1995 Dodge Ram wont start

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.