I have a buddy that has a '97 3500 with the 6.5 and auto. truck has about 60,000 miles on it, and ran great until a couple months ago. Now it sometimes will just cut off and die like it runs out of fuel. We have changed the fuel filters, and pulled the tank last night to make sure that there is nothing in the tank, and it was spotless. The confusing thing is, is that sometimes it runs fine. He drove it to work the other day, about 30 miles, and it did great, then he got in to come home, and it ran for about 2 minutes, and died. It would start back, but only run for a few seconds. That was on Tuesday. Last night, we went to where he works, and brought it back home and it did fine for the whole trip. After we pulled the tank, and couldn't find anything wrong, we put it all back together and started it up, and it ran for about 5 minutes and died again. Same thing would start back, but acts like it doesn't have any fuel.
Could the inline pump have an intermittent short? Or?? It doesn't throw a Check Engine Light, or anything else, just dies.

 

Anybody??

 

not to familiar with 6.5's but the way you say it cuts in and out once and a while, seems to sound like some sort of lift pump...I would see if there is a test port on it to read how much pressure its puttin out...try dieselplace.com and see what they say...

 

Your lift pump could be going out. if your had a fuel injection pump issue most of the time it will throw a code for it. check the connector at the lift pump and output.

 

Thanks for the help fellas, I'll give thedieselplace a shot if we can't figure anything out on the lift pump.

 

Injection pump is a POS. Notorious problem point. Tell him to crush it or trade it off while he's ahead. In 94 when these junks hit the dealerships we had two trucks that would not start to drive them off the car transport delivering them at the dealer when they were brand new.

 

Its the 'PMD' or FSD mounted on the top side of the injection pump. Its a little black box with 4 screws and it should say stanadyne on the outside. These are very problematic and can be remote mounted for longer life. They will actually run with a bad lift pump, its just hard on the injection pump. The mechanics of the pumps are not that bad, just the electronic driver they had really sucked.

 

Thanks for the advice Leroy, any way to check it before replacing?

 

check out ss diesel performance, they specialize in 6.5TD and have a relocated PMD with a big heat sink attached to it, to solve the problem.