifreeze for a couple of weeks after and was worried I still had a leak. Many thanks to all advise on this site.

Many reports of bad experience on rebuilt ECMs so I would look at wrecker ECM. Very hard to test all components without "bed of nails" tester costing $100Kplus like Cummins would have. I used to program one. Look at my Dec 8, 2015 post for details on changing VIN etc on a wrecker one. So far so good. . I can give more info - just PM me.

Thanks Michael, that sure beats 100+ circuit diagrams in the FSM which I looked at but found so time consuming that I installed a noise filter instead. I had forgotten to look at your overview circuit diagram and will check the G115 ground termination to chassis when it stops snowing here. Sheet metal rust is a problem at 15 years. Also, it is in the body shop as truck was hit by someone on a cell phone while my truck was fully stopped at a red light. Ford Taurus was totaled and very little damage on mine. Went under the rear bumper and hit driver mud flap hard against driver rear tire. Good advertisement for Dodge. Fire Dept was there too and they swept up the Taurus rubble. Nobody was even scratched as one of the passerby's got too carried away calling ambulance and fire, then he set to directing traffic like Barny Fife until police chased him away.

I put a DVM on both DC and AC for ripple check. All good and the changed ECM is perfect with same alternator. I do know I have a corroded ground somewhere as I had to put a noise filter on the APPS signal to keep lockup TCfrom cycling at the 50 km/hr mark. I know I should find and fix grounds but the filter works well and I do not believe it had anything to do with the ECM fault.

My 2000 Ram gave codes P0606, P0121, & P0123 when temperature below about 20 DegF about three weeks ago and I knew P0606 was the death code for ECM. I had "dead pedal" after some surging but I could idle it fo 15 minutes and as the block warmed up it worked.I was somewhat surprised there is not a dealer ECM available for this truck in all of Canada and they are about $2,100 list for a REMAN that originates from Cummins. My only recourse was to buy a wrecker ECM but the Dodge expert mechanic assigned to software warned me the ECM VIN has to match the other modules or this leads to future problems with replacing other modules. He said he could not change VIN himself with DRBIII, StarScan, or current WiTech software tools from Chrysler Corp. I decided to do extensive research on the internet and realized the Smarty S03 was a powerful programming tool for the ECM and emailed Bob Wagner in MADD electronics on ability to change VIN. He wrote back that the "recovery procedure" will take the static program image in the ECM and pull the VIN from the ABS unit to recopy to the executable image in the ECM flash memory. I was all set to buy it at $800 but I already had the Puck and decided to talk to the Dodge mechanic again and relayed all I learned about the "recovery procedure" and that I planned to buy it. It was like a light bulb turned on but he did not say much except to "bring it in". Two days later the used ECM was in my truck and working perfectly but I never did get to talk to him again as dealers do not like the nonchargeable time. I can only guess that the DRBIII "recovery procedure" does exactly the same thing as the Smarty. My belief is that Dodge fortified their flash update software so that only blank ECM's could be flashed with fresh software unless there is a TSB for new software update outstanding. This was done to ensure only Dodge supplied parts could be used. Cummins has the ECM on a "restricted status" (CumminsQuickServe online) and only Chrysler Corp can buy them. By the way I still have the old ECM and I believe the +5 volt supply to the APPS was the cause of the fault. The power supply circuit to regulate battery voltage to +5 volts is usually only a 3 terminal chip like the LM7805 regulator (Texas Inst) but requires an electrolytic capacitor on input and output terminal to ground. These electrolytics are the most unreliable components on the board and heat of an engine block ages it exponentially faster. I may make an attempt to fix it but surface mount boards usually require special equipment due to small spacing. By the way you can get a free account on Cummins QuickServe and it will cross reference any Cummins engine number to the Dodge VIN and visa versa, which is great when looking at wrecker engine parts to make sure options are same like the 47RE. I took the donor VIN to the dealer to make sure options matched. If you want to see all the Cummins part numbers (and superseded numbers) for your truck just enter one known Cummins part number on the "XReference" entry and ALL the rest will show with a diagram! You will get a list of engine vintages but choose one closest and before your build date.

