I have a 98 Dodge ram cummins 24 valve and I just replaced the fuel filter well you guessef it now I lost my prime and can't get her started I've tried putting fuel in the canster breaking the lines that feed the intake to bleed it nothing seems to be working what am I doing wrong?????

I just ran out of fuel last week on the side of the road. I was just guessing on what to do.

So I filled up the tank w/ fuel.
Bumped the starter to cycle the lift pump( buzzing sound, pumping fuel)
Did that about 6 times.
Cracked the injector lines(#2,4,5) at the cylinder head.( loosen them about 3/4 out)
Then crank the starter WOT about 5 times. Say I had fuel squirting out then I tightened them back up.

Cranked the starer while WOT and she fired up.

What Big dan said my father had a dozer that had a broken fuel guage so he would run it out of gas all the time :shaking:. Hit starter and crack injector line till fuel comes out and then tighten up. If you put the filter on with no fuel in it then there will be alot of air in there. i usually put tranny fluid in the filter it helps clean the injectors. so you might have to crack them a couple of times.

Stay clear of the injector lines if you crack them, very high pressure.

I'm not sure what your particular configuration is like, but every time I change my fuel filter, I loosen the Schrader test port on the VP-44 injector pump. You can do this by pressing in the little valve thing, or taking the valve out all together.

Then, bump the starter. The lift pump will run, and fuel will squirt out of the port. About a pint comes out, so put a pan under it. At least then you know you have fuel to the injector pump. If no fuel squirts out, and/or you don't hear a buzzing sound after you bump the starter, your lift pump is dead.

If you don't have a port, then loosen the banjo bolt feeding the injector pump.

After you establish fuel at the injector pump, then you can crack the injector lines if it still doesn't start. Mine has never failed to start, so I don't have personal experience w/ cracking injector lines.

Mine's a different year from yours, so I could be giving bad advice here if they're totally different.

Stay clear of the injector lines if you crack them, very high pressure.



Really, I just fired mine up last night left 1,2,& 4 cracked almost 4 or 5 turns out and the fuel doesn't fire out. It was a leak. The truck even fired with the lines loose. I've heard this from others and it had me half scared. So I call BS.

Honestly, How many times have you been hurt by high pressure fuel coming from the cracked lines on a cummins motor. Not cracking on you, this is a serious question.

Oh, I fully admit that I have no experience w/ opening the lines myself. In fact that statement was at the bottom of my post. So feel free to experiment.

Uh, gang..... it's a 24v CTD...... bet he's lost his lift pump. And the 2nd Gens are well known for doing this.

Supposedly, you can get it bled with a bad lift pump, but it's hard on the injector pump.

Sounds like your lift pump crapped. Put a new one on, and hope it just crapped and you haven't been running like and dumped the inj pump

I've never had any trouble when changing fuel filters on my 24V CTD. As others have said, I just bump the starter to cycle the lift pump several times and fire it up. If this is not working for you, then you need to check for other problems like bad lift pump, cracked fuel lines causing loss of prime or inability to prime, etc.

If you lose prime and it isn't your limit pump you should just crack injector #1 and crank her over 10-15 seconds at a time with the throttle at about half until it start shutterring. Then close the injector and crank it some more with the throttle down and it should start and run on a single cylinder for a couple of revolutions it will be rough but as long as you keep giving it fuel it will stay running you can crack the other lines if you want or just let it run it'll eventually get the air back through the return lines on the injectors. It might take awhile if you truly lost prime. I have spent 20 minutes sometimes cranking stopping and cranking but this is without filling the fuel filter.

Also if it truly lost prime and it isn't your lift pump be careful not to overheat your starter. You can do about 6 10-15 second cranks before you need to let the start cool off for a little while. Also you can use the manual prime which is on the fuel heater right by the lift pump. Have fun probably one of my least favorite things to do on my truck. Guess I need to get a fuel gauge at some point

-ben

I can here my lifter pump run would that still mean that it's not working?

Just becuase it's making noise/running, doesn't necessarilly mean that it's pumping fuel at the right pressure or at all for that matter.

if you hear your lift pump running open the water in fuel valve on you fuel filter canister and see it it will pump out fuel. If it does your ok, and start crackin.