I was having a hard-start-hot condition just a couple weeks ago and figured I was going to have do buy a new VP44 in the near future. In an effort to make sure I checked everything out and didnt waste $1,000 or so I stumbled across this TSB:
TSB 18-015-00?

here's a link to it:

http://dodgeram.info/tsb/2000/18-15-00.htm

It addressed my exact problem (hard to start when engine warmed up, no codes thrown) in addition to other issues. The fix was a computer update at the dealer. I went ahead and gambled the $90 that the reflash might work.

It did! sorta... It seems this update keeps the computer from turning the lift pump on while the starter is cranking, keeping pressure off the diaphram on the VP44 and makes it easier to start when hot.

The downside is that now I can no longer get the lift pump to run for 15 seconds or so by bumping the starter.

Has anybody else received this computer update and found a way to run the lift pump to prime the system?

 

read this:

https://www.dieseltruckresource.com/...d.php?t=301965

 

Thanks for the input.

that link is to a different thread I started and includes your answer about using a jumper wire to run the lift pump to prime it.

I think your solution is a good one, but I was also seeing if there was any other fix out there. Maybe a way to "trick" the computer into running the lift pump to prime the system.

if not, i will get myself setup with the jumper wires.

Thanks!

 

a question, why do you want to run your lift pump, is it after changing the fuel filter or something?

i used to change my fuel filter with out bumping the key, didn't know you could do that way back then. I have had my 99 for a long time.

there are other ways, you could crack open a fuel line after the filter or at the VP and push fuel in with air, pressurizing the fuel tank.

 

Yes, when I change trhe fuel filter I have used the "bump-starter" trick to prime the system.

Also, I would like to have the ability to purge the fuel canister if the "water-in-fuel" light comes on. More than once I have been on a road trip far from home and fueled up somewhere I shouldn't have and had that light come on shortly after. I followed the instructions in the owners manual with good results:
I'd open the valve on the fuel canister and the do the bump-starter trick to run the lift pump and watch the fuel blow out the drain tube. I would do this 2-3 times and get back on the road, the light would go off.

I think this is a nice on-the-side-of-the-road quick fix for this problem. once I got back home or somewhere i could work on the truck I would change the fuel filter.