Truck died on me tonight. Acted like it ran out of fuel. Put in 2 gallons, did all I could (The truck did something similar 2 weeks ago-acted like it ran out of fuel, though gauge was reading just under 1/4 tank and had always been pretty accurate. I was on a highway late at night, but read all advice on here and finally got it started: In that instance, I added 2 gallons, turned it over forever, nothing. I then cracked fuel injectors loose a bit, turned it over forever, until I got moisture "bubbling" out of the slightly loosened injectors, tightened fuel injectors back up, turned it over forever MORE. Right when I thought batteries were finally too low to keep going, it started.).
Nothing this time, though, even after I did ALL of the same stuff, AND even removed the glow plugs, to make things easier on the starter while trying to prime, and to make sure I was getting fuel up to the engine.
So, I had a small electric fuel pump with me. Thought I'd try to put it in line and see what I could do. When I took lines off of fuel pump, no fuel down there. Put lines back on, turned it over some more. Took lines loose again. No fuel there. Hooked up electric pump, hot wired directly to battery for test, fuel came through. Wondering about my fuel pump now. I Hooked the electric pump in line BEFORE the "inlet" port on the stock pump. Start electric fuel pump, fuel pumps right through the fuel pump and gets up to the filter.
So, I am thinking fuel pump (lift pump) bad.
Make sense? Something else I had noticed was that the rear tank was going "empty" on less fuel (more still showing on the gauge) than before, and was taking less to fill ) confirming what gauge was indicating. I thought maybe the pick up in the tank had broken off or split part way down and it couldn't "suck" up gas from the bottom of the tank anymore. However, after this experience/experiment tonight with the electric pump, I am thinking this was just a sign that the old lift pump was getting tired. Rear tank is farther away, and pump was getting weak and couldn't pull as much from the bottom of the tank and all the way forward. The front tank still seemed to be working fine.
Thoughts? Thanks for any help! It did TRY to fire 2x throughout that whole process once I had the electric pump pumping fuel up to the filter for sure. From what I could read on here, it only takes about 6 psi from lift pump, and from what I could see on-line at parts stores, most generic electric pumps pump more than that. This one is probably 5 years old and I just carry it with me for emergencies, so I didn't have the model number and stats on it, but thought it might help me get the thing started and maybe even limp it home. Didn't work! But like I said, there were 2 tiny individual times where the engine TRIED to fire, literally, like ONE cylinder tried to go, at 2 different times over the course of about 30 minutes of tinkering. I'm not sure if this was indicative of the electric pump being too weak and the fuel supply not good enough, or if this was simply when the batteries were getting too low to turn the engine fast enough. Regardless, one battery was charged overnight and I am going to hook up the other now and will get back to it.
Again, any thoughts greatly appreciated!
Nothing this time, though, even after I did ALL of the same stuff, AND even removed the glow plugs, to make things easier on the starter while trying to prime, and to make sure I was getting fuel up to the engine.
So, I had a small electric fuel pump with me. Thought I'd try to put it in line and see what I could do. When I took lines off of fuel pump, no fuel down there. Put lines back on, turned it over some more. Took lines loose again. No fuel there. Hooked up electric pump, hot wired directly to battery for test, fuel came through. Wondering about my fuel pump now. I Hooked the electric pump in line BEFORE the "inlet" port on the stock pump. Start electric fuel pump, fuel pumps right through the fuel pump and gets up to the filter.
So, I am thinking fuel pump (lift pump) bad.
Make sense? Something else I had noticed was that the rear tank was going "empty" on less fuel (more still showing on the gauge) than before, and was taking less to fill ) confirming what gauge was indicating. I thought maybe the pick up in the tank had broken off or split part way down and it couldn't "suck" up gas from the bottom of the tank anymore. However, after this experience/experiment tonight with the electric pump, I am thinking this was just a sign that the old lift pump was getting tired. Rear tank is farther away, and pump was getting weak and couldn't pull as much from the bottom of the tank and all the way forward. The front tank still seemed to be working fine.
Thoughts? Thanks for any help! It did TRY to fire 2x throughout that whole process once I had the electric pump pumping fuel up to the filter for sure. From what I could read on here, it only takes about 6 psi from lift pump, and from what I could see on-line at parts stores, most generic electric pumps pump more than that. This one is probably 5 years old and I just carry it with me for emergencies, so I didn't have the model number and stats on it, but thought it might help me get the thing started and maybe even limp it home. Didn't work! But like I said, there were 2 tiny individual times where the engine TRIED to fire, literally, like ONE cylinder tried to go, at 2 different times over the course of about 30 minutes of tinkering. I'm not sure if this was indicative of the electric pump being too weak and the fuel supply not good enough, or if this was simply when the batteries were getting too low to turn the engine fast enough. Regardless, one battery was charged overnight and I am going to hook up the other now and will get back to it.
Again, any thoughts greatly appreciated!
