dead pedal 98.5

[Perkins64]

My first post here, hello! I am having a dead pedal issue with my 98.5 24V 4x4 2500 5spd, which I bought new, has 183K miles now.Earlier in the year, the dead pedal was accompanied by the check engine light and codes, and I replaced the MAP sensor to fix the issue. I believe the cause may have been related to a fuel leak from the fuel heater grommet, and saturated the MAP sensor plug after a hauling trip to NM when I was pushing more fuel out. I removed the fuel heater and plugged the grommet hole.About mid year, I "fixed" the 5th gear nut issue, I disconnected my batteries before wire welding the nut to the shaft (laughs or applauses insert here). I have never had to reset the apps after replacing or disconnecting batteries. My recent dead pedal (DP) issues started up right after the 5th gear nut fix 2 months ago. I tried several apps resets with no luck. The DP seemed to occur right after startup, and would clear out if I turned the ignition off and restarted the engine. My typical daily drive is 8.3 miles to work, 5 miles arond town at lunch, and 8.3 home. When I leave work, the DP occurs again, I shut off ignition and restart. I have checked for codes but none appear on the scan tool.After much reading (but no testing), I decided to replace the APPS. I was not able to get into the voltage range .533 ~ .670, mine is at .692, not sure if that is an issue? My gut now tells me the old OEM APPS was fine.On the highway, IH 10 to San Antonio, the pedal will go dead maybe one time. I can shift to neutral, rev it once, and shift back into gear and the DP goes away. I set out last week to GA with a good size load on a 2 car hauler, drove about 40 miles into SATX, and the DP started up with frequency. I headed to a nearby parking lot to check APPS voltage and try to adjust it....still at .692. Test drive, DP again, headed home with the load.I will try to clean the IAT sensor this evening. Any other suggestions are appreaciated. THE VP-44 was replaced at around 120K, and I installed a fuel pressure gauge, still running the stock on the block lift pump, fuel pressure reads normal.Sorry to be long winded on first post, just want to lay all the cards out. My other truck is perhaps one of the earliest Dodge Diesels in the US. 1964 Dodge W300 Power Wagon Crew Cab with a factory installed 6.354 Perkins. It has never had dead pedal - LOL - it has a hand throttle as well.

[diesel4life]

Does this dead pedal seem temperature related? No engine codes? Which APPS did you buy? I have seen VP's give out random dead pedals before....How about some pics of the 64 when you get some time?

[dripley]

What is your normal fuel pressure? Idle and WOT. And X2 on the pics.

[Perkins64]

What is your normal fuel pressure? Idle and WOT. And X2 on the pics.

What is WOT? under load? Here is a write up on my 1964 PW300CC, scroll down about 1/2 way: http://www.sweptline.com/hist/bigtrucks.html

[dripley]

What is WOT? under load? Here is a write up on my 1964 PW300CC, scroll down about 1/2 way: http://www.sweptline.com/hist/bigtrucks.html

Yes on the WOT, wide open throttle. The reason I ask is many years ago i had the same issue as you with the dead pedal. Cruising down the highway, with or with out my 5th wheel, bam the throttle would drop to idle. Sometimes with a cel and sometimes not. Kill the ignition and restart and all would be fine until the next occurrence. I really did not know much about the vehicle at the time and took it to a recommended diesel shop in Maryland where I was working. They found no codes and did not know what was wrong. The only thing they found was very low fuel pressure. I had recently had an in tank pump installed by the dealer when the oe crapped out. IIRC i was having the dead pedal before and after that install. Anyway I installed a booster pump from BD diesel on the frame rail and got the pressure up 17 or 18 pounds at idle and I never had dead pedal again. This might not be your issue but it cured mine. That is a very unique truck you have there. Do you still work with it or is it just a show piece?

[Perkins64]

Yes on the WOT, wide open throttle. The reason I ask is many years ago i had the same issue as you with the dead pedal. Cruising down the highway, with or with out my 5th wheel, bam the throttle would drop to idle. Sometimes with a cel and sometimes not. Kill the ignition and restart and all would be fine until the next occurrence. I really did not know much about the vehicle at the time and took it to a recommended diesel shop in Maryland where I was working. They found no codes and did not know what was wrong. The only thing they found was very low fuel pressure. I had recently had an in tank pump installed by the dealer when the oe crapped out. IIRC i was having the dead pedal before and after that install. Anyway I installed a booster pump from BD diesel on the frame rail and got the pressure up 17 or 18 pounds at idle and I never had dead pedal again. This might not be your issue but it cured mine. That is a very unique truck you have there. Do you still work with it or is it just a show piece?

