Damn! It Won't Start Again! Universal 5432 Advice Needed!

[theonecalledtom]

Looking forward to a first sail of the NY and anchoring out in some stella Santa Anna conditions we were thwarted this morning by a complete failure to cooperate by the diesel.

What's frustrating is that this has to be an extremely simple fix.

We haven't been out of the slip in some time but have been running the engine on a regular basis, last time being two weeks ago when it fired up right away.

What I know:
1) The engine cranks fine
2) The air filter seems clear
3) When loosened fuel spurts out of the injectors, though it seems a little apathetic from the first one perhaps.

In between the last time I ran the engine and now I've spent some time in the engine compartment while plugging leaks - its possible I knocked something while climbing in and out over the motor....

Anyone know anything about these motors - what might I have hit, adjusted, knocked out of line? Perhaps a decompression lever?

[Boracay]

Could you tell us a little more about your engine hours and age, the fuel setup and maintenance history. That sort of thing.

Going on my own experience my first guess would be the fuel lift pump. Replacement is normally not expensive.

Other will have more experience than myself.

[theonecalledtom]

Okay, it's definitely fuel delivery related - though I'm confused that I was seeing fuel spurt from the injectors I guess it just isn't enough.

After randomly fiddling I turned it over again and guess what, it fired right up. Briefly, and sounding like it was firing on three strong cylinders. Then it faded off and stopped again.

I got Janet to turn it over and cracked open the injectors again, but with little success. I'd like to try priming the fuel system again preferably without cranking the engine incessantly but I'm confused by the bleed valve at the pump - a year and half ago I had a mechanic go over the engine and he said that the valve was missing something and now I see what he meant.

And this is the part from the parts catalog - I'm missing the manual knob on the left of the assembly:



However the guy was able to make it work somehow, at the time I'd taken on too much information and missed what he did.... guess I've got the rest of the weekend to find out!

Really I don't think I need to bleed at the injectors, the manual just talks about priming up to the fuel pump stage.

[theonecalledtom]

Originally Posted by Boracay

Could you tell us a little more about your engine hours and age, the fuel setup and maintenance history. That sort of thing.

Going on my own experience my first guess would be the fuel lift pump. Replacement is normally not expensive.

Other will have more experience than myself.

Most of the history is fairly unknown. In recent times it had a new racor added two years ago plus a few other minor things at the time that eventually cured an air leak. I changed the secondary filter today, after the problem started.

The fuel system is Tank -> priming pump -> Racor 500 -> Lift pump -> Secondary filter -> Injection pump -> Injectors.

The engine doesn't want to run with or without the priming pump driving fuel into the system (its normally left off).

I'll go back to working out how to bleed fuel at the injection pump....

[b-rad]

Im just gonna throw this out from my own experience.
When I shut down the diesel in my boat I pull a t handle that looks like a choke cable in a old truck, this pulls a thin steel cable that ataches to the injector pump and shuts off the fuel. Well one time my engine wouldnt start after sitting for a few weeks. I bleed and bleed the injectors,(i was getting fuel out just a very very small amount) spent 2 hours playing around I was about to call a mechanic. At which point I realized the fuel shut off cable had come off the injection pump. So even though I pushed the t hangdle in it did not move the lever on the pump. Moving the lever the engine fired right up and now the cable is permantly installed.

[Chief Engineer]

Do you have glow plugs?

What is the temperature (ambient)

[Chief Engineer]

Yup...look at the stop cable....I have seen that many times....

Regarding temp....I thought NY meant Nueve York not New Year.....

Try advancing the throttle at startup.

Also...cranking speed is very important on these engines.

[theonecalledtom]

Internet swallowed my final reply last night, the marina's wireless connection is a bit hit or miss.

Eventually I tightened down all the fuel hose connections, bled the system again and lo and behold she fired right up. I guess there was a leak in one connections likely caused by me clambering over it.

Anyway we had a good long day out today and ran the engine for about 6 hours total without a problem.

I guess I should consider replacing the older hoses, they're probably less pliant than would be ideal these days.