blacksheep10

okay, I have read like 30 threads on this, and normally it is a tempermental thing for most. Park on a hill, let it sit, hot or cold, near empty or full tank, weak lift pump. None of that applies directly to me, so I am posting
I bought it a week ago, and it started after about 1.5 seconds at the *********** both times. a little longer of a crank than my friend's, but not bad. I get it home, and it starts right up for me 2 more times, same way. I am heading for the gas station to fuel up, have about 1/8 of a tank and my dte says about 50 miles. I am planning on filling it all the way up. It runs out 2 blocks shy of the station. I fill it up at a different one that I coasted into. I can't get it to fire, lots of intermittent cranking, never more than 10 seconds, let it set for 3 minutes. I cycled the lift pump several (like 20) times on the long cycle by bumping the starter and then letting it run (found all this out by calling my local dodge dealer adn they told me not to crank it long, let starter cool and try again. I get frustrated, get towed home. once there, I, along with help, prime the filter, crack the lines at the injector and crank until I get fuel. my "help" shot starting fluid in the k&n when I was on here looking for threads pertaining to this. that is what got it running. since then, I have had hard starting. no matter what. sits all night, cold outside, hard starts. just shut it off after driving 40 miles, try to start it again, hard starts. park it on a hill up or down, hard starts. yesterday it was 80 and it had only sat for 2 hours, hard starts. I always let the wait to start light go off before I try it. no matter what, it takes about 2-3 cycles of the lp and about 8 seconds with some pedal thrown in to get it to start. I don't really notice any performance difference, but it feels like it is lacking power compared to the several other ctd's that I have driven. I put a snap on fuel pressure gauge on it yesterday on the fitting on the side of the vp44 right by the banjo and drove it. when the lp is running before startup, it holds 14.5 pounds. when I am driving, it holds 14.5 pounds. when I get all the way into it, the lowest i could get it to go to was exactly 10 psi, that is wide open in third reving it to 2800 rpm. it never flickered a bit, it was steady and constant the whole time. it was a manual gauge, so no real chance for error there. this is pressure right on the side of the vp44, so that is how much the pump is getting. I am on a budget, especially after buying this thing. I can't afford to start throwing parts at it wildly to try to fix something. Not afraid to crawl under it and look for potential problems. any suggestions welcome and I thank those of you that took time to read this novel of a proble that I have.
thanks,
Kelly

blacksheep10

btw it is stock as can be except for the k&n. 188,000 miles. the word that is starred out in my post above is dealership with an "st" in place of the "d". I apologize if that was a bad word on here.

blacksheep10

okay, I just went out and started it, full tank by the way. white smoke from the pipe. vp44 on the way out? because if so, it will get parked for a while because there is no way I can afford one of those unless they are in the under a thousand range, not $1500 like I think they are.

phox_mulder

If you are still stock, and under 100,000 miles the injection pump is covered under warranty.

Sounds more like an air leak though.

Pinhole leak in either the supply lines or the return line, not big enough to leak fuel,
but lets air get sucked in as the fuel pressure decreases after shutting off.

You can manually inspect the lines, if you don't see an obvious leak point,
try putting talcum powder on the lines.
This will help you see if there is indeed a hole or crack.

Most common place is the rubber return line from the injection pump back to the tank.
Of course, this runs behind the engine so it's quite hard to see.


phox

vette75406

i just ordered a reman vp 44 to repair a very similair problem as yours i was lucky enough to have a little less than one month and 3k mile left on my warranty , it does not hurt im sure that i work at a chrysler/ gm dealership and have access to all of mopars knowledge, mopar tech line said of my problem that it was the injection pump , my symptoms are very much like yours but not as badmostly an intermitant long crank time and no codes set.


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2000 QC 4X4 LWB LIGHTFORCE MAGNAFLOW EXHAUST

KATOOM

I dont know how to test the VP but I do know that it is bad to run these truck out of fuel. Maybe being that you have almost 200,000 miles on the VP it might have just been enough to push it over the edge running it out of fuel and trying to start with no fuel for a long period of time. Just a thought, not sure.

ramlovingvet

I had a leak on my return fuel line did the same thing evin a minor pinhole will cause it.
Just m two cents

blacksheep10

okay, I will look at the return line. it just seems odd to me that my return line could cause air that soon. Like shutting it off and sitting for literally less than a minute, everything stops moving and I try to start it again, same symptoms.
I can't check it until I get back to my home town this weekend, so I will write back then.
Thanks,
Kelly