Engine/Transmission (1998.5 - 2002) Sent the vp44 to its grave today

[Black-Smoker]

Well I was getting on to the expressway with my tst box set on leval 5 I had it floored and went to shift from 4th to 5th and there was nothing. I looked down at the tach and it read zero. I tried to restart but again nothing. I coasted off to the side of the road and checked the codes and i got injection pump mechanical something failure. Before this I was getting two codes set ever since I installed my TST box two weeks ago a p0602 and a p0237 do you think this had anything to do with it?



I did a search and got the replacement instrucions from the nw bombers website but i was wondering if i had to remove a cover on the front of the engine to get the gear puller in to seperate the pump from the gear or if i had to pull the whole gear case.



Also I am a little leary about tapping the pump wire again what do you guys think? Can I make the same type of power with injectors, a mad ecm and twins that I have now with the tst box?



Are you guys having good luck with remanfactured pumps?



I am going to call southeast power systems and freightliner tomarrow and get a price on a pump. I need to get this fixed asap as it is my work truck.

 

[mgoncalves]

i was wondering if i had to remove a cover on the front of the engine to get the gear puller in to seperate the pump from the gear or if i had to pull the whole gear case.



QUOTE]



You take off the piece that the breather tube comes out of, it screws out.

 

[RLinkins]

You don't have to tap the wire. Blue Chip makes a plate that replaces the top plate on your VP44 which will reveal the connections for the wire you tap and a little screw you tighten down on the plate touches the contact. So when and if you kill your pump just take the blue chip plate off put the stock back on and the dealer will never know.

 

[Todd T]

You'll wanna call cummins stuff.com to get the new pump. I'd bet you cant beat his prices anywhere.



the gear puller is used through the breather bottle-neck-fitting-thing-a-ma-jigger. the manual calls this the: Crankcase breather. (now you know what we both call it )



it's that large round thing the breather tube and bottle are connected to. it unscrews (counter-clockwise to remove).



You'll need a puller, a small mirror and something to bar the engine over with. your best bet there is just get the barrring tool and do it right. they cost about $40-50 and are worth the money if you do your own valve maintenance and whatnot. Napa can get them for you.

 

[Todd T]

BTW I'm very surpirsed those codes were all you were seeing before the pump went south. was there any drivabilty issues along with those codes?



the only thing a really see here is that your truck is a 99 and the early trucks had some burs and rough castings that would cause the pump to fail usually very shortly after the pump was tapped.



with that said, i wouldnt worry about tapping the new pump. it should hold up for you.



FWIW there is a hotrod pump on Haisley Machine's site used for $1000

 

[aarlucas]

Smoker,

Changing the pump is very easy. You don't have to pull the cover to pop the gear off the shaft. I used a steering wheel puller. It took quite a bit of tension to get the gear to pop off though.



I just picked up a rebuilt pump from SE Power systems when I was in Florida last week. Those guys are a great group. There is a blonde lady there that was very eager to assist me with the pump purchase/exchange.

 

[Black-Smoker]

Thanks for all of the help guys I picked up a reman pump today from SE power systems here in Orlando for 1000. 00 they had to charge me a 500 dollar core deposit on the old one until they tore it down to see what kind of condition it was in. The lady on the phone said that their pumps have all of the latest updates from bosch in them. :{ When I brought the old pump in the guy took it back and put it on his test stand right away for me. He came back a few minutes later and said that the pump had suffered some sort of major internal failure and was seized up. :{



When I got the new pump I went ahead and soldered a new pigtail connection on the pump for my TST box it was much easier to do while the pump was out. One thing that I would add to the NW bombers instructions is to pull the plugs out of the feed and return lines before you install the pump mine were in there very tight and I had to pry them out with a seal pick. Took me about 20 minutes to do this.



Todd I never had any drivability issues with the old pump I did notice that the truck idles a lot quieter now.