Garage sale find

So, i find this little Dodge Ram 50 2. 0 truck at a sale for 250 bucks.
It ran fine when i test drove it, saw no appearance of leaks and the
smoking the guy said it does was minimal so i bought it to use for
delivering pizzas as i do. First night i take it out, i cant get away
from my first stop, get a push finally and pop the clutch and i am okay
and trade vehicles for the rest of the night. Change out the battery
and try it another night and it does mostly fine except that it used a
little under a half of a tank in only 63 miles! Very little power in
this hilly town i live in so i was having to go as low as 1st and 2nd
gear to climb. Got in it to come home and it barely got me here kind
of like the idle had fallen down. It would restart and i would have to
really play between the gas and clutch to keep it going at every stop.
Changed plugs, wires, cap and rotor and it wont restart. Made sure i
have the right order, still nothing. Checked the fire on the coil wire
to find very little spark and changed out the coil, still nothing. It
turns over good but doesnt start. A neighbor friend was trying to help
me something about removing the first plug and checking compression?
He said he could barely feel anything as i tried bumping the ignition.
Would anyone explain that? What i do know, i am proud of being able to
do but i dont claim to understand it all. I am attempting to switch
out the fuel filter now if i could just get the dang clips off. We did
spray starting fluid in the carb while trying to start as he said that
would bypass filter and it wouldnt matter but still nothing. Can
anyone help??? Thank you in advance. Mileage shows at 86 thou
something but i am sure that has been rolled over at least once for an
84 model.

Sounds like you need to go get a cheap compression tester before you
waste any more money. It might not have enough compression to start
easy which can soak the plugs down with gas which floods it.

Mike
86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00
88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's
Canadian Off Road Trips Photos: Non members can still view!
Jan/06 http://www.imagestation.com/album/pi...?id=2115147590
(More Off Road album links at bottom of the view page)


galwithamonkeywrench wrote:
>
> So, i find this little Dodge Ram 50 2. 0 truck at a sale for 250 bucks.
> It ran fine when i test drove it, saw no appearance of leaks and the
> smoking the guy said it does was minimal so i bought it to use for
> delivering pizzas as i do. First night i take it out, i cant get away
> from my first stop, get a push finally and pop the clutch and i am okay
> and trade vehicles for the rest of the night. Change out the battery
> and try it another night and it does mostly fine except that it used a
> little under a half of a tank in only 63 miles! Very little power in
> this hilly town i live in so i was having to go as low as 1st and 2nd
> gear to climb. Got in it to come home and it barely got me here kind
> of like the idle had fallen down. It would restart and i would have to
> really play between the gas and clutch to keep it going at every stop.
> Changed plugs, wires, cap and rotor and it wont restart. Made sure i
> have the right order, still nothing. Checked the fire on the coil wire
> to find very little spark and changed out the coil, still nothing. It
> turns over good but doesnt start. A neighbor friend was trying to help
> me something about removing the first plug and checking compression?
> He said he could barely feel anything as i tried bumping the ignition.
> Would anyone explain that? What i do know, i am proud of being able to
> do but i dont claim to understand it all. I am attempting to switch
> out the fuel filter now if i could just get the dang clips off. We did
> spray starting fluid in the carb while trying to start as he said that
> would bypass filter and it wouldnt matter but still nothing. Can
> anyone help??? Thank you in advance. Mileage shows at 86 thou
> something but i am sure that has been rolled over at least once for an
> 84 model.

you may even want to check your plugs position and make sure every single
one isnt 1 slot off all the way around, know what I mean? They can be in the
right order, but 1 hole off, eh, will cause some issues. Make sure #1 plug
fires at #1's compression max. It ran before you changed all that , right?
Your compression is defintely worth a check, as mentioned, since she's
smoking.

my .04



"Mike Romain" > wrote in message
...
> Sounds like you need to go get a cheap compression tester before you
> waste any more money. It might not have enough compression to start
> easy which can soak the plugs down with gas which floods it.
>
> Mike
> 86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00
> 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's
> Canadian Off Road Trips Photos: Non members can still view!
> Jan/06 http://www.imagestation.com/album/pi...?id=2115147590
> (More Off Road album links at bottom of the view page)
>
>
> galwithamonkeywrench wrote:
>>
>> So, i find this little Dodge Ram 50 2. 0 truck at a sale for 250 bucks.
>> It ran fine when i test drove it, saw no appearance of leaks and the
>> smoking the guy said it does was minimal so i bought it to use for
>> delivering pizzas as i do. First night i take it out, i cant get away
>> from my first stop, get a push finally and pop the clutch and i am okay
>> and trade vehicles for the rest of the night. Change out the battery
>> and try it another night and it does mostly fine except that it used a
>> little under a half of a tank in only 63 miles! Very little power in
>> this hilly town i live in so i was having to go as low as 1st and 2nd
>> gear to climb. Got in it to come home and it barely got me here kind
>> of like the idle had fallen down. It would restart and i would have to
>> really play between the gas and clutch to keep it going at every stop.
>> Changed plugs, wires, cap and rotor and it wont restart. Made sure i
>> have the right order, still nothing. Checked the fire on the coil wire
>> to find very little spark and changed out the coil, still nothing. It
>> turns over good but doesnt start. A neighbor friend was trying to help
>> me something about removing the first plug and checking compression?
>> He said he could barely feel anything as i tried bumping the ignition.
>> Would anyone explain that? What i do know, i am proud of being able to
>> do but i dont claim to understand it all. I am attempting to switch
>> out the fuel filter now if i could just get the dang clips off. We did
>> spray starting fluid in the carb while trying to start as he said that
>> would bypass filter and it wouldnt matter but still nothing. Can
>> anyone help??? Thank you in advance. Mileage shows at 86 thou
>> something but i am sure that has been rolled over at least once for an
>> 84 model.