Long time since I posted, been running fine but...... my fuel shutoff soleniod has been acting up. A couple times last week I had to turn on the key, reach in the engine compartment and lift the soleniod rod up. Hold on was ok. Started an ran. Now today had to lift it every time I started it. Cleaned and checked wires from battery, looks good but no change. I was wondering, before I try a new relay, there is 1 black wire, 1 red wire and 1 white wire coming from the harness to the soleniod. Can I run a jumper wire from the battery to the lift wire to see if the soleniod is still good? If so which wire is the lift wire. Which one for hold on? And I presume black is ground. Or would I fry my soleniod should it be good? And can a going bad relay work sometimes and then not others or can the soleniod act that way before it dies? Appreciate any advice. And as always, thankyou for such a great site!!

 

They are known to get rusted..

 

That and the rubber boot splits and can interfere w/the plunger. I would think that you could use a jumper from the battery to check it. Let us know what you find.
Floyd

 

I basically had the same problem. I remove the solenoid ( two bolts. connector, small linkage). I cleaned the unit really well. I thought my relay was going at first. It turned out to be fine. I did go to the local freight liner parts and got a 70 amp relay to have as a spare. I made a replacement boot but ultimately just ordered one from Genos. I have not had an issue since.
Don't order a relay from Parts America or Napa Auto. I did at first and it turned out to be the fuel heater relay. They list it as a shut off relay, wrong. Genos also sells the relay. The dealer will soak you for about $70.00.
There are many posts regarding this issue, you might just do a search.

 

dieselpwrRam, I checked Geno's relay and it is way less $ but it's only half of the relay that I have. My question, is the other half of the relay on my truck for something else? I just drill out rivet on mine and replace only the half with what Geno's has? If thats the case I'll do that.

 

OK. Called Gino's to order relay and they told me the other half of that relay is the starter relay so................$19.90 Good price on relay. NAPA wanted $55.00. Double checked with NAPA and the heater relay is a different part.

 

Hope the relay solves your problem. The one other thing, and there are posts regarding this, is check for corrosion and continuity of the fuse link off the battery. Some had problems with it. Mine was in good shape.
I remember my A/C with an intermittent problem due to a relay. The clutch would not engage every time when the A/C was turned on. I replaced it and never had a problem since.

 

I did alot of reading on fusable links. Seems some have even had to go back into the harness 6 or 8 inches from the fuse link only to find a corroded wire that had several wire strands bad and only a few good, which would not pass enough voltage for the lift coil. Also read of some opening up their relay and cleaning contacts for a temp. fix untill they got their new one. Will probably remove and clean the solenoid just to do it for experience. Hopefuly just a relay will actually fix mine.

 

I just went through this same situation. After replacing the relays with a set from Dodge (Starter/fuel cutoff relay set) problem was solved. Dodge sells both relays together as a unit. A friend who is a Cummins tech told me that usually the relay fails after a starting problem occurs, bad starter, solenoid, etc. Mine problem occurred the next day after my starter shorted out internally. Have you had any starter problems lately, or did the problem just occur out of the blue? I'm curious to see if what he said is true. Good luck with your experiments.

 

The starter was replaced last summer. Had no problems with anything since or because of replaceing starter. Problem just started out of the blue.

 

I had an intermittant problem with my fuel solenoid. I removed it and cleaner plunger and bore with brake cleaner and lubed it with silicone spray. No problems for 6 mo. I also bought a relay but never used it.

I don't understand reference to the fuel solenoid relay as having a starter relay inside it...if I'm understanding what was said. I have read that the fuel relay has an unused relay section in it but have not verified that yet. After pouring over my 97 Dodge schematics there is a "Starter" relay mounted in the PDC which is used to provide 12v on a "Brown" wire to the starter soleoid to get the starter going. That same Brown wire is also tied to the fuel relay pin 2 (relay cavity 85)....more on that later.

There is a Blue fusable link tied to battery post which supplies 12v on a Red/Black wire to pin 1 (relay cavity 30) of the input side of the fuel relay. The output of the fuel relay (which turns on the Fuel Shutdown solenoid Pull coil) is on a Red/Violet wire (relay pin 87). That ( pin 1 Red/Violet wire) is where I'd temporarily connect 12v (with relay out) and the fuel solenoid should fire on.

If the solenoid fires then the relay or wiring is bad or fusible link. If you don't get 12v all the time at the relay pin 1 (relay cavity 30) Red/Violet wire then the blue fusible link is bad. Fuel relay Pin 3 (relay cavity 86) Blk/Tn wire is the fuel relay coil GND. Pin 2 (relay cavity 85) of the fuel relay Brown wire goes to the same Brown wire mentioned above that provides 12v (from the "Starter" relay in PDC) to the starter solenoid...but here this brwon wire (which is tied to the other brown wire) also provides 12v to energize the coil side of the fuel relay (relay cavity 85). And of course, the fuel relay then fires the Fuel solenoid Hold coil at the same time.

There is a schematic here that you can view some of this:
http://www.fostertruck.com/images/Ram_wire_diagram.jpg

and here:
http://www.fostertruck.com/images/st...it_diagram.jpg

 

The Starter relay on my truck is not nside the fuel relay but a separate relay right next to and on the same mount as the fuel relay. Most auto places and Dodge want to sell you the combination of the two for $70.00+. Gino's sold me the fuel relay for $20.00 and said just pop the old one off the mount and pop the new one on. Thank you for the explanation and schematics pages on the fuel relay. I notice the starter relay is not in the shematic.

 

I replaced the shutoff solenoid, the fusible link and then the relay before my starting troubles ceased. I would suggest you try a different order. I used the fostertruck parts.