Cranks but won't turn over
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Joined: Oct 2013
Posts: 13
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OK guys, new pump has been in for a couple days now and she's ticking like a clock. Unfortunately the weather and holiday has prevented me from finishing the job completely. Even though it isn't a 100% I'm going to run it down in case someone else is in the same spot I was and looking for some direction.
Fuel Pump Replacement (the quick and easy way)
04 Dodge Ram 1500, 3.7 liter 6 cyl 5 speed, Quad Cab Short bed with 190k miles.
Diagnosis - Truck cranked but would not start. No whirring noise from the tank with the ignition key advanced. No pressure at the fuel rail Schrader valve on the passenger side. No blown fuse or inoperable relay switch. All of this combined indicated a burnt pump.
Truck was stuck in a commercial parking lot close to home. Called my insurance co and added roadside assistance to my policy ($30/yr for all 3 of my cars). The insurance co made arrangements to flat bed my truck home free of charge, all in the same phone call. Note - its free if your under 8 miles away, which I was. Further and you pay the difference per mile. The point is, I was not aware they'd do this so before you call for a tow and open up your wallet, call your insurance company first and see if they can help you out.
There are generally two methods to replace the pump, drop the tank or lift the bed. I choose another option. In researching the repair I learned that dropping the tank is an incredible p.i.t.a. So much so that a mechanic or dealer charges upwards of $800 to do it. This is due mostly to the labor cost involved. I dropped my tranny to replace the clutch a few weeks before this happened so I'm not afraid of hard work but the weather was bad and the idea of crawling under the truck with a foot of snow on the ground didn't appeal to me. Dropping the tank was out. The other method is to lift the bed. I'm a one man show so that didn't seem very easy either. After careful consideration I decided to cut the floor of bed to gain access to the pump. I have a bed liner anyway so having a little scar under there doesn't bother me at all. Best decision I ever made.
Operation - look under the truck to get your bearings. I used a tape measure and a plastic drain plug in the bed to get my measurements and location right. Its not difficult and takes maybe ten minutes to draw your lines. I went with a 7 x 9" hole so I had some room to move in there and it was damn near perfect. I kind of got a little lucky with the placement and size. The pump is not dead center, its more to the top of the hole and to the left. Had it been centered i think getting the ring off (read further) might have been more difficult. To cut the hole I used an electric grinder with a 4 1/2" metal cutting disc. Start to finish about 20-25 minutes. The pump is secured by a metal ring, soak it was pretty rusty so I soaked it in pb blaster overnight. Thoroughly clean the area with a scrub brush before proceeding. Seriously, make it spotless. You do not want dirt and debris falling into the tank during this, especially if you didn't or don't plan on draining the tank. Get dirt in the there and your screwed. Moving on, I then used a hefty flat blade screw driver and hammer to drive the ring loose. It was difficult and I thought it wasn't going to give but I kept at it and eventually it came loose. I should mention I had a quarter tank of gas in there. The less gas the better but I did not drain the tank. To remove the old pump you have to twist it around a bit and convince it a little. There's a cup at the base of the pump that was hung up on the lip of the tank but I used a screw driver to massage it out. Be careful not to chip, snap, or break off any plastic lest it falls into the tank. The new pump goes in the same way the old came out. Plug in your wiring harness, attach the fuel line and that's it. She should fire right up. This process was 30 minutes tops and with cutting the hole, your all in with about an hour on the clock of actual work. I did spend considerably more time planning, agonizing and talking myself into it, I ain't going to lie to you. I know how to weld so repairing the hole was not the issue so much as just the idea of cutting it in the first place. Yea my truck is almost ten years old with a ton of miles but she's pretty damn close to cherry. It wasn't easy to put her under the knife but I'm damn glad I did. Hell, If Chrysler engineers had a brain cell among them, there'd be an access plate there from the factory.
Ok so now you have a hole in the bed of your truck. What to do. Even though I could weld the cut out back in no problem, I'm not going to. The quickest and easiest way to go with this is ask your local junk yard to cut out a piece of floor larger than the hole from a junker they have out in the yard. Drill some holes, counter sink some sheet metal screws and maybe squeeze some gasket maker in around the hole to seal it and prevent rust. My local you-pull-it said no problem when I called. You might also be able to score a patch panel and make your access plate out of that, I haven't looked into that though. Side note, I know I said I wasn't going to weld the cut out back in, and I'm not, but what I might try doing is welding a flange around the outside edges of the cutout to make my access plate, just as excuse to fill my Oxy A tanks and get some practice in.
The tab -
$30.00 to add roadside assistance for a free tow,
$148.00 for the part ordered online after a 5% discount, no tax, shipping included.
Pump is a Delphi, OE for the truck. Be careful what you buy here. Bunch of choices and after a considerable amount of research, found a ton of horrible reviews for almost all of them. Due diligence usually pays off in my experience.
