6/20/03 marks the day I fell victim to the infamous lift pump failure. The pump had 57,300 miles on it when removed.
Fuel Filters have been changed every 10,000 miles, fuel purchased only from truck stops, and Stanadyne Performance Formula has been used with each tank fill. At 30,000 miles after performing a fuel filter change, I noticed the pressure dropped from 13 psi idle to 10 psi. Assuming that it was just the fresh filter causing this I waited for the pressure to return. During the week of 6/20/03, the pressure became sporatic, idling between 9 psi and 5 psi with pressures going as low s 2 psi under moderate throttle. Fearing the pump was about to completely fail, I picked up a new pump from the Cummins distributor for $146 as opposed to the Dodge dealer wanting $216. The pump should be covered under warranty but I would rather spend 3 hours doing it right than waiting 2 days (1 day for Dodge to determine the problem and 1 day to fix it) to hope they fixed it correctly with out contaminting the fuel lines. I have not been able to determine the reason for failure at this point but have compiled photgraphs of the lift pump itself. |
