I have a '95 Dakota Sport 3.9 v6. I was driving fine and the engine just died out. I'm getting good sparks from the plugs, so I started tracing the fuel system. The fuel pump is pumping good, the fuel filter/pressure regulator is clear. When I try starting and looking through the butterflies, I dont see or smell any fuel. Can this be a computer problem?

For the most part you wont see or smell fuel because it has mulitiport fuel injetion. So the injectors spray at the valves. It sounds like maybe they are not spraying. It might be a fuse or a relay. The ASD Auto Shut Down relay might be a culprit. But usually the ignition will not work also. I would suggest getting a meter and check to see if the injectors are working. A easy way it to unbolt the fuel rail and crank the engine. And see if all the fuel injectors are spraying good.

Thanks for the help Crazy4x4RT. Today I pulled the fuel rail and was able to verify that the injectors were spraying. The only thing I didn't do was to check the pressure at the rail. I even tried spraying starter fluid into the carb to see if it would start that way. No luck there. I again pulled each spark plug to verify spark, and the changed the relays so that the ASD Auto Shut Down relay was new. I just don't understand why I can't get it to start.

sure. here is some more sugestiongs. Well If you got good spray out of all injectors. The only other option is the spark. Maybe it is insuficent, some spark but not enough. Maybe the timeing is off. Wires switched. Distributer cap rotor burnt.

Well I tried your suggestion of replacing the distributer cap and rotor to make sure I was getting a good spark. I do not believe the wires are crossed or the timing is out because it was running perfect until Sunday. I just can't figure out why it won't start up if it is getting fuel and spark.

Could be the coil. Not sure on the specs for voltage coming out, but may want to have it checked. Like Crazy said, sounds like insufficient spark.

Well I guesse my next step might be trying to change the coils, I allready changed the distributer cap and rotor, verified spark is present, changed all relays, all fuses, verified the fuel pump is working and the filter/ pressure regulator is good and verified fuel rail pressure at 38psi. But still can not get the motor to turn over even after spraying starter flued into it. Poor Pet and Joe are getting tired of halling me around.

The truck might also be out of time. The timing chain might have jumped a cog.

Well I changed the the ignition coil today and still no luck. I wouldn't think it the timing chain would have jumped. The truck was working fine. But I guesse anything is possible. Checking that is a little advanced for me I think. It's just odd that the only time the truck seems to want to start is when I hold the throtle fully open, and then it only spits and sputters. I do want to say thank you to those of you that have replied to me. It is greatly appriciated. I just want to get back on the road. This is the first time I ever had problems with my Dakota, if not for this my truck is in pristen condition.

Well another day going over things and still no luck. Anybody got any other suggestions to try before I have it towed to a shop?

Just to follow up on todays finding. I performed a dry compression test today and found front the front 4 cylinders have a psi of 150 and the back 2 are 140 psi.

Just to let those who helped with suggestions know, the problem ended up being the catalitic converter. For some reason today I decided to drill a hole into it and sure enough the truck tried to start up. I then totally cut out the converter and bypassed it and the truck runs like new. Hope this thread might help someone else in the future if there having simular problems.