smelonas

The purpose of this thread, at least in its infancy, is to document what is happening and my plans of action to fix it. I feel like its a 'rare' problem (in that I cant find another thread with the exact same issue), it is certainly unique! As of the day of this rambling, the truck is just under 114k miles. 2001 2500, auto, stock, 4x4, loaded, etc.. Previously I had a thread wherein my grandpa still owned the truck and he was having the usual TC/OD issues. Never really did figure out what was causing that as the descriptions I had to work with were challenging at best, but I did the TPS signal wire TEE mod earlier this year, or whatever its called, from the TPS directly to the PCM and ECM. That fixed the TC/OD issue, plus it cleaned up the shifting. Definitely recommend that to anyone who hasnt done it! Also had an issue with the cruise surging heavily pretty much all the time. I believe that was because of the hole in the vacuum line, some heat shrink over the tube fixed that up real quick. But now, I am having an issue wherein the throttle just has a mind of its own occasionally. Typically only after the vehicle has been ran and heat soaked pretty well, or has sat for a minute, shut off, and restarted. It does not always act goofy and just randomly start accelerating once it is hot. It does it sporadically. At the same time, the throttle becomes EXTREMELY sensitive. No exaggeration, if you just move the pedal a millimeter or even just rest your foot on the pedal, the RPMs will get all sorts of goofy. Its pretty wild. When the truck accelerates by itself, it will typically pop up a CEL immediately (P1693, which is actually a P0121), and occasionally the pedal will go dead after one of these episodes. Press the pedal a time or two, almost like a relearn, and it usually works fine for a bit. usually a half mile up the road it will do some goofy stuff again. This repeats until the truck cools for some time. With the premise being set with the issue, I am fairly certain this is an APPS issue. This truck has not been ran hard ever. It has pulled 5th wheels, but RPMs were always kept below 2k. All that to say, I dont think its the VP. Truck runs great, plenty of power, etc. My first action is going to be to install a spare Mopar APPS that I have (I want a TIMBO, but until I know for sure, it will wait). I believe it is the original, as G-pa had the dealer put on a new one back in, 2019/2020. I would have to check his records. I suspect that the APPS is the issue, so this thread might only be 3 posts long. If that does not fix the issue, my next step will be to monitor signal voltages while driving as well as APPS % in Torque and see if I can catch a discrepancy. Feel free to follow as I keep my truck from driving off by itself.

I have nothing that's points to a misadjusted TV cable. AC noise was within spec. I dont think its hanging in gear, I'd have to drive it to know. But by his account it wasnt doing anything unordinary and he seemed to be thrilled about it not constantly burping in and out of lockup. I consider this case closed until he drives it more. He maybe goes through 3 or 4 tanks a year. Cant really says it's fixed until it gets more miles, but for now, it's how I'm calling it. Trust me when I say I will certainly be the first person to know if it starts any odd symptoms again. If anything does come up, I will consider the OD housing OSS. At least pull it and clean it.. Truck only has 96k original miles. But again, they weren't built very well to begin with. Even though the 47s seems to stand up electronic wise better than the 48s. There might not be any truth to that statement just see a ton of 48s with electrical issues. Thanks again!

So, to wrap this thread up.. Grandpa got the timbo apps and installed it. Took it for a shortish drive, but nonetheless a drive and when it downshifted it stayed in that gear. He knows technical but sometimes he doesnt talk in it, hard to say exactly what it did. But he seems happy and is truck apparently back to 'normal'. Still pondering the fuel pump upgrade but hes going to run it and keep an eye on it for now. Will update if anything else comes up. Thank you again for your help guys. And a big shootout to MM1973 himself for allowing us to convene in this microcosm and talk about these silly trucks.

I was just looking at APPS prices. Yeah, timbo, definitely the way to go it seems. I dont think grandpa needs a whole new bracket and sensor and everything else haha. Im going to weigh the options tonight/tomorrow and figure out a game plan for the old boy. Thanks so much for the help guys, Ill try and keep this updated and let yall know the results!

