CTD99

Driving home from work Thursday evening, I was on the freeway and the truck suddenly died and now won't start; had to be towed home. I have no fuel pressure and I'm not quite sure why? VP44 and lift pump were replaced 2000 miles ago, fuel filter was replaced about 4000 miles ago.

I had 1/8th a tank left when it died, put another 4 gal in this morning and the reads close to 1/4 now.

Any suggestions are appreciated.

Russ

phox_mulder

More than likely you have some little holes or cracks in the lines or fuel pickup in the tank.

When the fuel level gets below the the level of the holes, it sucks air and the truck dies.


Or your sender is bad, and you didn't really have 1/8 of a tank and you ran out of fuel.

Do a search for "fuel sender" to get some R&R hints.


phox

johnh

i ran out of fuel one time , my guage read over 1/4 ...i also thought the IP went bad, i since replaced the sender at a cost of 46.00 it was easy to change & it works as good as new

CTD99

Update:

It appears that the sending unit is done on my truck also. I cracked 3 injectors and it took a good amount of cranking before I saw fuel. But the truck is back in action and I will pay close attention to the tripmeter from now on.

Thanks.

Russ

Geico266

IMHO you should always have your tank 1/2 full or higher (if you can) It helps keep condensation water out of the fuel and it is less of a "lift" for the LP to draw fuel from the tank. Just a thought.....

Madoco

Same just happened to mine. Turned out to be no fuel and a bad sending unit......... That was approx. 5months after replacing the injector pump. Also, just noticed my tail pipe has rusted and broke at muffler! Not a big Dodge fan at the moment....

jimjawz

how did you go about changeing your sender.did remove the bed or did you do somthing other?

johnh

i removed the bed to convert my dually to a standard bed,& changed the sender at that time. do a search to see a picture

F. Flack

You can also drop the tank -- I didn't have enough help to pull my bed. As Phox mentioned, you may also have holes in your pick-up tube thanks to the screws holding the sender to the sending unit cage (screw tips rub against the tubes causing the holes). I found holes in my tube that caused air to be sucked into the fuel lines when the tank level dropped below 3/4. Replaced the pick-up tube and haven't had any problems since. I have another thread ("Cured my rough idle problem") with more details on dropping the tank.

Franklin

DaNuGuy

I would have to disagree with this statement. Since the pickup draws off the bottom of the tank, it shouldn't matter if the tank is full or almost empty, it's still picking up fuel the same distance. I don't think a full tank will have much more pressure(psi) to push as I believe the fomula is 1psi for 1 foot of vertical drop.

I'm not trying to argue, just some food for thought.

Geico266

That is not right Danuguy, the higher the fuel level the easier the lift reguardless of where the pick up is. Obviously, the pickup needs to be in the fuel, but you get my point. A full tank is easier on the LP by creating less vertical lift thus less draw, less work for the pump. A full tank is easier on the lift pump.

Granted what I'm talking about is a small difference in lift, but it does exist, and any help we can give these pumps and our VP-44's the longer and cheaper our trucks will run. A full tank will also help keep water out of the tank. No air, no condensation.

I'm not trying to be Mr. Smart, just passing along info.

jimjawz

I was wondering if it makes that big of a difference??

DaNuGuy

It is nice to be on a forum where we can discuss items like gentlemen. It's like dealing with 6 yr olds on some forum's.

I see your point, and also agree with you that it's not going to make much difference, but any little bit helps.

Geico266

"I see your point, and also agree with you that it's not going to make much difference, but any little bit helps."

Thats my point, it helps alittle. If you think about it... the fuel level in the pickup tube is the same level as the fuel in the tank. The higher the level the less work / distance the pump has to lift the fuel. Basically, its the syphon principle. The weight of the fluid is trying to get to a lower point by gravity. Any fuild will seek its lowest level "even if it has to go up hill to to get there." ( I made that last part up)

I always keep my tank full, its an aircraft thing. I got 145K miles on my first LP.

Lary Ellis (Top)

I think running your truck at 1/4 tank or below is asking for trouble, from an injection pump point of view. The fuel is pumped through the injection pump and back into the tank to provide cooling for the IP.

Yes the fuel Does heat up, and the less fuel in the tank, the hotter it gets. If for no other reason than to help the lifespan of your Injection pump, I would not run on less than 1/4 a tank.

More food for thought