Man, I feel like an idiot

[Dogscape]

Ran out of fuel in my truck yesterday.:ashamed:
I have a Ram 3500, Cummins diesel, and the fuel gauge sender is messed up.
I try gauging things by mileage, but obviously that's not effective.
I've heard it's a real expensive job to have the sender replaced, so that's a cost that keeps getting deferred.

As I was approaching the gas station the truck died, and I was able to roll it right into the lot, and steer it up to the pump!
However, after filling it the truck won't start, of course.

I'd been through this about 2 mos ago, as my garage guy towed it to his shop and got her running again. $80.

This time I called my mechanically inclined buddy, he came by... made a few calls to his mechanic buds about how to bleed this truck, and proceeded to bleed it on the spot! Started up, and drove away to finish my snowplowing.

Gotta love friends.

 

[Dogscape]

You know, I should describe the fix for anyone who might have this truck engine, as described by the dealer mechanic.

With a 3/4" wrench you loosen 3 of the 6 fuel injector ports on top of the head.
(any 3 will do, no particular order matters)

Then turn the key to the on position, and just hit the starter for a 1/2 second
This lets the fuel primer push out the air. repeat this 3 times or so.

It helps if you have a buddy turning the key...
Turn the engine over 'til fuel appears around one of the injectors.
Stop and tighten that one down

Repeat until a second one shows fuel.

...and repeat for the third one.
The truck will be chugging and trying to start now...

Great knowledge for me to have, and only need to carry a 3/4" in the truck to fix anytime...

 

[PoorMansCat]

Thats really not a good idea on a CR engine.
On an 05 Dodge, all you have to do is turn the key on, bump the starter for a second and just let it sit there with the key on. Since you ran the pickup and lines empty, it make take 5 minutes of it sitting there before it primes up.
There is not a situation where you need to break the CR injector lines loose. These engines are set up to where they will basically auto-bleed themselves.
"Cracking" lines on a CR engine is dangerous and should not be done. Fuel being sprayed out at those pressures can kill.
As a side note, any time a High Pressure Common Rail fuel line is loosened, it should be removed and replaced, never reused.

 

[Dogscape]

Maybe I should have mentioned, this is a '99.
It doesn't spray out, it just dribbles. You need to let the air bleed out.

The advice on how to do this was was from my dodge dealership service.

 

[dodge man]

Thats really not a good idea on a CR engine.
On an 05 Dodge, all you have to do is turn the key on, bump the starter for a second and just let it sit there with the key on. Since you ran the pickup and lines empty, it make take 5 minutes of it sitting there before it primes up.
There is not a situation where you need to break the CR injector lines loose. These engines are set up to where they will basically auto-bleed themselves.
"Cracking" lines on a CR engine is dangerous and should not be done. Fuel being sprayed out at those pressures can kill.
As a side note, any time a High Pressure Common Rail fuel line is loosened, it should be removed and replaced, never reused.

I agree, 100%, you don't need to crack injector lines on a Cummins in a Dodge truck.

 

[Peacock]

He was right to bleed the fuel system on his particular Cummins. It is mechanically injected with a electronically controlled pump. It would never have started otherwise.

 

[grsthegreat]

My 1994 dodge cummins has a manual bleed device that all i need to do is pump it about 5-8 times and the truck always started right up.

Its a small push lever ....i cant really describe where its located, but its detailed in the operators manual.

It was real easy to prime and restart. And believe me, whey the wife is driving that truck all the time, ive had to use it several times.

 

[Dogscape]

Yah... my fault for not mentioning which year/model it was in the OP. These boards are so full of good info... glad I found this resource.

I was thinking if the Dealer service told us this, it must have some merit for my year...

Does anyone have any advice on the changing of the fuel tank sending unit for a 99?
Is it possibly a job I could handle at home?

 

[Dogscape]

GRS, was it a yellow tab on the side of the fuel filter unit?
(I think it's the filter, mounted off the driver side of the head)

 

[dodge man]

I have a 2004 with a 5.9 Cummins, and on mine the yellow lever on the side of the filter housing is for draining water and draining the cannister before changing the filter. It doesn't have anything to do with priming.