Went out and drained the filter housing using the petcock. Got about a cup out. Put the key in and turned far enough so it showed grid heaters symbol. No fuel pump sound. Start engine and it starts and runs only about 15 seconds. I've never been so glad to hear an engine die! At least its a straight forward problem now, not an intermittant one .

Perhaps what happend yesterday was truck sat out in sun and fuel in the tank warmed up, perhaps enough to cause expansion of fuel in tank/fuel lines and up into the filter housing and that was enough to get it started and running for a while.

Found my warranty booklet and I am within 7/70 Powertrain and Cummins Engine 7/100 warranty (both with $100 deductable after 36k miles) and they cover towing to dealership if a covered part failed. However, no specific mention of lift pump covered under either warranty. It DOES state that it covers the fuel injection pump (CP3), water pump, etc. Since the filter housing and lift pump are bolted to engine block on my 04.5 (not in tank) one would think one of these warranties should apply. I seem to recall a few years back that there was another 04.5 member here that said his lift pump was covered by the engine warranty. Might have been a Dealer discretion call though. I will call my local dealership Monday to see what they say.

If I do end up doing the repair the part about having to lower my tank (178 lbs fuel plus tank weight) due to short bed clearances to attach a new fuel line is a bit perplexing. Although, I might be able to rig up a transfer pump to pump out all the fuel by running a hose down the filler neck. The other thought would be to use my floor jack with a long 2x10 board under tank to lower the tank/fuel just enough to get hand in to reach fuel line fitting.

At least now I'm back to a hard failure situation, nothing itermittant. I'm leaning towards going with a better pump solution (more reliable mfg. vs having dealer put in same failed part design if that is what they do). The thought of risking another dead on road failure in heavy traffic while towing my gooseneck loaded with 3 horses is not something I want to face even if I had a spare pump on board.

 

Yeah, I can't remember...

Don't lower the tank, pull the bed. MUCH easier...

 

Unfortunately, I have aux tank/tool box plumbed and wired through bed, a gooseneck hitch, in-bed wired trailer connector, camera connector & stake pocket dual CB antenna mounts. Lots of wires, plumbing and stuff to disconnect from my bed before I can even put a wrench to it.

All I need to do drop the stock fuel tank is to pump it dry, remove the two bolts holding the two bands around tank and it will come right down. Correct?

 

Yeah, it's not that hard. Don't forget about the lines and wiring harness on the top of the tank. You may be able to reach them from the driver side rear wheel well.

 

I was hoping there would be enough slack in lines to drop it part way, guess not.

Unfortunately for me, the wheel well route is a no go, I have rear wheel wheel liners installed and GN hitch plate bolted to frame is blocking off access there anyway.

However, I went out just now and I can get a hand in there (barely) by laying on my back in front of rear tire and reaching up and over frame rail to touch the lines and connector - blindly though.

What has to happen to get a fuel line off? If I can get the right one off that way how hard is it to put the new fitting for the new Raptor fuel line. Maybe I can be a contortionist just long enought to attach it if it does not take a lot of pressure to get new fitting/hose on.

 

They just clip on... squeeze and pull.

 

Excellent Madhat! Exactly what I needed to see. I'm thinking I can do this blindly by feel after getting my orientation with a quick mirror peek first. All I have to do is remove the rightmost fuel supply line and attach the new Raptor Quick Connect fitting. No messing with tank or bed removal assuming I have enough reach & room to work my fingers enough to detach & reattach a new fitting.

 

Yeah, you should be able to do it. My truck is high enough that I can almost sit up on the passenger side underneath and get to the tank, too... just gotta fight around the exhaust and drive shaft...

 

Same thing happen to my 04.5 at the same mileage. Got a FASS DDRP from Geno's Garage. Don't need to drop tank to hook up. Uses the stock fuel line and has all the fittings you need. Took me about an hour to put in. Best money I spent and real easy to do.

 

Well I just got off the phone with Dealership. He said they can convert it to the newer intank pump version. He looked up my VIN and yes I still have both powertrain and engine warranty left. However, Chrysler does not cover the lift pump failure under either warranty . He said it varied in the past whether they did. So the decision has been made for me. I'm going aftermarket, which is the best option anyway all things considered.

Sundance54 - Nice unit that FASS - I looked at the FASS DDRP installation PDF and it says you have to drill the frame to fasten the bracket, unlike the Raptor which uses a sandwich type mount. That looks kinda like a tight spot to drill and a bit off angle unless you have a rt angle drill, which I don't.

MadHat - Just curious if you know why the Raptor 100 cannot utilize the stock fuel line like the FASS? Does it require a new fuel line to tank because of increased flow capacity? Since I am stock would that really matter? Just looking for a potential fall back position versus dropping tank if it ends up going that way.

Now I am wondering if I really should consider better fuel filtration and go to something like to the AIR DOG so I have improved filtration. I wouldn't want to loose my CP3 or Injectors next . I guess I could always add better filtration later to the Raptor.

PS: My wife is starting to give me funny looks now. She wants to know why I keep stealing her pocket mirror and why am I going outside so many times with it and then crawling back under the truck. She thinks I'm acting sorta weird, I'm beginning to think so too

 

No... it does. If I said it could not before, I'm sorry...

In that case, I would get a Glacier MK2 (two micron) universal fuel filter and put it in line after the raptor.

 

I didn't watch the whole thing, but I saw some good footage in it...

 

Thanks again madhat! Great video on the install. The guy did a super job narrating his finished installation. Answers all my questions and then some.

 

Regarding additional filtration... Wouldn't it be better to add the new (finer) filter after the OEM filter assy? That way the stock filter catches the big stuff plus any water and then passes it on to the 2 micron filter for final filtering. Seems like the 2 micron filter might last longer if the stock filter is upstream and does a pre-filter pass for it.

 

Just to close things out...

My new Raptor 100 arrived yesterday - Thanks Lary!

I ended up having to remove both driver side wheels and fender liners. Fortunately I did not have to drop the tank or take off the short bed (with 25 gallons of fuel in my main tank and a plumbed in TransferFlow tank in the bed either method would have been a real pain). After removing the rear tire/fender liner there was just enough room to the left of my gooseneck hitch plate to get one hand on the fuel line fitting on top of the tank. But boy did that little blue snap-on fitting fight me tooth-n-nail. I didn't have any angled needle nose pliers but my wife just happend to have a pair of 10" long surgical forceps with a 45 angled jaw that I used to lock on and push the blue clip towards the nipple and then left it there while I used same hand to grab the fuel line and force it off. It finally let loose!

Man that Raptor is one nice kit!!! No made in China junk here. I Coudn't believe how heavy duty the pump and mounting bracket were and the apparent quality of construction. Those Jiffy Tite connectors are very cool. The kit even included zip ties and a spare O ring service kit! The shipping weight on the kit was something like 18 lbs. That stock lift pump is very anemic by comparison. When I started up the truck I could not believe how few seconds the pump ran to purge the air out of the system and bring up to operating pressure once I closed the petcock drain. Maybe its my imagination but I think it now idles smoother.

I'm very glad I went this route instead of allowing the dealership to install an intank pump for $950 + towing. The Raptor is definetly a mission critical fuel pump! In the unlikely event that it should ever fail down the road, it would be incredibly easy to service or replace.

Thank U Madhat for all your help!!!

Now, I'm lusting over the GDP MK 2+ big line APPS mount 2 micron filter kit.