2001 RAM 1500 PCM PLUG KEEPS COMING LOOSE

[CHAINSAWMIKE]

HEY EVERYONE, IM CHAINSAWMIKE, SORRY FOR ALL CAPITAL LETTERS BUT I HAVE PERMANENT DOUBLE VISION DUE TO A TBI BRAIN INJURY THREE YEARS AGO SO THE CAPS HELP ME SEE WHAT IM TYPING.... THIS 2001 RAM 1500 IS MY THIRD RAM TRUCK THAT IVE OWNED IM REALLY IMPRESSED WITH THEM.... IM A RETIRED'ED TIMBER FALLER LOL FROM NOR CAL AND I JUST BOUGHT A 2001 RAM 1500 A COUPLE WEEKS AGO ( I STILL CUT A LIL FIREWOOD) BUT UH WHEN I BOUGHT IT THE GUY TOLD ME THAT EVERY NOW AND THEN THE TRUCK WILL JUST UP AND DIE..... HE SAID YOUVE GOTTA POP THE HOOD GET OVER TO The FIREWALL ON THE PASSENGER SIDE AND KINDA WIGGLE THE PCM PLUG IN A LIL BIT AND ITTL START.... IM GLAD HE TOLD ME ABOUT THAT BECAUSE ITS DIED ON ME A FEW TIMES AND WIGGLING THAT PLUG ( ITS THE ONE ON THE FAR RIGHT OUT OF THE THREE THAT COME OUT OF THE TRUCKS BRAIN APPARENTLY !! ANY WAY IVE NOTICED THAT IVE HOTTA MESS WITH IT MORE AND MORE WHEN IT DIES ON ME .... IT SEEMS LIKE .... BUT IT DOES T FALL OUT OF THE PLUG IN OR ANYTHING BUT IT LOSES CO TACT APPARANTLY.... ANY SUGGESTIONS ABOUT A WAY TO LIKE MAYBE GLUE IT IN AT THE PLUG SURFACES OR USE WEATHER STRIPPING OR SOMETHING? I LIVE JUST THE OTHER SIDE OF SHASTA LAKE AND I-5 FREEWAY GOES OVER THE LAKE BOTH NORTH AND SOUTH BOUND AND THERES ABSOLUYELY NO ROOM TO PULL OFF THE FREEWAY IF IT WAS TO DIE ON YHE BRIDGE ON ME WHICH THE BRIDGE IS ABOUT 1.5 MILES LONG.... ITS VERY VERY TIGHT ... ANY SUGGESTIONS WOULD BE GREATLY APRECIATED FELLAS.... THANK YOU.... MIKE

 

[tidefan1967]

While it may seem a bit half behind, a massive zip tie would work until you come up with a more permanent solution. Depending upon how big the zip tie is you may need to string a couple of them together. Otherwise it’s really hard to say without pics.

 

[CHAINSAWMIKE]

YEA THATS A GOOD IDEA TIDEFAN 1967, I WAS EVEN THINKING REALLY STICKY TAPE OR PLUMBERS METAL TAPE WITH YHE LIL HOLES IN IT BUT THERES NO ANCHOR SPOT FOR ZIP TIES , TAPE OR ANYTHING OF THE SORT BECAUSE OF THE WAY THE WIRES COME OUT THE BOTTOM OF THE PLUG... IL TAKE A PHOTO HERE AND SEND IT SORRY ABOUT THAT AND THANKS ITS THE PLUG ON THE FAR RIGHT

 

[tidefan1967]

Yeah, I see what you mean there. Hopefully someone else has a better solution for you.

 

[RamDiver]

YEA THATS A GOOD IDEA TIDEFAN 1967, I WAS EVEN THINKING REALLY STICKY TAPE OR PLUMBERS METAL TAPE WITH YHE LIL HOLES IN IT BUT THERES NO ANCHOR SPOT FOR ZIP TIES , TAPE OR ANYTHING OF THE SORT BECAUSE OF THE WAY THE WIRES COME OUT THE BOTTOM OF THE PLUG... IL TAKE A PHOTO HERE AND SEND IT SORRY ABOUT THAT AND THANKS ITS THE PLUG ON THE FAR RIGHT

A few line breaks in your type would help some of us read your info easier.

Something that stood out in your picture, I noticed numerous splices including a marrette and several butt end crimps in the harness.

Are you confident that none of those are causing an intermittent connection?

The place I would start is to make sure that every one of those connections is sound and replace that marrette with either solder & heatshrink or a butt crimp connector.

Start the truck, I'd wear hearing protection, and very delicately try manipulating the individual wires in each of those splices.

See if you can recreate the engine failure while associating the failure to a specific splice, you may get lucky.

If those tests are fruitless, remove the connector completely and carefully inspect both ends for corrosion and damage.

Use a magnifying glass and LED light if your eyes are like mine.

