fbx22

So yesterday Im driving up I39 at between 68 and 70 mph. Truck starts to spit and sputter like its low on fuel. Gauge said between 1/8th and 1/4th left and no fuel light came on but it sounded like when a vehicle or lawn mower runs out of fuel or gas. Luckily I see an exit coming up and take the exit, still sputtering along until I get to the stop sign and have to slow down for the vehicle in front of me. Then off goes the truck and will not start, Had it towed home and been fooling with it today. I read there have been fuel fauge issues on these trucks so I put about 4 gallons of fuel in the tank, looked at the fuel filter(its a bit dirty but not so bad that it would prevent starting) Took the tire looking cover off the bleed valve, let the pump run 20 seconds while bleeding it out. One very short puff of air but nothing significant. Tried restarting truck and still no start. BTW there are no codes either. Is this the dreaded VP44 replacement time? Havent been on or updated the signature in quite a while. Im around 108K now on the odometer

patdaly

Take a 19 MM wrench and crack the front 3 Injectors at the nut, she should bleed out and start firing rough at first, tighten them when it starts..........

I would bet you ran out of fuel

Tallguy67

One of the folks who know more than I do will surely chime in but I wouldn't condemn your VP yet. First of all, our generation of trucks are notorious for having faulty fuel level sending units. You will often see a 1/4 of a tank on the gauge and yet be empty. Hopefully this is what happened to you. In order to bleed the fuel system after you fill it with air you need to crack the seal on the line coming into one or two of your injectors and then crank the engine until you have a good flow of fuel coming out around the inject. Do not completely remove the line to the injector, just loosen it. Also do not crank the truck more than about 30 seconds at a time with a few minute cooling off period between or you will overheat your starter motor.

One of the more experience members will hopefully jump in and give more detailed instructions about what to do. But, like I said, I wouldn't condemn your VP44 yet.

Tallguy67

LOL, Patdaly responded to you while I was typing my response

He is one of those people I was referring to when I said 'more experienced members'.....

fbx22

thanks. I will give that a try.....as soon as I find the Kobalt 19mm wrench that apparently grew legs and walked off

At this rate I might have to go get a $2 walmart wrench until I can find mine. Its amazing how tools often walk off only to be found in the yard or in another car when you clearly havent even been in said car

fbx22

thanks for the advice. After spilling some fuel all over the drive way(thankfully we have cats and cat litter) and about 6 times of trying to crank it over, she fired up

I had to crack open the seal of 1, 3, and 4th injectors however because I couldnt get at the 2nd one with the wrench I had.

Now the question is, whats the average cost of having a faulty fuel gauge fixed or replaced

BigIron70

Sounds like your fuel gauge is off, nothing new with that year truck. Replace sending unit in fuel tank. May have to go with retro fit pump or aftermarket sending unit.

patdaly

All you really need is the sender, about 75 bucks from Chrysler.....

4897669AB - Sending unit
DIESEL W/PICK-UP BOX, Walbro
PARTS: Part included with fuel pump assembly.
MSRP Core ? Online Price
$98.35 $0.00 $70.80

jrs_dodge_diesel

I paid close to $100 for my new sender earlier this year from a dealer here in Texas. Works like it is supposed to again.

fbx22, you got lucky that yours started sputtering and got some sort of warning. When I ran out last year, it just shut down like I had turned the key off. My gauge was showing ¼ tank too.

Replacing the sending unit is pretty straight forward. Getting to it is something else though. You only have two options; drop the tank, or lift the bed. I dropped the tank since I have a camper shell mounted, plus all of the bed bolt heads are Line-X'd over. I also replaced both fuel lines while I was at it with rubber lines since the supply line sprung a pinhole leak around the same time. The OEM fuel lines aren't that great either.