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Cab back from blast. Exposed a few spots that I missed from my early time welding. Primed and roof being worked.

Just want to touch base with everyone. I've been very scarce lately. I've been dealing with a lot. Trying to get something moving with dad's legal case ( from his car accident that ultimately took him from us) and more recently my mother was battling stage 5 kidney failure along with multiple infections at the same time. She lost her battle and passed away at 9am October 8th. Since then I've been very busy arranging the funeral, after service luncheon and handling other business since mom's will appointed me executor. I have a ways to go before I can fully wrap things up. Mom's house will have to be cleaned, repainted inside, yard work done and then put on the market to be sold. I have to be in court for dad's case Friday at 3pm, hoping some good news will come from that. It's been a stressful ride the past month and have some more ahead but I will keep pushing forward and eventually find the end of this bumpy road.

Checked my batteries this morning. One is marked 07/24 and the other is 08/24. They must have replaced em right before i bought the truck.

Not sure on their age. They were in it when i got it. Thats something i can check when i get off work in the morning. Ive had no issues so far out of them as far as dying or having a hard time starting. As far as the cables everything looks ok.

@Chickendog73 , how old are your batteries, and are they in good condition? How about the crossover cable? John

After the collision i limped it home. I was in shock (i spun around all the way off the hill and barely dodged going off a cliff, no pun intended). Due to the shock and just barely limping it home so i could get a look at the damage im really unsure if it started immediately at the time of the wreck. It also doesnt help any that the vp44 went out within a mile of my house after driving it the first time after the wreck. So they kinda happened simultaneously. The red and white wires in the PDC i mentioned are the ones you brought up that run voltage to the ecm and VP. Ive been doing all of my electrical testing when the truck is up to temperature so my trends are going crazy in an effort to be sure my testing stays consistent and to know the problem is actually there at that time. As far as the grounds go that was my intention with the ground leads. I was just trying to bypass any bad ground i could have to be sure that was not the problem. Like i said the trend seems to slightly react and smoothen out for a moment after hooking up the ground leads but then returns to what it was doing. As for the W-T ground mod i just found out about it the other day. That is my next attempt at this but at the moment im working 12 hour swing shift for the next couple weeks without a day off so it will be a minute before i can get that far. If it wasnt my daily driver i could do it after work but would hare to mess something up and have to borrow a vehicle for the next day. If you google it there are videos that show it. Its basically a way to “delete” the splices between grounds on these trucks. Supposedly helps with a/c noise and gives you better grounds where you need them from what i understand.

What is this w-t ground modification?

Good documentation on your part for your initial post regarding this problem. You definitely need to figure this out - you have a good truck with low miles. I don't know if you have a good wiring diagram for the engine controls, so I am posting a diagram below. I suspect that the collision with the rock wall is related to your symptoms. A couple of questions, though: Did the "stutter" show up right after the collision, or after the VP44 replacement? How much time and miles elapsed between the collision and the VP44 replacement? You mention testing the red / white wire from the PDC - I am assuming this is the wire that supplies power to the ECM and the injection pump. If so, I would continue to check voltage (engine running and voltage spikes occurring) downstream from there. As you can see in the wiring diagram, Joint Connector #2 (inside the PDC) and Splice #161 are part of that circuit. I would also verify the condition of ground Splice 168 to Ground 125 on front of engine. If you are using another ground connection point with your test lead and there is truly a ground problem in the ECM / injection pump circuit ground, you will get a steady voltage reading because you are bypassing the potential ground fault. Also, I believe there is one more splice that is not shown in the diagram - that would be S109 that is between S168 and G125. Are you familiar with the W-T ground reference modification? If so, has it been done? John

