Hello good afternoon, the transfer pump is located inside the injecting pump and it is difficult to fail but the problem may be the ceiling pump that incorporates the oil filter empty or even the pipe that is going from the pond to the filter can be chopped and sucks air when the diesel is do not reach the filter, good friend I hope this helps you to solve your problem.
Indeed, the pump goes inside the injection pump, already because of the age of your vehicle it could be that it is failing ... Oh an easy way to test it, when the engine begins to run out of strength, give the manual pump that is with the filter, if the RPM is reset again is the transfer pump ... but make sure that said manual pump works perfectly ...