Help - TD27 not starting

[boon]

Truck is a 1994 Mistral. Tank got run to allllmost empty, noticed it was really hard to start the one time I had to when it was almost empty... took it to BP, put $70 of diesel in it - still a bastard to start, drove it home, now it's sitting at the bottom of the driveway and refuses to start.

Figured it had sucked some crap up from the bottom of the tank so cleaned out the injector pump gauze basket (it was pretty clean though) and replaced the fuel filter just in case, it was pretty old anyway. Still no bueno. Primed it until the pump thing wouldn't move any more. Cranked it until the damn battery went flat. While I charge that up again, anyone got any ideas?

[SV1K]

Bleed the injectors as well, just crack them a little and while cranking the motor over there should be fuel coming out... other than that, I would be blowing back down the fuel line to ensure that all the crap has been sent back to the tank.

Reece

[nztimr33]

Check the glow plugs are working ? power to glow rail ?

[boon]

Bleed the injectors as well, just crack them a little and while cranking the motor over there should be fuel coming out... other than that, I would be blowing back down the fuel line to ensure that all the crap has been sent back to the tank.

Reece

Okie dokie, just bled 3 of the 4, as the #4 is a bastard to get to and 3 out of 4 ought to be enough... that said, there was only a tiny bit of fuel coming out at each one.

Waiting for the battery to charge so I can go and see if it'll turn over... apparently my Subaru isn't quite stout enough to jump a diesel.

[boon]

Check the glow plugs are working ? power to glow rail ?

I'm about 99% sure they are - glow indicator is behaving like it normally would.

[nztimr33]

will it start on Ether ? (engine start spray)

[sibainmud]

Check the glow plugs are working ? power to glow rail ?

I'm about 99% sure they are - glow indicator is behaving like it normally would.

Light on dash means nothing as it just says the relay is energizing and doesn't represent the actual glow plugs.

will it start on Ether ? (engine start spray)

Be VERY carefull using this stuff with diesels that use glow plugs. Seen a few horror stories with marine diesels.

My questions are......is it ETi? I think we all know where this may be heading

When it was hard to start, what did it start like? (miss for a few seconds or smoke lots or both)

Cheers,

[boon]

Check the glow plugs are working ? power to glow rail ?

I'm about 99% sure they are - glow indicator is behaving like it normally would.

Light on dash means nothing as it just says the relay is energizing and doesn't represent the actual glow plugs.

will it start on Ether ? (engine start spray)

Be VERY carefull using this stuff with diesels that use glow plugs. Seen a few horror stories with marine diesels.

My questions are......is it ETi? I think we all know where this may be heading

When it was hard to start, what did it start like? (miss for a few seconds or smoke lots or both)

Cheers,

ETi?

It just cranked, didn't cough or anything, nothing, for maybe 3 cranks of 10 seconds, then it coughed once, started and off we went. Big cloud of white smoke.

I seem to have now killed the battery as it won't even turn the bastard over. Sigh.

Note, when I was cranking it before I got some small whisps of white smoke out the exhaust... fk knows. Charging the battery overnight, if it's not dead then we'll soon find out if bleeding the injector lines helped.

[sibainmud]

Killed battery or starter.
Symptoms would lean toward lack of fuel or cranking speed is not enough.
ETi= electronic pump (fly by wire) but i think 94 may be a bit early for electronic controlled pump.
Still check for power at glow plug rail. Hot wire glows with large bit of wire (2mm minimum) if need be. If still not starting you can rule out glow circuit.
Injection pump may be getting a bit sad. Was it hard to start when warm?

Cheers,

[Crash bandicoot]

So you cleared the gauze on the fuel pump, put in a new filter, when bleeding injectors you need two people, one to crank the engine and the other to crack the injector lines ON TOP of the injector and close it again ALL WHILE CRANKING. not the return line.

it is no good cracking the injector turning over the motor then doing it up again as this will just suck in air again if it isn't under pressure.

you said you had some fuel come out when bleeding, if you undo them more then half a turn you should get showered in diesel as it is a high pressure system.

also when you changed the filter did you fill the filter up with fuel before screwing it in? if so did you remove the pipe between the filter and the injector pump and prime it to ensure the filter isn't air locked?

[boon]

Mechanic mate came around, pulled the glow plugs, cranked it over a bit... diesel was pouring out the glow plug holes so I believe the fueling is sorted.

We put a single glow plug back in and the starter could barely crank it over. Tried another battery, no bueno, noticed starter was getting REALLY hot so we concluded it's probably got a shorted field winding or something and doesn't have the guts to crank the motor over when it has compression.

So the starter is off the truck, hopefully get it rebuilt tomorrow and back on there before the weekend.

Surprisingly easy job to pull the starter, just a bit of a pig to get the bolt on top, wish I had some ratcheting ring spanners

[mud_slinger]

starter will get really hot with that amount of cranking, they arent really designed to crank over for that amount of time at once.

[sibainmud]

Surprisingly easy job to pull the starter, just a bit of a pig to get the bolt on top, wish I had some ratcheting ring spanners

3X Long 3/8 extensions with a universal from underneath
Thought starter was poked. Worn out brushes will cause a serious amount of heat.
Is there power at the glow plug rail?

Cheers,

[boon]

Replaced the starter. Now it cranks real speedy, get puffs of white out the exhaust but it still won't start. There's definitely power to the glow rail but I strongly, strongly suspect that all 4 of the glow plugs are fucked because when I hot-wired the glow rail with a multimeter on the battery it didn't drop even 100th of a volt. I figure 4 big heating coils are going to put a pretty big drain on, if the glow plugs are all turkeyed would they be open curcuit?

EDIT: Resistance between glow rail and ground is 150 ohms. I figure it should be a LOT less than this - does this indicate that all 4 glow plugs are sporked?

Sigh, so over this truck.

[sibainmud]

http://www.trademe.co.nz/a.aspx?id=563688914
Cheap as.
Show me a 19 year old truck that doesn't need some remedial work
Since the glows aren't going give it a sniff of "start ya bastard"
If that is the only issue, then try a 19 year old Toyota

Cheers,

[boon]

http://www.trademe.co.nz/a.aspx?id=563688914
Cheap as.
Show me a 19 year old truck that doesn't need some remedial work
Since the glows aren't going give it a sniff of "start ya bastard"
If that is the only issue, then try a 19 year old Toyota

Cheers,

My 21 year old Toyota is happy as, one engine conversion later

I'll get some glow plugs tomorrow and hopefully that'll be enough to kick it over. No wonder it's always been a bag of shit to start on a cold morning.