Engine/Transmission (1998.5 - 2002) Friends Truck Quit Today

[Sparky10]

A friend of mine, who has a 2002 Cummings Dodge, was driving into town today and his truck started having problems. He said the throttle stopped working (pedal did nothing when pressed), it started running rough with a fuel knock & blowing blue smoke!!! He shut it off and had a tow truck take him into the Dealer. When they arrived at the dealer it started right up and ran ok. They looked at it and told him the Transfer Pump was bad!



What is the Transfer Pump? I have only heard of a Lift Pump & an Injector Pump!! They fixed it under warranty. He will pick it up tomorrow.



I thought I read here somewhere about this very thing and everyone said it was something else. Not sure. Is the Dealer right or just guessing and ripping him off??



Anyone have any thoughts or ideas?? Any input would be greatly appreciated.



He has about 37,000 miles on it and is our mechanic at the Fire Dept. He is very reliable on his preventive maintenance.



Thanks a lot! Scott

 

[klaybus]

Transfer Pump

My guess would be the lift pump. From what I've read the Injection Pump isn't always readily available & the lift pump problem is very common. I don't know about the blue smoke but the LP should be covered by the Cummins 100k warranty unless your friend has over 100k on his 02.



Clay

 

[csutton7]

transfer pump=lift pump-----chris

 

[Seed Guy]

Were they able to pull any codes off the computer?

 

[Blair]

When a lift pump goes it doesn't set any codes.



I've seen them fail intermittantly then work again or work but not supply enough fuel pressure under load.

 

[Sparky10]

Isn't it true that if the Lift Pump does quit the engine will still run fine. As the Injector Pump has enough pull to still draw the fuel into it? Even though the Injector Pump is working harder, the engine still runs.



Correct me if I'm wrong!!

 

[Diesel Nut]

I had heard that they would run without the lift pump and you wouldn't notice the difference on a stock truck, until the injection pump got tired os sucking and goes kaput. Don't know if it's true, but the guy that told me really knows his stuff.

 

[2ndgen2500]

lift pump problems

i have heard different stories. some say the truck runs normal under lift pump failure (usually running stockers) and some say their trucks either wont run, or run horribly under lift pump failure, i dont know the reason why this is, but this is the very reason i decided to install a fuel pressure gauge because i have heard that if you do have silent lift pump failure it will end up ruining the injection pump as well.

 

[willyslover]

if you do a search . . not only will you find more than you ever wanted to know , but you will find that they have failed in both manors... some will stop dead in their tracks and other will go on without ever knowing they have a DOA lift pump

 

[2ndgen2500]

yup he is right, its strange how that can work like that but it does. not exactly sure why!

 

[Blair]

I've seen them fail three ways.



1) Not working at all and you don't find out until you change the filter and it won't restart or the injection pump dies.

2) Low pressure output.

3) Intermittent failure where they will work then they won't work.



Sometimes the failure will not be detectable in a stock application i. e. the truck will run fine and other times it will cause the truck to run poor and still other times cause it to quit completely.



A fuel pressure gauge is a really good idea!