Hello new to this site, new to ctd's. I went to start my truck thursday morning but it wouldn't start in its usual 2-3 cranks and fire. It took about 3 attempts ran rough for a second than ran fine. The same thing happened friday and then again sunday and monday. I filled the tank on the way to work on monday and it has started fine since. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

 

hello and welcome to DTR. I see you have a 2000. you need to read up on the injector pump (vp44) and get a fuel presure gauge in the cab. Use the SEARCH and you well find all you need to know. as for as you problem it could be a bad lift pump or a small leak letting it loose it's prime. you well find in your reseach on the pump that you will need this fuel presure gauge ASAP

 

That sounds more like you have bad pickup tubes in the tank. Symptoms are a hard to start situation after half a tank.

 

My search didn't turn up much on the problem I have (had) anybody else run into the same thing? I'm afraid to go very far for fear it might quit running on me. Any ideas?

 

BlackD and Plow both have good ideas, and YES! Get a FP gauge ASAP, you need to monitor the FP going to the VP on these trucks;

2-3 cranks before starting as "normal" doesn't sound that normal to me, I just touch the key and mine fires (unless it's below 0 deg. F), that may be the sign of a retiring VP, and may not be related to your current no-start situation; You should also check the Fuel Filter, this may be dirty and contributing to a low pressure to the VP situation, which could cause the longer / harder starting

I'm not sure what the cure for bad / plugged pickup tubes might be, keeping it above 1/2 tank should keep you on the road until you can drop the tank and pull / clean / swap the pickup tube; Reverse pressure through the tube may clean it up, but will just put the same clogging material back into the tank.


How many miles and what mods are on your truck?

 

I've got 118000 on the clock, the two or three cranks might have been an overestimate on how many times it turns over before it starts. Its always started right up no hesitation. The only mod I have is the superchip, and I never really have pulled any kind of weight other than flat towing my jeep. I've only put about 10000 miles on my truck since I bought it from a lot and it doesen't really seem like fuel filter to me. Although I will probably change that soon just to rule it out. I guess I was hoping that somebody else had run into this and could give me a definate reason for my problem. Thank you for any and all help and suggestions.

 

Get that changed ASAP.
Who knows when it was changed last, and they should be changed every 10K, at least.


phox