Trucks broke down!

[thendrex]

I have a problem and I was hoping you guys could help me out. I pulled out of my shop this evening onto the main drag that takes me to my subdivision and I decided stomp on the truck pretty hard to merge in with traffic and it was pulling pretty good thru the first couple of gears when the truck *DIED*. I put it in nuetral and tried to start it but it would just turn over. I pulled into a neighborhood to see if something unplugged or to see if I could find anything obvious but I wasn't lucky. I opened the bleeder valve on the filter housing and it ran fuel out, so I'm guessing the lift pump is still ok. I had it towed home so I could work on it tomorrow. If anyone had ANY idea on what I should look for and how to go about looking for it I'd GREATLY appreciate it!!



Figures my first post would have to do with a problem!

 

[thendrex]

I forgot, the truck has a Power Edge, Scotty air ,dynomax bullet race muffler and an auto transmission.



Thanks guys in advance for any info... .



Todd

 

[rspinks]

Todd, sorry to hear about your troubles, I can't offer much advice but more info will be helpful. What model year is your truck? Did any noise occur or did it just shut down as if the fuel supply were shut off? Have you checked the fuses? Just a few thoughts, I'm sure someone will be able to figure this out shortly.

 

[KatDiesel]

Do you have a fuel pressure gauge, or have you checked fuel pressure under WOT?



That would be the first place I would start.

 

[thendrex]

I did check the fuses when I was on the side of the road. The wrecker took 1 hr to get there so I did pass the time looking at it. lol. . The truck is a 99 with an auto transmission. I think a friend has a guy at work that might be able to scan it for me tomorrow... . but who knows... .



Todd

 

[Bigsaint]

First thing I would do is to bump the starter with the drain lever for the fuel filter in the up (open) position. If fuel pours out but the truck refuses to start, then I'd swap the realy for the fuel system with another relay. Hopefully it's not the VP44.



Scott W.

 

[Sean Flanagan]

A couple of years ago, a friend of mine ran his truck out of fuel and kept trying to nurse it along and re-start it. He called me and I towed it to the local fuel stop. After that it didn't quite run right. Had a miss, smoked more...



Anyway, about a week later, I was with him and he was lettin' her rip onto the freeway like you are talking about and the thing just died when it hit 3000rpm and wouldn't restart. We verified the operation of the lift pump and it was ok. Then loosened an injector line or 2 at the head and no fuel came out. We took it to the dealer where they said the VP44 Injector Pump had a "Catastrophic Failure". They replaced it under warranty (98k miles).



We figured that running it out of fuel is probably what started the premature death of the VP44 since it is lubricated by fuel.