1997 Dodge Van Won't start after changing battery

Try holding the gas pedal down 1/4" while cranking. When the battery is disconnected, the engine computer loses its memory. Now minimum throttle must be relearned. Until you do that, the computer doesn't know when it must be in control of idle speed and when to leave it up to you.

Once it's running it will likely stall when you take your foot off the accelerator. Drive at highway speed, then coast for at least seven seconds without touching the brake or gas pedals. The computer will take a reading from the throttle position sensor at this time and put it into memory. Every time it sees the same value, it will control idle speed to keep the engine from stalling.