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hey guys this is going in crap bucket but i need help with my truck, like the title says its a 2001 ram 1500 2wd with a 5.2 and automatic. the problem im having is its developed a backfire and miss when it gets up into higher rpms. i was passing a car today and it done it real bad when the truck downshifted and reached about 4300 rpms. also when it starts missing and all that crap the check engine light starts flashing. i dont have a code reader but im tryin to find somebody with one thats not gona charge me $75 just to hook it up

Autozone used to scan for free but won't clear codes; jiffy lube also. Older 5.2s had a problem with the dist gear being soft and mushrooming - it would cause the timing to shift back and forth. Sticking vac advance could cause that too. Don't discount the dist pickup - they have a high fail rate. Hope this helps Russ.

Autozone will scan free and allow the "owner" to erase, but they won't erase the codes... That'd be my first stop!

thanks rob and rusty, either way im gonna change out that dist gear. ill have to drive 45 minutes to go to autozone but that aint no big deal. hopefully i can get something figured out there

Advanced, O'reileys, or Autozone. They all have scanners.

went to autozone and the codes that came back said my O2 sensor was out and the fuel pump wasnt working right, so now i gotta spend $230 on a fuel pump and drop a pump in it but everybody i talk to says the O2 sensors on those trucks wont affect the way it runs, it has been throwing the code for the O2 sensor since i bought the truck 2 years ago and hasnt affected it but the fuel pump code has never came up untill now. also when i got home i pulled the distrib out and the gear and the distributor have been replaced so the gear problem is already fixed for me. thanks again for the help guys

well rusty idk these trucks very well but at work i once had a truck run like crap at high rpms and then it would fluctuate from driving fine to like crap. then the fuel trim counts were reading at the max or the minimum and the engine was trying to compensate by adding and subtracting fuel, codes were being set left and right and it turned out that it was an O2 sensor.. chanegd it out... ran fine ever since. so yes an o2 sensor can make an engine run like bawls

did i say rusty? i meant russ lol

russ,,,, i have a 96 withe the 5.9 gas. i have4 hed several problems with the ecu and the coils are known for shorting out too. in fact i just put a junkyard ecu in about 2 weeks ago and it was $35 form the junkyard. as far as the distributor that too is an issue. i bet you had fun on that one........dont you just love the "cab forward" design. you can barley see the distributor let alone work on it lol.....

yeah tye that sucked badly but i got it handled and if id known it had already been replaced i woulda never pulled it out, better safe then sorry eh? anyways on a good note, the fuel pump fixed my problem but i also had to put a new cap and rotor in it. changed the O2 sensor on "bank 1" and the truck is runnin like a scalded ape now