I don't know if you remember this or not, but a couple of weeks ago I mentioned how my truck was very hard starting. It seemed to take forever to finally fire up with my foot mashing the pedal to the floor while cranking it over. Eventually, it came to life and has been fine ever since. I / we all attrubuted it to mabe the fuel was at the gel point and that it was the dropping temps that was the cause.

It did it again today ...

Because I went through this a week or so ago, this time when I tried to fire it up I pinned the pedal to the floor right away and it eventually fired up. This time however, it was almost 50 degrees outside, so the whole gel thing is out the window.

Here's what I'm thinking ...

I was reading Bob's post about a dieing 44, however once my Ram comes to life, it starts fine every time after. Just like there was never a problem before. That got me to thinking about something I remember reading before about some sort of bleed down thing or something where the fuel un-pressurizes or something. Could that be the cause? My fuel pressure has been a steady 14psi once fired up.

 

at this stage of the game, anything is possible. thats what I have learned with my ctd .....

 

My problem was the pump was sucking in air which caused the fuel to fizz, like Mt. Dew soda. Once the truck started it was fine and it showed 15PSI on the fuel gauge while running. You may want to get a clear piece of hose like I did and see if you have air in your fuel line the next time it is hard to start.

 

do you have any fuel leaks? there is a banjo fitting at the back of the head that is a return line and if it is leaking then the fuel that is in the motor whenyou shut it off can drain out andthe truck can be hard to start. this happened on mine and i fixed it with some new cummins washers. just a thought since it seams you are having trouble.

 

it is starting to sound like you have a bleed down problem. . .

 

The only reaason that I think it's some sort of bleed down is because it seems to only happen after the Ram sits for a couple of days. Until last night, I hadn't driven the Ram since comming home friday night, so it basically sat for 3 days.

Where would I start to find this bleed down Drew, at the washers like Viper was mentioning?

Bob, I'd LOVE to see a pic of that device that you screwed into your filter housing. It sounds pretty ingenious. How did you know that the air leak wasn't comming from your clear fitting instead of down the line?

 

When the back up pump (in-tank) ran for about 30 seconds, the fuel turned a clear color. I guess it had to flush all of the air out of the line. That was the first mistake I made. When I first tried starting the truck on the backup pump, I didn't let the pump run long enough to flush out the air. So I thought the VP44 was going out because the odds of both pumps leaking air at the same time were too great.

The hand held pressure gauge that I have, has a scheader valve connector. It also has a bleed valve on it. I put a clear piece of plastic on the bleed off valve and ran it into an old PS bottle I had. The scheader valve connector fits the test ports on the fuel filter housing.

Here is a picture of what mine looks like. I bought the gauge without all of the fittings and other stuff for $24 at Oreilly Auto. It is a good thing to have in the tool box. I can't tell you how many times I've used it.

http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/w...9229_200329229

 

That's COOL !!!

So you could see the air in the lines right there in that plastic hose?

 

donny, the only way to tell would be to run your hands up the fuel lines till you feel the lines sweating.

 

I'm a little confused Drew.

Do I run my hands along the lines once I have the truck started or before hand?

Does sweaty lines indicate a leak somewhere?