My electrical gorilla

[dripley]

This is a long story and I will try not to be long winded. This really started long before I became a member here and before my ECM crapped out so bare with me.. About 6 years after buying the truck my ECT just fell out. Very typical of a failed t stat. Thru the years and many t stats plus a couple sensors and radiator caps, most recently replaced them all again three weeks ago.Even sent one to @Mopar1973Man packed in one dollars and it worked fine for him. After installing a cheap Suncoast gauge from Auto Zone under the hood and it mostly told the engine temp was good. Something in the wiring. I hare wiring.

 

About three years ago I started experiencing some surging in the engine, at idle and you could feel it under light throttle. It would pop some APPS codes during these episodes. Occasionally it would rev up to near 10% and pop a 0222 code and go to a dead pedal. I would have to pull off the road and wait for the pedal to come back. I did some diagnostics and it all pointed to the APPS. Had a Timbo and just did not want to but another without knowing for sure. So I bought a cheapy off ebay for 16 bucks. Installed it and sure enough no surging. So I bit the bullet and bought a new Timbo. Put it on and every thing was good for about 5 minutes and the surging was back. I put the cheapie back on and no surging, but soon after it popped a 0222 code but still drove just fine. Cleared the code many times but always came back as soon as I started the engine. I got worried about it and put the Timbo back in and learned to live with it. Not the best way to handle for sure but it is what I did. 

 

Fast forward to about 4 months ago and all this started getting out hand. My engine temp was down to levels I have never seen. A few times I watched it drop from 170 to 135 on the scan gauge at the snap of finger. Surging was getting worse and the cruise was going wacky. Some days the surging was crazy and it would pop the 222 code, dead pedal, and then the cruise would not turn on until the engine would surge again. Just whacky behavior. The engine was throw codes and the 4 seem to repeat themselves. 236, 237, 121, 222. The 236 seemed to be the first one of the 4 to pop. Not sure why but that how it was happening. I remember posting about this before and IIRC @Mopar1973Man said something to me about checking the MAP sensor harness or sensor not sure which now. But I did still have my OE MAP sensor from when the ECM crapped out on me so I figure I would put it in one day and see what would happen.

 

Fast forward to today. I figured I would stick that MAP sensor in before heading back to Maryland. Pretty simple right. Well when backing the new one out I dropped the socket with the sensor in it and never heard it hit the ground. Should not be a problem beings it was a 1 1/16" deepwell socket with a sensor sticking out of it. It fell back in behind the starter and took me 30 minutes to find it. Not to mention its about 98* outside and 85% humidity and I am sweating like pig but did finally find it. Installed the old one and while trying to plug the harness on I broke the connector off of the MAP sensor. Guess it got brittle over the years who knows. Any way I put the old one back in and I am soaked in sweat and tired of F'ing with it all.

  

I just drove 450 miles with no surging and temp gauge that read normal all the way up here. It swung between 190 and 195 the whole way. I have not seen that on my dash in 10 years. I am amazed but not sure how the MAP and the ECT are interconnected at the MAP harness.

 

Anyway I am as happy as a mule eating briers but figure this will come back one day and need to figure out how this happened.

 

Any thoughts are appreciated. So much for no long windedness but if I had told the whole story I would still be type for another hour.