Truck wont run.

[ESchmidt]

well tonight my truck quit running. was driving down the road. Thought i was out of fuel, no not it. has fuel comming out of the bottom of the fuel filter. other than that im lost. it also shakes the hell out of everything when i crank it over. maybe the shutoff solenoid? although i am thinking alot worse now. maybe pump went bad, or something even worse. so my baby is on the side of the road now. :{ any help would be greatly appreciated. by the way its an 89 W250 stock. Thanks,

Ed

 

[bgilbert]

How much fuel in the tank and is the run/stop solenoid hooked up?

 

[ESchmidt]

quarter tank. as far as i know the solenoid ishooked up, can it just come unhooked? i was so mad i walked home and didnt think to check that till i got home.

 

[bgilbert]

Yes absolutely. Take back a 5 gallon jug of diesel fuel and a flashlight.

 

[ESchmidt]

well i went back today and fiddled with it some more. fuel solenoid is hooked up, and i can hear it click when i unhook it, and i also ran a jumper wire to make positive the wires were ok (test light showed current) i unhooked fuel supply line and cranked to make sure fuel was getting to the pump and it was. i am now out of ideas and starting to think very bad things. Help

Thanks,

Ed

 

[RWWinslow]

Crack an injector ferrule and see if you are getting fuel to the injector while you crank it. . . . . if you have fuel but the engine is not firing then you probably have an IP issue. If you have air at the injector then you have an air leak some place. It is not unusual on these older rigs to have air in leakage on the fuel system - I have fought several air leaks with no indication of fuel leakage onto the ground.

 

[Headshot zod]

I gave up trying to find my air leak and installed a walbro to prime the system.

 

[ESchmidt]

i dont think it has an air leak, it didnt act up, or sputter it just flat out died. it wouldnt even act like it wanted to start after.

 

[PToombs]

It may be a little work, but remove the plunger from the shut off solenoid, then try to start it. This will eliminate the solenoid as a problem.

 

[DonTX]

When I was having a similar problem, if you crack an injector line and you are getting fuel with each cycle, then the shutoff solenoid is working fine. In my case it was a major task to pull the stop solenoid. If you are getting fuel to the injector, then either it is not getting thru the injector (too low IP pressure) or it is not getting there at the top of a compression stroke (stripped gears maybe). When mine died, it turned out to be the IP, even though I checked and replaced every other possible fuel item, refusing to accept the IP problem until the bitter end.

As a diagnosis tool, a short shot of starting fluid will make it run (or not, depending on the problem), in my case that gave the old IP just enough more speed to keep it running (for a few miles, then stall again) If you have never used starting fluid, you may want to ask a helper to do the squirting.

 

[ESchmidt]

i cracked a line, took the plunger out, i have fuel to the lift pump, to the filter, to the injector pump, comming out of the injector pump and comming out of a line going to the injector. it actually sounds like it wants to start, but it doesn't. how common is a stripped gear on the injector pump?

Thanks,

Ed

 

[phillips5]

I have never seen a striped gear in the timing case. Give it a snif of start fluid and se if that makes it spin fast enough to make the fuel pump create enough pressure to fire. Maby it is the KDP.

 

[JLEONARD]

Mine died today too and the symtoms sound very similar to Ed's.

I was in town taking off from a light and the truck started to "misfire". I put it in neutral and coasted to the side of the street and I could keep it running at about 900 rpm if I floored it... white smoke pouring out of the exhaust.

I just got towed home.

I'll pull the filter and the solenoid IF I have the tools and can get to it.



For the guys who have had solenoid failure... do these symtoms sound typical of that?

 

[JLEONARD]

Ok. So now it's 12 minutes after my post. I went outside, checked for voltage to the solenoid with the ing on... got plenty.

Touched the solenoid with a jumper wire to the battery... I can hear it clicking.

Looked for a visable fuel leak... nothing.

Loosened nut on injector #2 to check for pumping fuel... crank it and she sounds like she wants to start. Fuel all over the engine from #2.

Put nut back on injector and tighten.

She start right up and is running smooth as silk.



WTF over ??



Sticking fuel solenoid?

 

[phillips5]

If the solenoid is bad its bad you don't get half way stuff. I think air in fuel some how. With todays fuel the injection shop says they are bussy pumps are droping like flys. Get some lubrisity enhancer into every tank full.

 

[Jgolden]

My 2 cents would say that any solenoid can become intermitent for lots of reasons especially age and use. May not be the problem here. Since I have to remove lots of stuff to get at the Ipump on my rig I think I'll go to a pull cable while I am in there doing a few other things. One less thing to ponder.

On the fuel solenoid topic, I wonder since the newer fuel is supposed to degrade older seals (rubber or whatever) might it also effect the solenoid plunger, and will a different material be used now?

 

[JLEONARD]

Well, I was thinking corrosion on the plunger, or a piece of rubber somewhere that it shouldn't be or something that perhaps made it so the coil couldn't pull the plunger all the way up.

The solenoid doesn't make much noise when it energizes, and when I jumped it I can't say for sure if it energized the first time I touched the battery post.

The next few times I cycled it I could hear it clearly.

But I can go thru the fuel system and look for leaks... that makes sense and it's good PM to do that.

I ordered a solenoid yesterday and I'll have it friday, and I'll remove the bracket and get it ready to change if need be.



Jay

 

[RWWinslow]

Sounds like air in-leakage. When I have had fuel shutoff solenoid failures they are immediate - the miss-firing and white smoke says inadequate fuel to the engine and a change in fuel delivery timing. Inadequate fuel could be due to a plugged fuel filter, lift pump problems, etc. Fuel delivery timing will change if air gets into the system and the fuel injector lines become filled with air or the IP starts having serious problems.



Check your fuel filter for pluggage - the ULSD will clean out the system and deposit a lot of junk in the filter. The ULSD does not like water and it will shed water readily in the fuel filter / separator which can cause the manual dump valve at the bottom of the filter to become very slightly unseated and plugged with stuff around the O-rings - this happened to me this winter - and resulted in an air in leakage but no signs of fuel leakage.



Finally, your tank level assembly may be showing its age. The nozzle parts coming out of the tank are all plastic and they will crack and allow air in leakage - I had this problem last summer.



Good luck - these trucks are not the most user friendly in terms of chasing fuel system problems down.

 

[JLEONARD]

Fuel filter clean as a whistle. It's only been on since early March. Just put new one on. Lift pump is only a couple of years old... primer works good and it seems to feed the VE fine at highway speeds and on bonzai runs.

I'll check for line leaks later today when I have a helper to put a few psi of air pressure in the tank.

 

[JLEONARD]

Update... . We did a "leak test" by putting a little air pressure into the fuel tank.

No leaks found. Fuel lines under the truck look fine. Didn't/couldn't see on top of the tank but I didn't hear any thing that sounded like a leak.

Maybe it's between the lift pump and inj pump. I'll have to pressurize that section next.

Edit: But it ran fine today on a test run around the block (I adjusted the rockers so I had to make a test run).