Thursday, October 31st, 2013 AT 2:45 PM
Greetings, I have an 1989 Dodge ram custom conversion van that I bought a few years back from the original owner. She only had about 87,000 original miles on her because she sat in one place a lot, he used it for camping only. I bought her 3 or 4 years back and after I took care of several issues, belts, hoses, plugs, wires, a/c system and pump, EGR pump, etc, she has been running like a champ and I really enjoy her. However, I have had an issue with the plugs fouling because she burns oil, so I generally have to replace them about once a year when she starts to run a little rough and that has solved the problem in the past. This time though, when I replaced the plugs (because of rough idle), I test drove her, she performed like a champ, took her on the freeway for a good 30 min. Test drive and everything was good. The rough idle was gone and she picked up and went really well as she always had. I took her home, parked her, the idle was smooth, life was good. Then when I went to start her this morning she almost wouldn't start, idled really rough, stalled at stop lights, became really hard to re-start, blows smoke and broke my heart. I have no idea what could have happened to her just being parked overnight to make her run so miserably. Any ideas? I am leaning perhaps toward a vacuum problem (as most of the rubber in her, when I bought her, was bad from sitting so much before I bought her.) And I have not replaced the vacuum tubing? And would that really make her run so horribly? I really would appreciate ANY suggestions or help anyone can offer. I am a little desperate as I am far from home (so I don't have all my tools, just a small set I carry in her for emergencies.) And light on cash. Thank you in advance for any help anyone can offer. PLEASE HELP! I'm stranded and it's my birthday.
