I'm not sure why you can't get it to come out. To my knowledge there is nothing in there to hold the plunger in, like I said both times I had mine apart, it fell apart. I really think that the plunger is sticking in there causing your varying problem. Ive tried sanding them to make it smoother with no result, and any grease you use would surely be dissolved by the diesel fuel. Not sure how to help bro :humm:

Tks for Your reply. I figure the reurn spring must be
broken. Found one at NAPA for $101 (Cheapest I could
find), will pick it up Thursday and see what happens.
Looks like parts are expensive because they rarely fail?

Not to sure about that, I think only the 1st and 2nd gens use them so they just aren't to popular of a part. I think alot of people do have trouble with them though and that's why you hear many people remove the guts and use a choke cable to shut it off which is what i ended up doing.

Very strange prices on Diesel parts. The throttle position
sensor for My truck is a $275 part. I had an 86 Vette...
the TPS for that was $35!

Yeah alot of people change those as well and use a potentiometer in it's place because of the price. You'll find there are few problems with these trucks, but most of them are known. If you look in the sticky you'll find alot of ways to fix these problems on the cheap.

I had trouble with mine also...after i turned the pump up, it would tear the plunger off....FYI if you go to ebay...you can get a new 1 for $9.50....but its only lasts a month for me...dont but a cheep 1 otherwise it will fail....BTW i believe its a 24 MM wrench....but i had to cut the bracket off to gain better access to it...

so when you guys run thease choke cables is that a safer alternative to shutting down a run away truck? has anybody put thier truck in runaway just to see if thier cable will shut it down? i would feel alot safer playing with the full power if i had a way to shut it down from inside the cab if it runs away.

I put a cable on mine....it started running away one day when i was driving it and it shut it off...

so when it runs away on you while driving and you shut it down did you just start it back up and it was ok? or did you have to pull over and fix something? i am just kinda wondering if it runs away once do you need to back off full power more or could it just be a freak thing like you hit the gas and let off and hit it again real fast and it runs away. thats y i havent messed with mine yet because i dont know a whole lot about run away other then it takes off at full throttle and you cant shut it down with the key.

I didnt trust it so i pulled over and backed the full power screw off....but when it runs away, normally you can shut it off with the key....but i didnt want the steering to lock when i shut the key off...