I purchased my first dodge cummins in December of last year. It is a 2001 3500 4x4 NV5600 with at the time 112,000 miles. I drove it 6 hours home without any hiccups other than the crappy steering which i have since fixed. In January i wrecked the truck coming off of a completely iced over hill and ran backwards into a rock wall doing 55+ mph. The truck drove home afterwards. Once i got it home and fixed the busted lights, the vp44 went out all at once and it died in the road. I install the upgraded thoroughbred diesel VP44, billet tappet cover, and a fass 165. My truck has not ran right since. It has a stutter now. When between 1700-2200 rpm it will randomly stutter almost like its cutting fuel for a split second. In the process of tracing down the problem i find out with my scanner that once my truck warms up to operating temp all my sensors go nuts. All sensor voltage, the ecm voltage, and the vp44 voltage will spike straight up and down repeatedly going from full voltage to no voltage until the truck cools off. I dont believe the 2 issues are completely related because the stutter is there even when the voltage trends are showing good. I have had multiple people look at it, spent countless hours testing voltages, moving grounds, hooking and unhooking stuff, and even sent my ecm off to be checked ($600) and can not come up with a solution. I want to love this truck so bad but i cant even remember what it was like to drive when it was doing good. Please someone help me diagnose my issue. I think at this point it could even be the fact that i am so deep in i could be overlooking the obvious. Just an fyi i have a fuel pressure gauge inline around 1.5’ before the vp44 that never drops at any point. It shows a constant 15 psi. I have tested the red/white wires from the pdc and all show almost 14 volts even when my scanner is showing dips. I doubt it had anything to do with it but my rear abs sensor is out. Havent got around to replacing yet. All the issues occur with or without the edge comp box. So far i have ran let the truck idle while watching the trend and unhooked my map sensor, abs module, and coolant sensor. Even with each or all unplugged the trend stays the same. I have taken alligator clip leads and ran grounds from each of the factory grounds to the frame, ran grounds from each of the factory grounds to the negative battery post, and hooked the negatives from both batteries together in the process of trying each factory ground. The trends seam to slightly respond when a new ground is hooked up but only for a couple seconds.

My write up was more so for the tappet cover gasket replacement. The ECM has 10mm bolts holding it to the block/tappet cover. There is a single allen screw in the center of the plug.

I was wrong to say that I'd cleaned all of the major connectors. I didn't know about the ECM. Now that I do, I can still hardly see it. I see your instructions on how to remove it, but that doesn't go into any steps before that. I suppose that removing the fuel filter housing would be a mess on top of letting air into the fuel system. I read elsewhere that removing the battery and intake would help. Any recommendations?

Cracked fuse will drop voltage randomly. Change with a fresh fuse t Poor man's test it will work just remember you moved the possibly damaged fuse and/or relay so be careful of the systems you might affect. If you problem moves then the relay or fuse will need to be replaced.

You can just swap out another like fuse and another relay and go for a quick test drive. John

Fuse #3 read good. I couldn't see any crack, but am not sure how I'd detect that. Similar with the R1 relay, although I haven't checked that one yet. I'll have to look into how to do that. The W-T ground wire mod was done prior to me getting it. It all looks about the same as your Simplified writeup, but the alternator main wire still goes to the PDC rather than directly to the passenger side battery for whatever reason.

@Mace I'd need to chat with you on the phone to verify other things to make sure a tune work work.

Double check your fuse for the VP44 and the fuel pump relay in the PDC. Fuse might appear good and be cracked which will give random drops of voltage. The relay connects might be bad too. If you have the W-T ground wire mod. Then the ground for the VP44 is at the gear case otherwise the ground is the passenger battery terminal. Use the wiring diagram and test the wires from end to end should have 5 ohms or less to pass. https://mopar1973man.com/cummins/articles.html/24-valve-2nd-generation/engine/electrical/2000-engine-wiring-map-r391/

Test drove it just now. This was with the intake heaters disconnected from the battery. It seemed to run fine, but the log I've attached shows the IP voltage dropping and spiking as well as the MAP sensor (boost voltage) was dropping out. 101325.bmp

There is a single connector with two black wires that are connected to the positive post of the driver side battery. These wires supply power to the intake manifold heaters (grid heaters). Within a few inches of the battery connection, you will see two fusible links - no fuses. Disconnect the the single wire connection. There are two fuse group locations. One is called the Power Distribution Panel (PDC), and the other is called the Junction Block. The PDC is located right beside the driver side battery. Th Junction Block is located on the left end of the dash. The driver's door must remain open for access. Hope this helps. John

