Noise and vibrations associated with a common rail fuel system (12) drive linkage (31) are reduced by synchronizing a high pressure common rail (24) supply pump with engine operation. This may be accomplished by selecting a linkage (31) associated with a desired ratio of engine speed to pump speed along with selecting a number of pump plungers and cam lobes (35) that results in synchronizing action of the pump with engine combustion events. In particular, a pattern of pumping events (80) per engine cycle repeats during each engine cycle. In a more sophisticated version, the pattern of pumping events (80) per engine cycle includes a sub-pattern of pumping events (80) that repeats an integer number of times each engine cycle, where the integer number equals the number of engine cylinders (15).