Hi all. I have a 2001 Dakota Extend Cab 4.7.

I was in the process of moving when my truck sputtered, lost power, and died while traveling at freeway speed. It did not immediately start back up again, but eventually did start.I got about a mile down the road and it did it again. This happened several times before I was able to get to a rest stop and call for a tow. I got it home and figured that I would look into replacing the fuel pump once I finished moving, since that is what it seemed like to me.

I discovered how inconvenient changing the fuel pump out in this vehicle was, so I tried to eliminate other possibilities. The first thing I did was to see if there were any blown fuses and found none. My next step was to check the fuel pump relay. There are two other relays that are the exact same relay so I swapped the wiper relay with the fuel pump relay and the wipers still using the fuel pump relay and the fuel pump still didn't work with the wiper relay.

So, just yesterday I unbolted the bed and jacked the front of it high enough to see the fuel pump and to continue working on it.

Today, I pulled the fuel pump and put in the replacement and hooked it all up, fully expecting the truck to start right up. It did not. I unplugged the fuel line and turned over the engine, expecting fuel to shoot out of the fuel pump. It did not. It appears that there is no power getting to my fuel pump or the brand new pump that I put in is defective.

Does anyone have a suggestion where I should look next? I didn't see a thread that addressed this but I am new to the group and may have missed it.

Much thanks in advance!

 

What brand pump did you install?

Verify you are getting 12 volts on pin 30 of the fuel pump relay socket.

 

Thank you for the reply.

The fuel pump is a Delphi. I have not unpacked yet but will see if I can find one of my meters to test pin 30. If I don't get 12v on that pin, what would I look at next?
Thanks again.

 

Should be a fat fuse under the hood for it.

Delphi is a good brand. That shouldn't be a problem. (though, I have gotten bad ones out of the box before, just not very often with Delphi.)

 

OK, some more information.

I do not have 12v on pin 30 of the fuel pump relay. I did a continuity test on all of the fuses under the hood and got 0 ohms resistance on all of them and the fuel pump relay works for other circuits.

But I did notice something else. When I turn on the ignition, the fuel light pings, then I get a "check gauges" message, and then the trip meter shows "no bu5 and the check engine light comes on. I also now recall when the issue started that the "check gauges" message was coming on as the truck was stalling. I am also getting a code P0725. I don't know how I missed these things. I am guessing that even though the fuel pump is not functioning that this is not the root cause.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

Code is for the speed sensor circuit. The no bus thing means something on the 5 volt bus has an issue. Start unplugging anything on that bus, till the dash actually doesn't show the no bus thing. It's possible the fuel sending unit is the issue.....

 

Thanks. I'll give that a try.

 

OK. It appears that the problem was that the ECU or PCM was in the process of dying, but not quite dead. It eventually died and that made diagnosing it easier - everything was consistently not functioning. I got a new one and the truck fired right up. I even got correct codes for the sensors that I had neglected to plug back in while I was diagnosing it.

Thanks for the help!