Archived 02 ram died and wont start

[JSamples]

I was driving my 02 Cummins last night and it died all of a sudden. It just quit suddenly like I turned it off, no shaking or running rough first, it actually just pulled a hill before it died and was running as strong as always. It turns over fine, but wont start at all. I couldnt see any smoke coming from the exhaust whille turning over. It has the Edge with Attitude and while cranking it said I had over 10 pounds of fuel pressure to the injection pump, and I even double checked it with a gauge, so I know the lift pumps are working fine. I checked it for codes with a scanner and no codes present, which is actually odd because it always has stored codes from my box and smoke switch which sets a map sensor code everytime. That leads me to maybe a bad computer because it normally shows codes stored, but im not sure? The injection pump is a Hot Rod VP44 I just put on in February. I cracked an injector line and no fuel came out of the line at all. Im thinking there is an electrical problem coming to the pump, but dont know what to do next. How do I check for power coming to the pump? How do I check for a bad computer? How do I check for a bad module on my injection pump? How do I check for a bad programmer, if that could even be a possibillity? Sorry all the questions but im so confused and need my truck bad badly! I dont know what do next, could my injection pump be bad already? I would hope not, I think it has a warranty longer than this? But the way it just shut off so suddenly it acts like electrical to me. Oh yeah the truck only has 80,000 miles on it and about 10,000 on the injection pump, and I maintain the truck and fuel system very well, I always run fuel additives and some transmission fluid sometimes to lubricate the pump. Also, I checked the fuel filter and it was clean, tho I dont think it has anything to do with the problem. Please help point me in a right direction!

 

[JLandry]

There's a few things I would check first:



1. Verify that the 20 amp fuse number 3 located in the PDC (Power Distribution Center on the driver's fender under the hood isn't blown). This fuse supplies power to the ECM, PCM, and VP44. Pull the fuse and verify battery voltage is present on one side of the fuse socket even with the ignition switch off.



If that checks out then...



2. Make sure the fuel injection pump is receiving power when the ignition switch is on. Do this by verifying pin 7 of the fuel injection pump wiring harness connector has battery voltage present. The wire leading to pin 7 in the connector should be Red with a Light Green stripe. If it doesn't have power, then the Fuel Injection Pump relay in the PDC is suspect. To trouble shoot that, try swapping this relay out with another non-essential relay (like the horn relay) to see if that corrects the problem.



3. If you still don't have power at pin 7 of the VP44 connector (after swapping out the fuel injection pump relay), pull the fuel injection pump relay from its socket and verify that ~12v is present at pin 86 of the fuel injection pump relay socket when the ignition key is on. If not, then you might have and ECM or wiring harness problem which can be explored in more detail.



If none of the above helped...



4. Try swapping out the ASD relay located in the PDC with another non-essential relay of the same size such as the wiper relay.



Good luck and keep us posted.



Best regards,



John L.

 

[nutter3]

John L.

Those are some great instructions! I'm writing this to keep me subscribed to this thread in the future and hoping this will help JSamples in fixing his problem.



andre

 

[JLandry]

John L.

Those are some great instructions! I'm writing this to keep me subscribed to this thread in the future and hoping this will help JSamples in fixing his problem.

Hi Andre,



Just an FYI...



You can subscribe to any thread you're viewing (without having to post a message first) by clicking on the "Thread Tools" pull-down menu item to the upper right of your screen.



Best regards,



John L.

 

[JLandry]

I guess it's also worth pointing out the obvious...



If the VP44 is properly getting power and swapping out the ASD relay doesn't solve the problem, then there's always a strong chance the VP44 has failed. It occasionally happens even on low mileage units.



John L.

 

[JSamples]

Well I worked on the truck all day again, and the end result was its running again but im not sure why lol. I checked all the fuses and relays and they all checked good. I checked for power at the harness coming into the injection pump, it had power, although I didnt check how many volts. I even tried to hot wire the pump with 2 wires on terminals 6 and 7 and I could hear something in the pump click when I did, but it still wouldnt run. I plugged the harness back in, put everything back together and checked the codes again- no codes present still. Then I tried to start it just for the heck of it and it acted like it wanted to run. I then bled the lines at the injectors and after each one it sounded better. After bleeding the last injector and holding the pedal to the floor it took off, and its running fine as ever now. It starts everytime and runs like it always did. The Check Engine light was on when it first started, so I checked the codes and it had the usual 1693 again that it always used to have prior to this problem, but now it had 1689 also. I think it basically said there was a problem between the ECM and Injection pump, either in the wiring or the ECM. So do I need a new ECM or what? Im prety confused now and dont trust the truck to take it anywhere. Also, when I had the intake off I spayed a tiny amount of ether in and it wanted to run right away. Some of my observations lead me to a bad VP Pump, some lead me to a bad connection, and some lead me to a bad ECM, so I dont know what to change? Also ive even heard my Edge box could be the culprit? Is there anything else I could do to narrow it down to my true problem?

 

[JLandry]

The Check Engine light was on when it first started, so I checked the codes and it had the usual 1693 again that it always used to have prior to this problem, but now it had 1689 also.

The MIL and P1689 DTC was likely triggered when you had the ignition key on with the VP44 disconnected... . normal in that case. Just clear the code and if it comes back (and you haven't disconnected the VP44) then you have a problem.

So do I need a new ECM or what?

It's possible, but on the scale of probability, it's pretty low. Rather it sounds like an intermittent VP44 problem. It sounds like you've positively verified the VP44 is getting fuel (good pressure and fuel filter clean), so that pretty much narrows it down to the VP44, ECM, or PCM. While ECM's and PCM's do fail, it isn't very often.



On a positive note, maybe it was just a bad wiring harness connection, and you inadvertently corrected this issue when you disconnected and reconnected the VP44. It couldn't hurt to clean both the VP44 and ECM contacts with aerosol contact cleaner then smear the contacts with a little dielectric grease before reconnecting.

Im prety confused now and dont trust the truck to take it anywhere.

I'm with you there. I sure wouldn't venture too far from home without either a spare VP44 in the tool box or at least a membership in an emergency road service.



Good luck again,



John L.

 

[nascar]

I always run fuel additives and some transmission fluid sometimes to lubricate the pump.

I read somewhere that ATF has friction modifiers for the clutches/bands in transmissions to keep them from slipping. I don't believe it's good in injection pumps for that reason.

Mike K.

 

[JSamples]

Well, all that was wrong was an air lock in the high pressure lines. After checking and re-checking everything, I decided to crack open the high pressure lines and see if I could get any fuel again. After lots of cranking I noticed one cyllinder was wet, tightened it, cranked about 3 more times for 20 seconds saw another wet line and tightened it, then it started and ran rough for about 1 minute until it bled itself the rest of the way out. I now know I caused the problem by being heavy in the throttle and then letting off of it too suddenly. The resident Cummins guru around here told me his truck did this twice to him before he figured out what he was doing. My truck has ran just fine for over a month now so thats all it was. Upon further thinking, I have always noticed that after a hard run if I let off the throttle quickly at high boost, that my truck would idle roughly for 30 seconds to a minute sometimes. As for the mechanical reason behind this happening, im not too sure I could explain it too well. Its just getting a whole lot of fuel and air and all of a sudden its being told to give minimum fuel and that creates an air lock in the injection lines for some reason. My guess would be that the injection pump is trying to go back to idle mode, and the motor is still running hard with a lot of boost, so it burns the fuel like its still getting maximum amount for a second, which sucks the injection lines dry because the pump cant keep up because its trying to idle. Let me know if any of you guys can come up with a better reason or if you think im getting it right or not.