I had this problem and found there's a vacuum reserve tank and a vacuum check valve BURIED inside the HVAC Cabinet. Solution was to bypeass those parts by installing a new tank under the hood along with a vacuum tank near it. Then ran new hose to the interior. It's all documented
HERE.
Diesel doesn't produce engine vacuum the way a gasser does, but I recall researching this for another member and it seemed the diesel uses an external pump to produce vacuum for things like HVAC control.
By all means, inspect under the hood. I had a broken vacuum line on another Ford caused by installing a battery too. But if not...
My "cut to the chase" is this: in this pic, you see where the black hose comes out of the HVAC cabinet in the toe space of the passenger side foot well.
. You can see the black hose cut off where it comes out of the black cabinet and highlighted against that sliver of white. At least on a gasser, I would cut that hose, start the engine, and see if there's vacuum on the cut stub. There will probably NOT be vacuum there.
I wasted a lot of time pulling the dash apart and don't want you to. Will help any way I can. You can PM me a phone or email ID if you want.
If God's Your Co-Pilot Move Over, jd
2003 Jayco Escapade 31A on 2002 Ford E450 V10 4R100 218" WB