And that's it. I'll try to post some pics next post. Hit me up if you have any questions.
Thanks for reading and if you go this route I hope it helps you out.
Fuel Pump Replacement (the quick and easy way)
04 Dodge Ram 1500, 3.7 liter 6 cyl 5 speed, Quad Cab Short bed with 190k miles.
Diagnosis - Truck cranked but would not start. No whirring noise from the tank with the ignition key advanced. No pressure at the fuel rail Schrader valve on the passenger side. No blown fuse or inoperable relay switch. All of this combined indicated a burnt pump.
Truck was stuck in a commercial parking lot close to home. Called my insurance co and added roadside assistance to my policy ($30/yr for all 3 of my cars). The insurance co made arrangements to flat bed my truck home free of charge, all in the same phone call. Note - its free if your under 8 miles away, which I was. Further and you pay the difference per mile. The point is, I was not aware they'd do this so before you call for a tow and open up your wallet, call your insurance company first and see if they can help you out.
There are generally two methods to replace the pump, drop the tank or lift the bed. I choose another option. In researching the repair I learned that dropping the tank is an incredible p.i.t.a. So much so that a mechanic or dealer charges upwards of $800 to do it. This is due mostly to the labor cost involved. I dropped my tranny to replace the clutch a few weeks before this happened so I'm not afraid of hard work but the weather was bad and the idea of crawling under the truck with a foot of snow on the ground didn't appeal to me. Dropping the tank was out. The other method is to lift the bed. I'm a one man show so that didn't seem very easy either. After careful consideration I decided to cut the floor of bed to gain access to the pump. I have a bed liner anyway so having a little scar under there doesn't bother me at all. Best decision I ever made.
Operation - look under the truck to get your bearings. I used a tape measure and a plastic drain plug in the bed to get my measurements and location right. Its not difficult and takes maybe ten minutes to draw your lines. I went with a 7 x 9" hole so I had some room to move in there and it was damn near perfect. I kind of got a little lucky with the placement and size. The pump is not dead center, its more to the top of the hole and to the left. Had it been centered i think getting the ring off (read further) might have been more difficult. To cut the hole I used an electric grinder with a 4 1/2" metal cutting disc. Start to finish about 20-25 minutes. The pump is secured by a metal ring, soak it was pretty rusty so I soaked it in pb blaster overnight. Thoroughly clean the area with a scrub brush before proceeding. Seriously, make it spotless. You do not want dirt and debris falling into the tank during this, especially if you didn't or don't plan on draining the tank. Get dirt in the there and your screwed. Moving on, I then used a hefty flat blade screw driver and hammer to drive the ring loose. It was difficult and I thought it wasn't going to give but I kept at it and eventually it came loose. I should mention I had a quarter tank of gas in there. The less gas the better but I did not drain the tank. To remove the old pump you have to twist it around a bit and convince it a little. There's a cup at the base of the pump that was hung up on the lip of the tank but I used a screw driver to massage it out. Be careful not to chip, snap, or break off any plastic lest it falls into the tank. The new pump goes in the same way the old came out. Plug in your wiring harness, attach the fuel line and that's it. She should fire right up. This process was 30 minutes tops and with cutting the hole, your all in with about an hour on the clock of actual work. I did spend considerably more time planning, agonizing and talking myself into it, I ain't going to lie to you. I know how to weld so repairing the hole was not the issue so much as just the idea of cutting it in the first place. Yea my truck is almost ten years old with a ton of miles but she's pretty damn close to cherry. It wasn't easy to put her under the knife but I'm damn glad I did. Hell, If Chrysler engineers had a brain cell among them, there'd be an access plate there from the factory.
Ok so now you have a hole in the bed of your truck. What to do. Even though I could weld the cut out back in no problem, I'm not going to. The quickest and easiest way to go with this is ask your local junk yard to cut out a piece of floor larger than the hole from a junker they have out in the yard. Drill some holes, counter sink some sheet metal screws and maybe squeeze some gasket maker in around the hole to seal it and prevent rust. My local you-pull-it said no problem when I called. You might also be able to score a patch panel and make your access plate out of that, I haven't looked into that though. Side note, I know I said I wasn't going to weld the cut out back in, and I'm not, but what I might try doing is welding a flange around the outside edges of the cutout to make my access plate, just as excuse to fill my Oxy A tanks and get some practice in.
The tab -
$30.00 to add roadside assistance for a free tow,
$148.00 for the part ordered online after a 5% discount, no tax, shipping included.
Pump is a Delphi, OE for the truck. Be careful what you buy here. Bunch of choices and after a considerable amount of research, found a ton of horrible reviews for almost all of them. Due diligence usually pays off in my experience.
And that's it. I'll try to post some pics next post. Hit me up if you have any questions.
Thanks for reading and if you go this route I hope it helps you out.
