RayNAz

Thanks Tractorman. Fuel pressure is good. I added a pressure gauge when I did the lift pump a few years ago and it still idles at around 22psi and is at around 18psi on the freeway. Re new/reman PSC it looks like about a $500 difference. I also notice that some listings on that site say that a wire mod voids the warranty and some say it's okay (once again for more money). Do you think there is any physical/electronic difference between those 2 or are they just pricing in the likelihood of a warranty claim? I'm guessing the latter but just asking. Re: Driving style. As far as I could tell, about all I could do to keep it out of limp mode was to keep my speed under 55. Unfortunately I have to get up on the freeway in order to go pretty much anywhere.

Yesterday while on my way home from out of town, I had just finished filling up, the engine sounded "odd", louder and with a rattle. It sounded like my older Ford Diesel when started cold with the cold timing advance engaged. About 10 miles down the road I lost most power, felt like I had maybe 20% throttle available and the CEL came on. I pulled off but couldn't pull a code. It felt fine at low speed so I reset the CEL and continued on but the problem returned after a few miles on the freeway. I was eventually able to pull a P0216 code and I've read up on what that usually means. Ended up limping home at 45mph taking back roads when possible. I thought it could have been bad fuel but my last stop was at a high volume station and there really wasn't any water in the separator. Do you folks agree that it's probably new VP44 time? Does this look like a good choice? https://www.dieselautopower.com/bosch-027-vp44-fuel-injection-pump-standard-output-235hp-wire-tap-ok-1-year-warranty-vp44027tap-13584

I mostly use my truck for longer trips, sometimes vacations with my truck camper and sometimes 2+ hour each way work trips into pretty rural areas. My long time practice has been to try to keep a pretty complete tool kit as well as some spare parts (heater hose, serpentine belt etc) with me. In general if I find myself needing a particular wrench etc while doing maintenance at home then I try to have it in the truck if practical. That said, with this Dodge I feel like my tool bag is getting kinda huge. This thing has metric fasteners, a few SAE, torx, etorx hex and that one darn 10mm 12pt socket needed for the starter. Plus on my last adventure replacing the vacuum pump I needed probably 4 different combinations of 15mm wrenches/sockets/extensions just for like 6 bolts. So with that winging out of the way what do you guys carry with you on road trips and how do you organize and store it? I currently have two bags, one with the most universal tools and one for the more in depth potential repairs. Universal contains: * Set of short metric sockets + extensions * Set of deep metric sockets * Stubby and normal 3/8, long/extendable 1/2 ratchet stubby 1/4 inch ratchet. * Short 1/4 sockets * Set of stubby wrenches * A few larger metric wrenches * Torx sockets * Short and long screwdrivers with bit sets * Several different kinds of pliers (long nose, standard, wire cutters etc) * Medium and small adjustable wrenches * Double ended sockets for lug nuts. * Multimeter * Tire pressure gauge * Tire plug kit * Fixed blade knife * Razor Knife * Duct tape, zip ties, hose clamps etc. Secondary bag has: * Better wrench set (flex head ratcheting) * Crows foot sockets (for lines etc) * More largish wrenches * Some SAE Sockets and wrenches, mostly to help others on the road * Large pliers * Hack saw * Ratchet straps Separately I have a jack, breaker bar, and tire inflator. A tow strap and related bits Jumper cables Jump starter

I just want to follow up and let everyone know that Tractorman called it. I pulled the Vac and PS pumps, separated them, and used a 1/2 inch open end wrench to engage the dogs on the Vac pump and vise grips to turn the wrench while holding the gear side of the pump. It didn't take a lot of torque at all, probably single digit ft-lbs to get it to slip. I'm still kinda surprised that it was producing significant flow like that but it was. I swapped it at NAPA and re-installed, purged the air, and was back on the road. At this point I have a small drip coming from where the oil feed line connects to the fitting on the Vac pump. I've tightened it as much as seems wise and will probably have to replace the fitting. Does anyone know of a compatible fitting available at the normal auto parts stores? Thanks again to everyone who helped out with ideas, pictures, diagrams etc. Good stuff.

Anyone know what size wrench/socket is needed for that fitting? It looks like about 26mm or 1 inch but I thought I'd ask.

Completely forgot but I'll check when I have it out to check the pressure relief valve. I did take measurements as you suggested and that, at least looked acceptable.

Thanks ! The fluid was pretty old when I started this whole mess (since flushed) so it's certainly possible that the screen got clogged when I was maneuvering the pump out of the truck or the valve is otherwise gunked up. I'll pull the fitting and valve etc and have a look.

