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We arrived in Jacksonville, Florida about 4 am, yesteray morning, (Wednesday), located a good hotel, and slept from 4:30 am until about 7:30. Then we got up and went to pick up the truck. After checking all the vital points on the truck, and doing a few minor things to get it ready to go, we hit the trail, and headed toward home.
Shirley, I apologize, but the reason why I didn't call, was because of the late arrival, and our foolish last minute delusion that if I jumped in the truck, and headed back towards home as quickly as possible, we would arrive there by the following morning, (IOW, make the entire trip in only two days, and thereby cheat the clock, or the devil, or something.
).Unfortunately, the truck ran great for about 75 to a hundred miles, and then started losing power and speed. After trying a few simple corrections, (such as air filter, and fuel filter), we determined that the fuel pump, (that supplies the injector pump), must be defective, so we finally located one, but couldn't get it until the following morning, (today - Thursday), and we had to drive all over NW Florida, to get it. We spent last night in a blip on the road, about 130 miles east of Jacksonville. It took us until almost noon, to get back with the pump, and install it. I drove the truck another 25 miles, to get to Tallahassee, (where there are a few automotive supply stores that carry parts for Cummins diesel engines, so that we don't have to drive so far to find parts), but it still isn't running any better, even after we re-routed the fuel straight from the tank to the pump, (to rule out any suction line leaks). Since it was raining most of the time this afternoon, and that norther finally blew in, to make it rain even harder, we gave up about dark, and got a room in Tallahassee. It was probably just as well that we couldn't go on, because there was a fair amount of snow today, in areas ahead of us, and hopefully that will all be melted by tomorrow.
Tomorrow morning, we plan to disassemble a part of the fuel system which houses a fine screen, to see if it might be clogged, as that's about the last thing that we haven't checked out. We only have about 900 miles to go, to get back home, but it would take forever, the way the truck is running now, and driving that far, while starving the injector pump for fuel, would probably ruin the injector pump, to boot, (which would take about a week, and roughly 1,500 bucks, to overhaul), so hopefully we can find the problem tomorrow morning, resolve it, and move on down the road, without further delays. At least rain is out of the forecast, for a few days. If we can pull that off, we would arrive back home sometime about Saturday morning.
Other than the vexing fuel system problem, the truck seems to be excellent - much better than I expected. It just won't run worth a hoot, until we figure out the problem, and correct it.
Love,
Tex