Well, my only thing is, I am in a drag race to get packed and moved in the next few days, so unfortunately I wont be able to trouble shoot this thing further. I simply dont have the time to. Which sucks. But thankfully I narrowed down some of the other things that just about any shop would overlook. Thankfully money isnt a BIG issue, he just wants it to run right, so Im probably just going to tell him to take it to a shop and have them replace the APPS. He cant do it, or wouldnt want to at least(83 years old), so it ends up being his only option. After that, Ill have to just work with him to diagnose it further if it doesnt fix it.

Sorry for not posting more info about truck. Im used to mine being the only one that ever needs help.. Perks of owning a dodge. HEHEHE ANYWAY, Ill edit first post to show the info on the truck. I will also state it here. Truck is a 2001 dodge ram 2500 4x4 Cummins, 47RE, Stocker than the share market. I understand that the APPS is an extremely critical piece to this mystery. It was one thought I had when I was pondering the TCC issues after a false assumption of excessive AC noise. My guess is that he is experiencing dead pedal. Moving the pedal position would move the sensor to a different potentiometer position(i think thats how these work?..?) which would trigger it to 'wake' up. And of course if the truck receiving a hazy APPS signal it will bounce back and forth between TCC lock and unlock. Ill look into the fuel pump thing. Ive heard that in stock applications that 8psi is the target number. Thankfully it doesnt drop to zero, but it sure gets real close.. Problem with all this is that i am moving away, so his free, honest, knowledgeable diagnostics are also leaving. Thanks everyone so far. I have been stalking this place for about a year or more, with CF the way it is, Its dumb. Im looking forward to poking around in the third gen section!

New here, but not new to dodges. Some of you will probably know me from CF. My grandpas truck, 2001 Cummins 47RE and completely stock, spent all day working on it, various things, but I did some diagnostics and thats why I am here. Ill start with the gear hunting issue first. I tested AC noise. has about 0.03V, which is 'acceptable' apparently. Okay. Had no real way to log the truck while driving, I dont have a snap on scanner or similar to watch APPS and other parameters that might effect TCC operation. This diagnosis was kind of a dead end. Mostly I wanted to identify AC noise and go from there, which I did. Issue seems to become more prevalent as you drive the truck. For the first 15 minutes of operation, it runs fine. No hunting, perfect. Once you settle between 32 and 37mph with light throttle she hunts, same between 47 and 55. randomly kicks in and out of TCC. Any pointers or help here would be great. Fuel pressure. LOL 8psi at idle and a very lazy pump that struggled to bring gauge needle up when I bumped the starter. Pressure dropped to 2-3psi at WOT, or less maybe.. Obviously the pump is the OEM in tank pump, which is useless. Is there a good aftermarket drop in pump for in tank pump conversion that was done? FASS and airdog come to mind. I read about the FASS DDRP for the block mount replacement and was hoping I could get input on that. A conversion back to that would probably suit him just fine as the truck is lucky to see 5k miles a year. But Im not even sure if thats wise or stupid or what, you tell me. The random occuring fuel cutoff.. This is a tough one because I dont know how to describe it because I have never been in the truck when it happens. Ill explain it the way grandpa did. Cruising down the road, pedaling(cruise never gets used ever), doing between 70 and 80 and for no reason it just cuts off. Almost like the FSS or whatever the VP44 has, gets turned to the fuel off position. Hold pedal in same position and truck just coasts, give a juice of throttle and she comes back to life and then goes down the road just fine. Only happens randomly and fuel filtration is no real issue because I have a BF7977 in the stock canister. Ive searched for a couple years about the fuel cutoff issue(been happening since 2016), and I have never found anything similar. No codes in the dash either. Truck runs really strong, italian tune up didnt really make it run better, so the truck is healthy but it just has some random issue with it. First time posting to M1973M, looking forward to joining this engaging forum. CF was/is getting... yeah.