Electric Fuel Pump for Volvo Diesel MB7a

[boeing1]

unable to start a volvo diesel mb7a engine, found no fuel to fuel nozzels, the lift pump not supplying fuel. installed an elec. pump now I get fuel to dist. pump but no fuel to fuel nozzels, I have bleed and replaced filters. I have used a auto diesel elec. pump which only puts out agout 7 psi is this press. too. low. I thought that the dist pump was where the press. is increased.
any suggestions.

[Chief Engineer]

Make sure your stop lever is not pulled

[Tia Bu]

Do you mean an MD7A? If so, I have one of those. It is a PITA to bleed the fuel system. You need patience and probably someone else to help you. Start all the way back at the fuel tank and carefully bleed the air through the fuel filter, the manual pump (which you've bypassed?), then the bleed screws on the injection pump in the correct order (I've attached a page from the service manual, if that helps). If you can finally get fuel with no bubbles coming through bleed screw number 3, you probably won't need to bleed it at the injectors. The interior of that CAV injector pump (unless you have the Bosch :-)) has a lot of space that needs to be filled up with diesel fuel.

I went through this once for two days and eventually found the valve at the fuel tank outlet was clogged with sediment. Once we got that cleared, it took us another several hours to get the system bled and the engine running. That was with a diesel mechanic.

Now that I've done it once more (after running out of fuel) with a buddy at sea in the middle of the night, I realize you've just got to follow the manual and be bloody methodical and patient.

Of course, you may have done all this already. If that's the case, I apologize for not answering your question about the proper psi for the fuel pump. But mine runs fine off the little OEM manual priming pump, so it doesn't seem like the engine would need much fuel pressure.

[boeing1]

Thanks for the help, I am helping a friend, must be a md7a, we replaced the filters, were very dirty, we replaced the lift pump with a elec. due to we could not get it to pump fuel, I did not bleed the bleed screws on the injection pump I only cracked a line on a injector and could not get any fuel. we thouhght the injection pump might be bad. I will try to bleed again in the AM, thanks for the help.. I did not want to pull injection pump due to tring to retime it...

[boeing1]

Yes, I did check the stop lever, and its adjustment,

[Tia Bu]

Let me know if you've got to pull the injection pump. I can email you a service manual, which has instructions on retiming.

But I think the bleed screws on the injector pump may well be the secret to success for you.

[Tia Bu]

By the way, it's worth letting your friend know this, as we're getting into winter. These old girls can be notoriously slow to start in the cold weather. This YouTube video shows one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoEXEg4dRkY

Mine acts just the same in January and February. In the warm months she starts right up on the first few revolutions.

[boeing1]

Yes, will accomplish the bleeding per the volvo manual instructions you sent.
Thanks again,
hope I will not need the timing instructions

[boeing1]

Tia Bu,
I bleed the Engine and the injector pump per the instructions you sent, Then I got the engine started, Thanks for the help,

[Tia Bu]

Super! Have fun on the boat!