1995 Dodge Ram wont start

ANDREW RIVERA

MEMBER
1995 DODGE RAM
5.9L
6 CYL
TURBO
4WD
AUTOMATIC
110,000 MILES

Hwy guya ive posted here before and you guys have really helped me alot I seriously appriciate it I just have a quastion of my work truck thats really stressing mr out I own the famous 5.9 cummins ram and yesterday was running perfeclty fine no problems at all this thing was running mint the only thing I have dont to this monster is tweak the fuel star a little bit towards the motor for just a little bit more fuel and added an electrical fuel pump at the tank thats about it this morning I went to go fire it up and nothing the thing turns over but doesnt turn on while my dad cranked it I used a 3/4 inch wrench loosened one of the injector lines and nothing I have no fuel at the injector line I manually pump the lift pump and I still dont manage to get the thing at least spinning a little nothing she just dead all my electronics are working glowplug light everything works just not start yesterday she was working fine I parked it and now I come to this if anyone can please get incontact with me to help me diagnose this thing

1 Reply

CARADIODOC

MECHANIC
33,760 POSTS

I spoke with a friend today who specializes in rebuilding smashed Chrysler products, especially diesel trucks. He has three dually diesels right now. A '99 that I'm using to plow snow, an '07 that was hit so hard it pushed the engine back over a foot into the firewall, and his latest creation, a 2012 Mega Cab that he combined 60 percent each of two frames to extend it two feet so he could put on an eight foot box, and added a dual-wheel rear axle. It doesn't fit in his garage!

He tried to think back to a '95 model and he thought you should have an electric lift pump on the side of the engine. I recall them having a mechanical lift pump with a priming lever like you described. Regardless of the type, I would loosen the steel line going into the injector pump to see if you have fuel there. If not, I would suspect the lift pump, or the fuel is congealed. Try draining some fuel from the water separator to see if it will run out freely.

I've also been told the engine will continue to run on just the injector pump when the lift pump fails, but it may not start on just the injector pump. He learned that a few years ago when the injector pump failed on his '99, and that failure was apparently due to the failure of the lift pump that he wasn't aware of. I don't know for sure if the failed lift pump really caused the injector pump failure from running it low on fuel, or from stressing it in some way, or if the two were not related and the injector pump just failed on its own. Apparently failures in either unit are pretty rare.