Before cleaning up connections, remove the negative battery connection and turn on headlights to dissipate any surface charge.


And, welcome to Ram Forum.

.

 

[turkeybird56]

@RamDiver

I had to look up this name: including a marrette and several, lol... Canadian Slang, hee hee.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
YEAH OP, your problem might be in that mess of crimped and twisted connected wires, You might wanna try and eliminate that 1st.

How to secure to that connection: Hmmmmm, would have to be there. If you eliminate all the crimps/splices as cause, than also as RamDiver suggests: Pull and clean all connections and when you replug, I would use dielectric grease, very sparingly. Glue that plug on, hmmm, very last option. Being a 2001, I sincerely not think you could find a replacement plug, I BET U someone ALREADY did that, and the plug that is there now came from another say junkyard truck to fix a problem. YOU could try and go that route again maybe find an old Gen I truck in a junkyard and snatch the plug, but dang, U got a mess there, which U know.

You might be able to jam it on that connector and use some type of constrictor to clamp down on that connection against each other, like a serious zip tie, or wrap something on connector and try to put even pressure on both sides and "pull up" into the connector: Gonna have to be some type of "community:" engineering for sure.

Good luck on all that mess.

(I looked at MoparParts and EVERY reference to body harness is backordered, ie., translation, no longer available).

 

[RamDiver]

@RamDiver

I had to look up this name: including a marrette and several, lol... Canadian Slang, hee hee.
______________________________________________________________________________

I've heard of them called wire nuts or wire connectors but I've only ever known of them as Marrettes.

At a very young age, I followed my grandfather around at the cottage he built, wired, and then upgraded to a four-season home. There, I learned lots of cool electrical and carpentry snippets.

He wasn't a licensed electrician but an electronics technician, the same as my father and myself.

https://el-sales.ca.abb.com/marrette/

.

 

[alpinegreenneon]

Those Marrette caps are for wiring a house. If used in an engine bay, they are guaranteed to corrode and become intermittent. If you want to repair that mess, cut off the corroded wire and use solder and adhesive lined heat shrink tubing over the splices. It may take a while to do all those wires but it's the only correct way. See the following links:

wiresplicing.mp4

drive.google.com

Electrical Connector "how to" - neons.org

 

[Daw14]

What about running a zip-tie behind the ecm and over the plug to secure it better , loosen the ecu to make room for the tie if necessary.

I agree with these guys , check all those splices.

 

[RamDiver]

What about running a zip-tie behind and over the plug to secure it better , loosen the ecu to make room for the tie if necessary.

I agree with these guys , check all those splices.

While I agree, that securing the harness is a great longer-term plan, the potentially intermittent connections created by corrosion or gaps within the connectors must be corrected first and then secured from movement.

I like your zip tie plan if it can be placed securely. I often use needlenose pliers to carefully optimize the tightness of zip ties.

.

 

[UncleGunns]

Being a 2001, I sincerely not think you could find a replacement plug, I BET U someone ALREADY did that, and the plug that is there now came from another say junkyard truck to fix a problem.

Home

Our site has more Crank and Cam Signal Kits, Connectors, Terminals, and Professional Series ECU Extensions than ever before!

www.eficonnection.com

Try there.

These are for the 5.2 (318).

 

[UncleGunns]

I didn't even see the butt connectors and wire nut at first... Damn - glasses time.

Get that all fixed before you touch anything else. That's most likely where you have problems.

Look for green crust on any of the wires. That needs to be completely cut out and patched. Use insulated heat-shrink butt connectors and marine-grade heat-shrink (the kind with internal glue) to clean up and isolate everything. Also, look for copper that's tarnished to a dark gray or black color - that also needs to be completely cut out to shiny-penny copper.

Look up South Main Auto on YTube - he's an awesome resource for wiring diag and repair.

For the loose connector, a glue stick and a lighter or crack torch are your friend. Once everything is clean and all contacts are verified good, plug the connector in, hold it securely in place, and drip the melted glue stick on the mating surface between the connector's female end and the exposed part of the male connector on the PCM. Both connector mating surfaces need to be clean and dirt-free. The glue stick will hold very strong, but won't ingress in between the connector surfaces. It's also very easy to remove with pliers or a service hook if you need to take it back apart.

