Bill:
Just a word to. I just had the same trouble on the wife's 98. I bought a new vacuum pump, at employee cost, $720, and the drive fitting on the PS pump. The drive tooth broke . $65 there. The drive section is replacable. I had the drive replaced and the two sections put together and installed. From there it was down hill. I had been working out of town and the wife drove the truck a week till I got back.
When we got ready to go out to eat sat, I got in the truck, started it and wow, what a noise. I hit the brakes and a loud "Whoosh", plop, plop,plop. And the whole time the PS pump singing. I shut it off and got another truck and left. That day I took the 98 to a friend at a Dodge dealer and now it got bad. . Oil was every where. On the ground, on the engine, in the PS pump, and in the brakes. What was the fix? Another vacuum pump, a new PS pump, new seals and $571 labor. The truck sat about 4 days to let all the oil purge itself from the truck. Total bill, $2146. 00
The cause of the failure was the drive section of the PS pump was pressed on to far and the two parts did not seal. Vacumm and PS pump. I tried to save a little and it cost me a lot. The one good thing out of it all was the tech told the service mananger the first vacumm pump was faulty and caused the failure. With that failure it caused another part failure, the PS pump and he warrantied the parts and I paid the labor. It ended up costing me the first pump price and the labor. $1300.
Now I'm out of a job, terminated, no work, and praying the truck don't break again.
Good luck.
. . Preston. .
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