Newbie with a broken truck! No start!

[Charlie B]

hey guys I'm Charlie, I proudly bought my first diesel a few months ago, a 1984 f350 reg cab dually with a 6.9 idi, all stock, non running from a title loan repo yard.

I'm pretty handy with a wrench at 21 years old. but I'm at a loss right now. When I bought the truck, a couple battery cables and some batteries and a whiff of starting fluid brought the old girl to life. After that, coming to find a huge tranny leak, and no power steering and leak injectors. before I did, it ran fairly well. I drove it for a while, filled it up with fresh diesel, and like after 3 times of driving it. It stalled and lost power. After that night, it didn't happen again. I replaced the power steering, air filter, and I did all the injector lines and o-rings. No more injector leaks or air intrusion... as far as I know. Injectors definitely aren't leaking in their cups.

So now, with all that bs out the way, I have a much bigger problem now. It just stopped starting! I'm at a loss. It cranks and cranks but it's like it's not getting any fuel. No smoke whatsoever when cranking. If I spray some starter fluid in it, it will start until the starter fluid dissipates and shts right off. Abot 1 or 2 seconds.

So now, I'm wondering if it's the lift pump or fuel filter. My next order of business is changing the fuel filter, which I never did after buying it. So it could be clogged. I don't know. If that doesn't fix it, I'll move to the lift pump.

Any help would be great. I'm sure I'm forgetting something about the truck. So let me know if you need anymore info.

Thanks guys, glad to finally be apart of the diesel community, look forward to making some good friends

Charlie B
1984 f350 6.9 idi
Tempe, AZ

 

[gandalf]

Testing the lift pump... Your truck should have a schraeder valve mounted in the fuel filter header. It looks just like a tire air valve. Hold that open while somebody cranks the engine. You should get fuel out that schraeder valve. If you get no fuel, suspect the lift pump, but also backtrack all the way to the fuel tanks.

How much fuel is in each tank?

Report back here and some one will have further ideas.

 

[icanfixall]

Welcome to the forum. Some issues like you posted are the fuel tank suction line breaks off and if the level is around 1/4 tank of diesel you can't suck it out. Reason is that is where the broken suction line end is sucking from. It can't reach the bottom of the tank. so make sure your tank level is above 1/4 tank. Now about the fuel filter. you may have a dirty filter. Best way to check that without changing it is do as already posted. Hope this helps but if not just keep asking and telling this forum what you have done...

 

[no mufflers]

did you check the fuel shut off solenoid on the IP?

 

[pelky350]

Also see if the fuel is turning on at the pump, when you turn the ignition to run you should here a very small click of the sylinoid in the injection pump allowing fuel to flow

 

[Charlie B]

thanks for the help guys, ill look into all of these tomorrow, been a pretty busy week with christmas coming up. the fuel tank gauges suck and don't give an accurate reading but I think their might be less than a quarter tank. also, i can't even tell if the tanks switch from front to rear. before it stopped running, i had replaced the return lines and o rings, and it was fine for a little while, then it just started acting up where it would stall out and take a sec to crank after dying, and it continually got worse to where i had to limp home over a mile, it stalled like 4 times. and even after sitting it got worse, i was able to start and get it running, not really drive it, and it would slowly die like it was running out of fuel. it did that until the point where it would start and instantly shut off, and now it doesn't start. oh, on a side note, when it was running okay, it would act strange, here in az, i have to emissions test it through the terrible snap test. so i revved it up in parking lot to see how much smoke, and it wouldnt really go back to idle, it would idle high, and and sometimes when driving, it would idle higher than it should. so its scary to rev it too much.

 

[SebastIDIan]

Make sure you have full tanks before diagnosing. As said before, if your pickup tube is broken, you'll run out of fuel at 1/4 tank.

Check all of your fuel lines from the tank forward for leaks. Sometimes hoses that look ok on the outside can be cracked and let air in.

Dis you replace your fuel filter housing heater plug o-ring when you did caps and o-rings? Could be sucking air in from there.


As for it not idling back down, there's an actuator that pushes on the throttle at the IP when the coolant is below 112*F . That's part of the cold starting system that also retards the timing a little to aid in starting when it's cold.
As soon as it hits 112 it will idle down by itself, sometimes it needs a little rev

If it doesn't after you've driven it a bit, either your sensor is bad or your t-stat is bad.

How much does the temp gauge move after say,10 minutes of driving?

 

[FORDF250HDXLT]

i revved it up in parking lot to see how much smoke, and it wouldnt really go back to idle, it would idle high, and and sometimes when driving, it would idle higher than it should. so its scary to rev it too much.

when this happens does the "diesel clatter" increase or is it simply a higher idle?

 

[Charlie B]

i think ill add the thermostat to my list of things to replace as i go through the engine, I want to eventually start a slow restore of the engine. i need to change the oil and flush the coolant once its running again, so i guess i need to start focusing on the fuel issue. it sucks because i have no way to really take it to the gas station to fill it up. hopefully i can get out there today and give it a nice hard look over. as for the revving. I didnt notice any clatter. it seems like a fairly healthy sounding engine. but i guess thats an issue ill address when it runs. I do believe the IP may be ready to be timed though. its not a heavy smoking truck. it has a haze but no white smoke. seems pretty typical of an IDI but it could be better. Ill update on everything once i get out there today

 

[notenuftime]

I had a similar issue with my truck part of it was the cold high idle not dropping off due to a bad temp switch cause high revs and rough running. check out your pump closely for leaks fuel on the valley pan, there is also a controller that selects front or rear tank should be mounted on the drivers side running with the fuel lines maybe give that a check.

 

[Charlie B]

hmm ill have to check it out when i get it running, definitely plan on doing a conversion to an electric fuel pump. Also, my truck did not come with a fuel filter housing heater, so there is no o ring there. Would that temp switch be the one that senses the temp of the engine? Also, i just had a new fuel filter ordered, so ill be changing that soon

 

[notenuftime]

hmm ill have to check it out when i get it running, definitely plan on doing a conversion to an electric fuel pump. Also, my truck did not come with a fuel filter housing heater, so there is no o ring there. Would that temp switch be the one that senses the temp of the engine? Also, i just had a new fuel filter ordered, so ill be changing that soon

If I am not mistaken there are three temp switches, the one we are talking about activates the cold high idle solenoid and shuts it off once the engine reach 100 and something. The others give you your temp readings in the cab and let you know when your gana have a melt down.