Archived Need advice

[BPrifty]

Problem - truck won't start.



History - Owned my 99 24V since November and has run like a champ. Fueled today at a station I have never gotten fuel at. Added 1/2 bottle of powerservice as usual and drove 40 miles to work with no problems. At the end of my shift, I opened the fuel filter water drain for about a five count and then cycled the lift pump twice to make sure the housing is refilled. I do this weekly or at least once per tank of fuel. I then started the engine and it ran fine for about 10 seconds and then started to idle roughly and miss. I tapped the pedal and it stalled. I cycled the lift pump several more times and attemped to restart. After several tries it caught but quit again immediately with a huge cloud of exhaust.



So far I have checked that there was fuel in the filter housing (opened drain for a second to see if any came out - it did), cycled lift pump several more times and cracked the inlet banjo on the hi-press pump to make sure there was fuel there (there was). I have not cracked the injector lines yet as I was freezing my butt off and couldn't see too much...



Anyone have any ideas what I should check next? Bad fuel? Bad filter? Air in fuel lines?



Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks - Brian

 

[Alan Reagan]

Sounds like air in the lines. You may not have gotten the drain valve closed all the way when you drained the filter and it sucked air. You will probably have to crack the injector lines.

 

[lmills]

Yeah, sounds like air. The drain valve used to hang up on the 2001 that I had. I would drain the water off of it and when I flipped the lever to shut the valve, it wouldn't close totally. You might have to check the valve to make sure it is totally closed. Then try priming the filter three times. Then put your foot to the floor while cranking. Hopefully it will start. If not you will have to break open the injector lines.

 

[BPrifty]

Thanks for the advice guys. I'll try that and see what happens.



Brian

 

[BPrifty]

Question on bleeding injector lines. How loose do I want the fittings to be. I loosened the #3 line a bit, cranked and got a small pocket of bubbles around where the hard line enters. Do I need to loosen the fitting more or will slightly less than finger tight do the job?



I also am going to change the fuel filter before I go any further to eliminate that as potential problem.

 

[Alan Reagan]

You can loosen a little more. Make sure no one has there hands around the fitting when you crank. You should just have to bleed three injectors to get it going. 4,5 and 6 would be ideal.

 

[BPrifty]

Thanks Alan - I loosened #3 fitting a few turns, and don't seem to be getting much fuel at all - just enough to we the fitting and a few bubbles. This doesn't look too good.



By the way, is this a two man job like bleeding brakes? I'm on my own here, so I crank it for a few second and jump out and take a look at the fitting. Am I letting more air back in when I stop cranking or will the residual pressure prevent air from backflowing into the system?



Thanks again everybody - Brian

 

[Alan Reagan]

You should be getting some pressure. Make sure the drain valve is closed. You could be sucking air. Is the lift pump working OK?

 

[BPrifty]

The lift pump is "working", I can hear it. I have no idea if it's actually doing anything. Santa was all out of gauges by the time he came down my chimney...



I filled the filter canister with fuel about all the way full as I was replacing it. I then cycled the lift pump 4 or 5 times before I cranked it over to make sure that that I had enough fuel. No go.

Is there a way I can test the lift pump short of buying a tester at this point. Could I remove the outlet from the filter housing and see what kind of mess I make when I cycle the lift pump?

 

[Alan Reagan]

You can put a container under the water drain valve hose. Turn on the key and if the pump is working, it will blow fuel out the drain valve. If it is working, make sure you close the valve back completely before moving to the pump.

 

[BPrifty]

I'm going to go try that before it gets dark - thanks, Brian



on edit - drained a little with before cycling the LP. Not much of a difference in pressure or volume with the LP running. Now I'm no genius, but that would indicate to me a good possibility of a bad lift pump.

 

[Mike C]

BPrifty read thread "broke down" in the 911 threads that was me . I ran out of fuel because of bad sending unit. I finally got my 2000 going by cycling on the lift pump with the bump of the key and then would push in on the schrader valve. I first only got air but after a couple trys was getting bubbles then foam then finally fuel. Then after i got good fuel I cracked 2 injector lines and then cranked motor afew times until I had fuel at the lines then tightened lines back up and started truck. Ran alittle rough at first but smoothed out once air was going. I am not sure what years have the valve . It is located to the right of fuel filter and has a black cap on it.

 

[BPrifty]

Thanks to everyone who gave their input here. It's greatly appreciated. Looks like it's at least the lift pump that's the problem. I'm off to see the boys at Scott at MassDiesel (too damn cold to do it myself.



Once again, thanks - Brian