Having a strange prob with my 98 24v truck. Most times turn truck on, hear fuel pump cycle, truck starts up. Lately I can turn key on, don't hear fuel pump, truck turns over but don't start. Turn key off and back on, fuel pump cycles and truck starts up. One tech said truck will crank and run even if transfer pump don't work, so I may have a computer

problem. Anyone ever run across this?

When the lift pump went out on my 2004 (both times) the truck would not start or run... The first time it went out it just died going down the road but the second time it was a gradual fail.. Sometimes you could hear it run with key on and sometimes not... Took a few weeks for it to finally give up the ghost completely... Sounds like your pump to me.. Easy fix with just 4 bolts on south side of fuel filter,, Good luck...

Actually my lift pump is a fass setup from geno's garage.

My common rail will run without the lift pump working. I would check the relay going to the pump. Mybe it has a bad connection. Check to see if you have power to the relay and power at the pump. If you have power to the pump and it isnt running you got a pump problem. This is most likely not the case or you would be popping fuses and it would not run one time and then run the next.
If I were running a vp44 truck I would be running a fuel pressure gauge. FASS is a good system. I run an Airdog but my first pump had a defective motor.

Aces on the gauge- first improvement I made when I got it. Idles at 17psi. Tech said there is a relay on the lift pump and one on the injector pump. If truck will run without the lift pump it seems that the pump not cycling is indicating that a signal is not being sent when the key is turned on. May end up having the computer checked out by a dealer as a last resort, but it seems If there was a computer problem the check engine light would come on.

Dealer would be last resort in my book. But if the signal is not being sent to the relay it is most likey the computer.
Problems other than the computer will trigger check engine light. If you have a computer problem it will most likely not trigger the light.
My friend is a mechanic. Last week I was at the garage talking to him and he showed me how he could trigger on the check engine light on the Ram he was working on.
Everything was fine until he turned on the air conditioning. Then the check engine light came on.
It was a 2nd gen one owner truck owned by an old man. Low mileage 25k or so.
Something corrupted the computer and it didn't know the truck came equipt with air conditioning.

You can get a used computer for these trucks fairly cheap.
I got one for my sons 99 for $150 off Ebay.

Good luck,