Thanks for the reply. On the fuel pressure, I have not really seen any low readings on my gauge, but I am sure an Air Dog, etc, is really needed in the near future. As for the 1964 PW300CC, I still use it occasionally, but it needs some $$ and time thrown at it, which I seem to be short of. It always fires right up. I am hesitant to completely restore the truck, and patina seems to be acceptable and prefered, esp with a very rare original vehicle. Like to find a patina same color bed for it. I would consider it likely as the rarest vintage 4x4 in the US, and most fuel efficient. The W300s are really a borderline light ~ medium duty truck, and this one has many features that were only found on the mediums and not even shown as an option to the W300. As equipped, it cost more that a new Corvette or Cadillac back in its day. Kinda the grandad/concept to todays popular Crew Cab Diesel 4x4s.

[diesel4life]

Nice truck! Did you write the article? When I was in school I had a friend whose dad owned a Salvage yard. Someone had brought in a totaled 63 or 64 crew cab with a Perkins engine in it. Instead of scrapping it he hung onto it for several years with the intentions of finding another truck to put the drive train in but it never happened. He passed on and the salvage yard went by the way side so I'm not even sure what happened with it. I'm pretty sure it was an original truck, it had diesel fuel labels on it and one or two other tell tale signs, although it is possible someone did a conversion on it at one point. After reading your article I'm not so sure that it was original. Sorry for swaying off topic, and welcome to the forum!Back to my original question, does this at all seem like its temperature related? By that I mean engine temp.JR

[Perkins64]

Nice truck! Did you write the article? When I was in school I had a friend whose dad owned a Salvage yard. Someone had brought in a totaled 63 or 64 crew cab with a Perkins engine in it. Instead of scrapping it he hung onto it for several years with the intentions of finding another truck to put the drive train in but it never happened. He passed on and the salvage yard went by the way side so I'm not even sure what happened with it. I'm pretty sure it was an original truck, it had diesel fuel labels on it and one or two other tell tale signs, although it is possible someone did a conversion on it at one point. After reading your article I'm not so sure that it was original. Sorry for swaying off topic, and welcome to the forum! Back to my original question, does this at all seem like its temperature related? By that I mean engine temp. JR

The WOT is 7, 12 at idle. Dp does not seem temp related. I used the Genos APPS unit, which appeared to be the same as the TIMBO. I cleaned and tested the IAT sensor last night, while cooking dinner - LOL! I did a freezer/armpit/oven test and it appears to function properly using an OHMeter. I am now reading about the alternator wire to the ECM, and the noise issue. Probably try wrapping the wire with another wire as an insulator back to ECM, as I am reading, to see if it could be an issue. The DP seems to occur with daily regularity upon startup. I provided the info on the Perkins W300 to the site owner. The 6.354/T6.354 was a very popular conversion engine for Chevy, International, Ford, and Dodges, usually accompanied by a Spicer Brownie auxiliary UD/DD/OD trans. It was an expensive engine ($5K) in 1980 for example. Some folks bought brand new trucks, and immediately had the conversions done. Dodge offered the engine starting in 1962 in the C/D 500-600 medium truck 2wd line. I owned a 1966 PC500 like this. It may be off topic, but the Cummins connection (IMHO) is this: the very popular 6.354 and 4.236 had a huge market share that Cummins was certainly aware of. The 6BT and 4BT are nearly the exact CID sizes, and Cummins stole away a top Perkins engineer. I won't say they outright copied Perkins, but certainly wanted to and burst into that niche market for light diesels. The easiest way to document an original is to see if the data tag reads special at the HP at RPM rating, and if the 3rd spot of the VIN reads "6" for 6 cyl. It would have several diesel related decals as well. My truck had a diesel fender emblem under the Dodge emblem with matching stencil. Dodge continued to build the 61-71 Sweptline style for the South American market up to 1980, and many of those trucks are 4.236 and 6.354 powered. How do you post pics?

[diesel4life]

What kind of code reader are you using? ISome of the cheaper models may not pull codes from the ecm....I have seen a VP cause dead pedal, usually at a certain RPM when maintaining the same throttle position for an extended time, or when the engine was below 140*. Normally the dead pedal could be temporarily "cured" by shutting the truck down and restarting, or letting off the throttle to allow to return to idle, then get back into the throttle. Just to give you some references.JR