 

[CHAINSAWMIKE]

HEY THERE EVERYONE ITS CHAINSAWMIKE AGAIN .... WELL I MADE IT TO WORK (CUTTING FIREWOOD) AND BACK I JUST GOT HOME ITS 930PM PST..... MY TRUCK DIED ON ME ONLY TWICE TODAY AND YES I HD TO WIGGLE THE PCM PLUG Around FOR IT TO START.... BUT I THANK YOU GUYS FOR ALL THE INPUT IVE GOTTEN.... I CERTAINLY AGREE ABOUT ALL THOSE (MARRETTES) ? WE CALL EM WIRE NUTS OVER HERE.... I WILL LOOK INTO CHECKING THOSE IN THE MORNING, LIKE I DAY MY BIGGEST FEAR IS FOR IT TO DIE ON THE SHASTA LAKE BRIDGE BECAUSE THERE IS NO WHERE TO PULL OFF THE HIGHWAY AND MY EMERGENCY FLASHERS WOULD BE MY BEST FRIEND... AS FAR AS CORROSION GOES I CAME UPON A SMALL CAN OF PERMATEX BATTERY CLEANER AND PROTECTOR A FEW MONTHS AGO.... IL POST A PIC OF IT WHEN I FIND IT AGAIN .... THIS STUFF LEMME TELL YOU WILL PROTECT YOUR BATTERY,YOUR CABLES, ANYTHING ELECTRICAL THAT CAN CORRODE FOR MONTHS .... IM COMEPLETELY SOLD ON IT... I PUT IT ON THE BATTERY POSTS ETC. OF MY LAST RAM AND FOR THE 9 MONTHS DRIVING IT THAT STUFF DID A GREAT JOB OVER THE TOP JUST AMAZING.... I WIULD SUGGEST THAT STUFF TO EVERYONE.... I WILL POST IN A DAY OR SO MY FINDINGS ON THIS PCM ISSUE THANK YOU VERY VERY MUCH FOR THE INSIGHTS ....... CHAINSAWMIKE

 

[rvance]

ALL CAPS FOR THE OP.
I HAD THE SAME ISSUE ON MY 2008 GOLD WING TRIKE. THERE WAS A MAIN COMPUTER PLUG UNDER THE SEAT AND THE MOVEMENT OF MY BUTT ON THE SEAT WOULD KILL THE ENGINE. THE SOLUTION I FOUND WAS TO CLEAN THE CONTACTS WITH SPRAY CONTACT CLEANER AND THEN FILL THE PLUG WITH DIELECTRIC GREASE. NEVER HAD AN ISSUE AGAIN. I HOPE THIS HELPS.
I ALSO USE THE PERMATEX SPRAY ON MY BATTERY, BUT I JUST DISCOVERED IT A FEW MONTHS AGO.

 

[Hagar1]

A few line breaks in your type would help some of us read your info easier.

Something that stood out in your picture, I noticed numerous splices including a marrette and several butt end crimps in the harness.

Are you confident that none of those are causing an intermittent connection?

The place I would start is to make sure that every one of those connections is sound and replace that marrette with either solder & heatshrink or a butt crimp connector.

Start the truck, I'd wear hearing protection, and very delicately try manipulating the individual wires in each of those splices.

See if you can recreate the engine failure while associating the failure to a specific splice, you may get lucky.

If those tests are fruitless, remove the connector completely and carefully inspect both ends for corrosion and damage.

Use a magnifying glass and LED light if your eyes are like mine.

Before cleaning up connections, remove the negative battery connection and turn on headlights to dissipate any surface charge.


And, welcome to Ram Forum.

.

Solder and heat shrink is the only way to go. Crimp connectors will just push the problem down the road. After that wiring is properly repaired, then it will be time to chase the other problem .... if it still exists.

 

[RamDiver]

Solder and heat shrink is the only way to go. Crimp connectors will just push the problem down the road. After that wiring is properly repaired, then it will be time to chase the other problem .... if it still exists.

I completely agree and wouldn't do it any other way but it seems that many DIYs are allergic to learning how to solder wires together and PCBs.

.

 

[alpinegreenneon]

My 9 year old grandson knows how to solder. He just put together a Tesla coil kit and it works. It's not difficult and if he can solder, anyone that says they can't, hasn't really tried.

 

[Hagar1]

My 9 year old grandson knows how to solder. He just put together a Tesla coil kit and it works. It's not difficult and if he can solder, anyone that says they can't, hasn't really tried.

There are plenty of people who can master almost anything mechanical / technical, yet there are others who find it challenging to walk and chew gum simultaneously.

 

[2500 Driver]

Home

Our site has more Crank and Cam Signal Kits, Connectors, Terminals, and Professional Series ECU Extensions than ever before!

www.eficonnection.com

Try there.

These are for the 5.2 (318).

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If it is not loose connections in the splices and a problem with the actual connector being broken, Wells Vehicle Electronics makes new ones. WVE Website to include part number: https://wellsve.com/parts-search/?partNumber=1P4068 You may be able to contact them or search for a retailer. Looks like Rock Auto and perhaps O'Reilly's were both selling them, but currently have none available. Wells Electronics may be able to direct you to a retailer.

 

[HarleyPoo]

I would go with the plumber tape that way you can use two small screws and screw to the firewall instead of affecting the PCM in any just to be safe. Computers can be temperamental sometimes