I've tried to find the best way to disconnect the heaters, but am coming up short. I'm not sure I've identified the connections at the intake manifold, but am fairly certain they are the two large cable connections at the base of the air intake housing. I didn't think disconnecting those there would be the best idea. I traced them down to the solenoids, which I thought may be a decent option, but then figured that there was probably a fuse or relay in the fuse box that I'd be better off pulling. That send me looking for a fuse location diagram, but haven't found one yet. Searching this site and the Cummins forum had no luck either. Any recommendations on where to find this fuse layout? I do have the 2001 FSM, but fuse box wasn't in the index that I saw, and didn't dig deeper. What's the best way to disconnect the heaters if none of these options are best? When looking at the heater solenoids, I found that one of the four 90deg boot connectors on top of the solenoids was disconnected. I did miss the ground cable from the air intake housing to the manifold, so just cleaned those connections up.

Sounds like you are on the right track. The intake manifold heaters draw about 100 amps each - there are two of them. They are automatically in operation below 60°F ambient temperature. With the key on, engine off, the heaters are on while the "Wait to Start" lamp is lit. After the engine is started, the heaters post-cycle until a specific engine operating temperature is reached, or the vehicle speed reaches approximately 25 mph. The post-cycling current is higher than the alternator output, so it is normal to see the dash voltmeter drop significantly. This is why I recommend disconnecting the intake manifold heaters while diagnosing a low voltage electrical problem. John

Agreed. I cleaned all grounds I could find, using several references on where those grounds would be. There was a ground on the firewall near the ECM & PCM, as well as near that fender. I also disconnected those three connectors and sprayed them with Deoxit 5 I didn't check the manifold heaters, not knowing anything about them. I'll do the checks you recommend and post back, hopefully today. Thanks.

I would be looking into this before doing any parts replacing. Was the intake manifold heater post-cycling when you were seeing the voltage drop on your test drive. If you are not certain, then I recommend to disconnect the intake manifold heater to simply troubleshooting the voltage drop. In normal operation, when the manifold heaters have finished their post-cycling, the voltage powering the VP44 should be steady around the 13.5 - 14.2 volt range. Steady is the key word. If the voltage continues to fluctuate wildly at the VP44, then you should check the power supply to the VP44, ECM and the PCM; but more importantly you should check that you have good operating ground circuits. John

I picked up a 2000 Ram 2500 with the Cummins a few months ago. The PO said that he'd replaced the fuel pump a couple of times, which I should have paid more attention to. Ran fine though for a few months. Recently I had a big miss, or shudder under heavy acceleration onto a highway but ran fine for the rest of the trip. It happened several more times on later trips, usually at gradual acceleration. No CEL at that time. I did get the 0237 code, so got a new MAP sensor hoping that would fix it, but it didn't. I cleaned all grounds and harness connectors. Since then, a few test drives have been OK, with no missing, but even though I cleared the codes, they come back. I have AutoEnginuity, so got the Chrysler enhancement package and found a few things. The MAP sensor checks out with 5.2V key on engine off. Test run yesterday, backing out of the driveway the voltage dropped to 4.93 briefly. Once going down the road, it stayed above 5V and responded seemingly correctly to acceleration. I suppose that the brief drop below 5V would be enough to throw a code. Let me know if otherwise. I haven't tried bending the diaphragm yet as described in a HOW TO DIAGNOSE VP44 FUEL SYSTEM ISSUES document. Another thing I noticed was that the VP44 input voltage was dropping from 12.18V down to ~9V. Occasionally it would jump up to 13.5V, which is what I was measuring at the battery when it was running and the alternator was charging. 12.18V was what the battery read before starting. They were brief excursions either way, but it got progressively more frequent going down to 9V as my test drive went on. I can log and provide these charts. The Banks tuner was unplugged during my testing, but was plugged in when I first started having the miss/shudder issue. I thought I might be in limp mode, but I was getting boost pressures of 5-8 psi with just moderate acceleration on a test drive yesterday. Didn't feel too bad.

2004 Cummins 48re. Drove it in the morning, no problems. Got in to leave for work that night and it wouldn't move. For some research I found that it was probably the governor pressure solenoid or transducer. So I replaced both of them. It still will not move

Then I may be interested. If you know a tune that’ll make it run better I’m all ears.