Update: Work intruded for a while but I had some time today to take another shot at this. I started by removing both the VP and PSP from the truck, separated them and inspected the dogs on the VP and the matching ones on the PS and they looked pristine. No shavings, dings, etc. I re-installed both, this time using the origional PS pump since I know it worked before this whole fiasco started and frankely it looked like a higher quality part than the reman/new unit I had installed. As an experiment I routed the return from the steering box to the filler of the PS reservoir, pointed a camera in there and observed a reasonably constant flow while the engine was running. I did note that if I pressed and held the brake for 10+ seconds the flow from the steering box return would slow to a drizzle. Not sure if that's normal. I then re-attached the return and went through the air purging process. This time I left the cap off the filler and pointed a camera in there so I could observe the bubbles generated while I worked the steering back and forth. I never really got to the point where small bubbles weren't being generated but I did at least get to the point where it stopped burping large bubbles. I put it on the ground and took it for a drive but still no power steering or brakes at all. Got back, raised it back up and observed the filler while working the steering back and forth and noticed lots more bubbles including some fairly large "burps" and I did so. At this point all I can think of are: 1. I just have a lot of air and have to keep trying to purge it. 2. I have some source of air intrusion, would pretty much have to be from the return line from the hydroboost since the return from the steering box seems to have constant flow/pressure and would probably show a fluid leak. 3. That pressure regulator in the pump has gotten stuck open and even though I have flow the pressure is too low to do the job. 4. I damaged or clogged the high pressure line at some point with the same result as #3. I plan to pick up a new high pressure line (pump to hydroboost) as well as some new return line but it sure would be nice if I could measure pressure being output by the pump. Any thoughts on how I can do that? Any suggestions welcome. Thanks. In general, does it come back a bit at a time or all at once? As far as I can tell I have zero power to the brakes or steering. I'm also not really feeling or hearing any feedback from the pump through the steering wheel.

I should have said that it's being forced out from aroun the installed cap. It's not a large volume. Thanks a lot for the description of the system. Do either of you think that I'd see anything useful if I replaced the return lines (temporarily of course) with clear tubing? I'm guessing the air isn't too visible under even the return line pressure.

Possibly. I've done the bleeding quite a few times so it should be out but.... I've noticed that when I get more aggressive with the turning of the steering wheel (ie turning it more quickly then it will burp fluid out of the pump. I don't know if this means that that I still have air in the system or if it indicates something else wrong. It also still bothers me that during testing I was getting lots of return flow from the steering box but very little from the brake return line. I don't know if this is normal though. How could I tell? If I follow Tractorman's advice to take out both pumps and inspect/measure the coupling I may swap my old PS pump back in since it WAS working before the VAC pump swap. Thanks, do you know of a good description of the operation of the system? I'm a relatively analytical type and I feel like if I understood it's operation better then troubleshooting it would be more straight forward. Also, I noticed when installing the new PS pump that the diagram I had of the lines showed the return lines from brakes and steering were backwards from how the old pump had been installed. Does it matter? Tractorman, Thanks. Not looking forward to it but I don't have any better ideas and it needs to get fixed. I'll probably take today off truck repairs an instead fix my backup car (01 Cherokee). It developed a disturbing noise coming from the front driveshaft/transfer case area. Possibly bad U-Joint. I'll just pull that drive shaft for now so I can get around more easily. I can tackle the truck again Tue or Wed.

Correct. The first time I did not remove any PS lines and didn't lose any fluid. I agree, it should have just worked after re-attaching it to the new vacuum pump. Do you know of any good way to test for that?

Yes, at that point that was likely the problem however like I said, I then proceeded to take both units out of the truck, carefully attach a new PS pump to the vacuum pump and reinstall the entire assembly. At this point the PS pump is pumping. If I redirect the return line from the rack into a bucket and start the engine then it spits out fluid quickly. If the coupling wasn't currently attached then I don't see how the PS pump would be able to pump anything.

My main reason for not thinking that the coupler is damaged is that the PS pump is pumping. I just don't see how it could be pushing fluid around if that connection was badly damaged. Am I wrong about that? More detail: When I replaced the vacuum pump I separated it from the PS pump in the engine bay and just removed the Vac pump. As you may know getting them aligned properly in the engine bay during reassembly is challenging. At no point did I remove any PS lines so there isn't much else that could have gone wrong with the PS side of things at that point. I really should have disconnected the high pressure line at that time to see if it was pumping at all but I didn't because I thought I'd end up making a giant mess (boy has that ship sailed:) and I knew I had a spare PS pump on hand. When I decided to go ahead and change the PS pump I pulled both pumps out together and did the assembly out in the open. I didn't notice any damage to the coupler at that time. Last week I was on a trip out of town and on my way back I noticed that the interior vents were stuck on defrost. Tried Cruise Control and that didn't work either. I expected to find a broken/damaged vacuum line but they all looked fine (or at least as fine as they've been on this truck). I then detached the line between the Vac pump and the T-connector on the firewall and there was no vacuum coming from the pump side. Good news is that replacing the vacuum pump did fix that problem. This was a reman vacuum pump that I had swapped about 2 years ago. That time it was due to the infamous leak.

Thanks Mopar1973man. I gave that a try and it seems like a good technique. I worked through about 1.5 - 2 quarts like that but it doesn't look like I've actually resolved anything. Any other suggestions?