no start on starter

[aquafarmer]

Hello everyone,
I am new to this forum so I will give a bit of background about myself as well as the problem I am having. First of all I am a former marine mechanic with experience in both gas and diesel engines for over 25 years. All these diesel engines were, however, IDI engines and nothing like the power strokes as far as fuel delivery systems are concerned. Now to my problem.....
I have a 1994 F350 dually with standard transmission.
The other day I went to town to pick up my son and when slowing to enter an exit ramp off the highway the engine stalled, I tried restarting to no avail so I dropped a gear and dumped the clutch and it restarted and ran until I shut the engine down at a stop on the way home. Tried to restart and no such luck. I just happened (thank God) to be next door to parts store so I went over and purchased some cheap tools to check the HPOP resevoir (left my tools at home for some reason), some oil (to fill it with) and some starting fluid. Before the villagers come out with torches and pitchforks, I know starting fluid is a bad idea and I personally don't like the stuff (unless needing to do surgery on a cat, another story altogether) but was wanting to see if we were having a fuel delivery problem or something else. To make an otherwise longer story short I was finally able to get it started and drove it all the way home (over 50 miles). I have since replaces the IPR suspecting it may be causing a low HP situation to the injectors but still won't start cranking from the starter. I do have oil in the resevoir, tach is working and oil pressure is coming up while cranking on the gauge. I can however give it a shot of starting fluid and it starts and runs just fine. Any ideas?
Thanks for any insight.

[rolsmojave3]

I see a few TSB's on Stalling during deceleration, however they all point to needed to get the PCM reflashed. Do you have anyone with a scan tool nearby? Sounds like you're either loosing fuel or loosing HPO.

[aquafarmer]

Don't have anyone with a scan tool near (I live in a remote location). I am thinking it has to do with the system letting the injectors light off at cranking speed since I can start it on starting fluid and it bumps right off. Is there anyway to check the ICP?

[aquafarmer]

Update.
I went to the hydraulics shop and got the needed items to build a pressure tester for my truck. Here's what I found. Hooking the pressure gauge to the HPOP rail on the engine gave a reading of less than 200psi at cranking. Well below what's needed to get this thing started on it's own. I then started it on starting fluid and at idle just get about 600 psi. When I open the throttle and hold it at WOT the pressure jumps up to over 2000 but them drops immediately to somewhere in the 1500 range (looking at the gauge through the windshield) and fluctuates a bit from time to time. I then removed the lined from the HPOP, put a cap on one of the fittings and checked the pressure from the other one eliminating the injectors from the diagnosis. Same reading at cranking as when hooked to the plug on the head. My thinking is the HPOP is the culprit. Any other ideas before I drop a bunch of cash on this thing?

[aquafarmer]

Another thing I noticed and failed to mention is when I pulled the IPR there was no edge filter in it while the one I ordered for the truck did have one. Is it possible the edge filter has come out and trashed the pump?