Thread: ok here is my first post.. diesel dualy heartache

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Ok here is is. I know this is mostly for hot rod cars, I have a real hot rod too but......what about my tow truck 99 Dodge diesel dualie. I'll tell y'all what...I looked into this truck for about 2 months before I bought it and nowhere did I hear about the #$&* lift pump. For those of you that don't know this failure will cause the big FI pump to fail too which is in the ball park of a $4000 repair. Not only does Dodge ask $400 donation each time the lift pump fails, there is no guarantee the new one will last untill you get out the door. Should it last that long it is down hill untill it fails at 40 k or less on a good one. Get this.. 30% of the new pumps on the shelf are faulty before you buy them!!! no bull. Now before every one jumps me and says well you should have gotten a Ford or Chev, I just got back from a 400 mile trip and saw 2 Chev 1 tons and 2 Ford 1 tons "sleeping" on the side of the road...no Dodges. All 4 of them were newer than my truck. I also worked in the Ford plant where the PS motor is manufactured and assembled and saw first hand what goes in and out of them...none of it pretty.
anyhow some of these diesels are d....m fast I saw a video of a Dodge 3500 dualie going 11.40/ 118 1/4 mile. It takes about 900 hp and 1200 ft lbs torque to do this with a 7200 pound truck. Also the "pullers" are simply amazing. No 502 bbc would survive 60 pounds boost and pull these sleds.
back to the story. Has anyone had this lift pump fail? I have come up with some fixes for it...not cheap but good. I'm about ready to spend a pile on this for a one time fix...anyone else in the same boat???

ps Ford and Chev should have it so simple as a lift pump to solve their problems.

bentwings

While I haven't heard of a permanent fix as of yet (some people are suggesting relocation), you can get them cheaper through Cummins directly ( part #3990105).

I believe I saw around $149 for a new one through Cummins.

Another aspect you might want to consider is adding a gauge to monitor this. Won't solve them going out, but will help with preventing failures of the VP44 from driving with a dead one.

You may want to read up more on the issue @
http://www.turbodieselregister.com/f.../forum/13.html

I know there's been a lot of discusison on there about the lift pumps and their failures, but since I sold my Cummins, I haven't been there much lately.

Hope this helps.