silverbullet02

Over the last week she's been getting harder to start in the morning. Used to be that she never even cranked over a full turn before it fired, now it's getting to the point that it'll crank over once or twice and fire, and only run on half the cylinders for 10-15 seconds before hitting on all 6. Could it be the lift pump going bad and letting the fuel drain back? Runs great once it's going, but the initial startup is getting pretty bad pretty quickly. Thanks,

Brian

John Faughn

What kind of temps are you seening ? Colder starts, grid heater ? What about fuel, filter , change filter and put in an injection cleaner .
When I look at symtom , I make sure all the maintance stuff is covered 1st , then move to the basics-easyer-cheaper .
Then look for the problum , I had something simalar last summer , and it was the relay contacts burning , it seemed like the fuel was draining out of the system and would have to crank for a while to start [ hot or cold ] , when ever it wouldn't start rite away I'ld lift the linkage at the fuel shutoff [ with key on ]
Then I took the cover off of the relay and filed the points and now no prob. 8 mths later.
Your problum may very but check the stuff at top 1st.

silverbullet02

Temps are in the low 40's/high 30's at night, same as it's been for the last month, grid heaters have been unplugged for over a year now because sometimes they won't turn off, don't really need 'em here in the pacific northwest, and fuel filter is only maybe 2-3k miles old. So your fuel shutoff solenoid was your problem? Thanks for the help here.

bgilbert

How size battery do you have? How did you know the grid heaters weren't turning off?

silverbullet02

Dunno exact size of battery, but it has plenty of juice, cranks over real nice. Wait to start line doesn't go off half the time, just stays on all the time and blinks occasionally. You could tell real easy when they were on cause of the current draw. Friend of mine had it on a road trip once, they didn't turn off, he popped the hood and the power wire to the heaters was really hot, like hard to touch, so they were unplugged then and haven't used 'em since...haven't needed them.

SilverZuk

Where is the fuel relay?

John Faughn

Need fill in the info on your truck in user control pannel , so that you can get the right answer to your ? , most are above the firewall at the rubber gasget for the hood just off center to drivers side.

SilverZuk

I updated my profile.
I've got a 93 W-250 CTD 5 speed.

wheelo90

You may have some air in the fuel lines. I know that whenever I last changed my fuel filter, I got some air trapped in the lines and it would fire up roughly, and run on 3 cylinders. Also, you may want to check that your lift pump is not allowing the fuel to drain back int the tank whenever you park it over night. I have also heard of cracked fuel lines to the lift pump, which might be your problem.Possibly a clogged fuel filter but I kind of doubt that if it runs good once it warms up. Also your Grid heaters may not be working as they should, which might be why your Wait To Start light would blink or stay on. Which might be why you had problems with them staying on and getting overheated on you.
Wheelo

SilverZuk

In my case, I changed the fuel filter and lift pump.
The fuel filter made no difference.
I put the lift pump on last night, and had to bleed it several times to get it running. I drove about 15 miles, and it ran fine.

This morning it was hard to start. I had to cycle the start for 7 or 8 times for about 5-10 seconds each time.
It finally sputtered and fired up at about half throttle.

It drove fine to work today (40 miles).
Today at lunch it would not start.

The guys in the shop said it might be pulling air through a connection between the tank and lift pump. They gave me starting fluid to spray around the connections to see if the motor takes off.
They also loaned me a 17 mm wrench so I can bleed the fuel system at the injectors.

brainfade

I had a simular problem a couple months ago. Sometimes it ran fine, sometimes it wouldn't idle, sometimes it ran fine until I stepped on it and then a huge cloud with no power, wouldn't start etc. Changed the filter, lift pump and rubber hose at the lift pump, adative, the whole deal. Very frustrating and confusing. Turned out the fuel line was rusted in the section between the tank and frame. It would intermittantly allow air in and then close up again. Found the issue by putting a little air pressure in the tank through the filler tube < 5psi and looking for the leak. Fuel running down the frame gave it away.

SilverZuk

I'll check into that (if I can get it running and get it home).
I was thinking about going ahead and replumbing the fuel supply line anyway to rule that out. Might as well go with a larger supply line while I am at it.

John Faughn

There's one that will do 2 , if the relay is the problum .
turn the key to the on pos. and go under the hood and lift the linkage to the fuel shutoff solinoid , it should stay up , then get back to the ing.sw. and start,
If this gets your truck running than that one of the 2 things , the other is that tell you it is the relay , you can take the cover off and file the points and it will be like new , there is a small spring that holds the top set up / open , with the spring off grab the points holder and rotate to pull out than you can easyly file the points , then clean off any filings put back together.

cLAYH

This is what mine did when the lift pump went. The VE pump will pull on its after a few cranks.

To test try pump the manual lever on the lift pump and see what sort of resistance you get. If its really loose, no resistance it could be that the lift pump is shot. Also check your oil to make sure that its not over full from the lift pump pumping fuel into the crankcase via a blown diaphram.

wannadiesel

John-1st gens have a totally different shutoff system. You are confusing the issue.