I have been absent on this for several years but decided to look at the the design of the 2010 APPS since Dodge is bound to fix the problem in the newer design. Looking at page 14-125 of 2010 FSM they mention two APPS on the accelerator pedal with one APPS 1/2 the voltage of the other. Then the circuit diagram on page 8W-30-24 shows the two APPS wired to the ECM. I could not find the Theory of Operation on this but I guess that they have a "differential amplifier" in the ECU that takes the difference (differential amplifier) of the two signals such that equal noise on both signals cancels out. They use the 1/2 voltage route since a MINUS 5 Volt supply would otherwise be required for the second APPS. The noise would be equal on both signals for any ground resistance but usually twisted pair wire is used so that any induced noise is also exactly equal and also cancels out. Telephone companies have all used that for 100 years or more. 2nd generation owners obviously can not go to this extent so we are limited to noise filters, wrapping wire bundles in aluminum foil, adding beefier grounds, and making sure alternator diodes are all good. Whatever works for your situation. I use the noise filter(2010) and I had to double my capacitor value after four years to make it work again for me(2014). I could not see the APPS signal passed onto the PCM (transmission shifting) as hardwired so I assume the Can Bus and processors are faster so that it cal be passed on digitally over the serial link. Dodge designers seemed to be more worried about ground noise than induce crosstalk - no twisted pair. With no need for a down shift cable to the 68RE all electronic transmission they got rid of all cables - throttle and downshift.

I have had the Diablo puck for 4 years and I find it great for an automatic since it brings up the torque and power to just below the capability of my 47RE automatic plus the timing advance improves mileage 2 mpg plus much less downshifting due to torque increase with less pedal push. The truck was totally woken up from being a doddler! The lack of power increase you see is either due to throwing a code or not enough turbo boost pressure. I had to modify my waste gate with an adjustable "boost elbow" that opens waste gate later (by bleeding actuator air) than stock. Alternately, use a "J hook with spring" to assist closure of waste gate linkage mechanically. The engine computer wants a certain air pressure in order to add fuel. Mine was actually throwing a code and going into limp mode = low power due to a closed stuck waste gate and a cheap $40 code reader found it. The problem was a seized linkage joint. Remember the ECM goes into limp mode around 25 psi of boost and will set an over boost code when it happens. Buy a reader and make sure you have a boost gauge plus exhaust temperature (before turbo) gauge. Buy that code reader so you can see what is happening! You probably have Princess Auto in Quebec so that is where I got mine on sale.

Mike, I saw your video where you disconnect the coolant temperature and the oil pressure dips and I believe I see what is happening. As you no doubt know the PCM is the communications master for the ECM, timer module, ABS, and Instrument cluster via serial communications and is very taxed for processing power being it was a 1998 design. In 1998.5 Dodge had numerous re-flashes because lack of timely communication servicing between computers causing the instrument cluster (mostly serial communication rather than individual wiring) to go to zero indication and sound alarm. All works good now for no faults on the I/O but even a single bad input can send the software into a fault handling subroutine that slows the scanning cycle and cause the symptoms you see on the oil gauge. They even have a dealer notification telling the owners the +-50 RPM fluctuation on the tach is due to this problem of "not updating in a timely fashion". I think the oil gauge is fairly accurate as long as there is no outstanding I/O faults. I think Dodge even used a simple on/off switch (rather than analog voltage) to make the oil gauge read 60% in a future model year so owners would not complain so much but owners were just not that dumb. When I first got my 2000 CTD the auto transmission drove me crazy in the city locking and unlocking the torque converter so I put in a dash switch to interrupt the TC lockup solenoid coil and drive unlocked in the city all the time. To my surprise I set a code in the transmission causing "limp mode" where it went second gear with full hydraulic pressure (harsh). I was surprised that it sensed the open circuit and went limp mode since my 1997 had this work okay with the simple switch. With the 2000 I had use a relay to switch in a resistor that looked like the coil impedance and sort of fool the computer digital output current checking. The bottom line is there are many many ways to set a code in this setup that can be difficult to track never mind spawning spurious computer glitches that appear to affect the instrument cluster. Must drive dealer mechanics nuts.

One thing about brake drag is it is easy to diagnose since it has to produce heat to be significant. After driving at least ten miles without using brakes too much just pull over and feel each brake rotor and drum for heat. Just touch the wheel rim first to make sure your fingers do not get burned. Usually you can smell the boiling brake fluid if real bad. You can buy an infrared heat gun for about $20 these days which makes it real easy to compare left/right sides.

I am betting that ground wire from the alternator case to the battery terminal is the real problem solver as a ground path through rusty mounting bolts is not sound engineering on a possible 130 amp noise source. You could always try disconnecting at the battery terminal temporaily to confirm if you have the time and desire?