Ran out of fuel on a HMMWV

[Deputy Tim Clark]

Hey friends, we have a 1990 M998 Hummer at our sheriff's office that we use for drug eradication, etc. The fuel gauge showed 1/4 tank of fuel, but was wrong. We ran it empty today. We put approximately 10 gallon of fuel back in it today.We took the vent screw loose on the fuel filter/water separator but could not get any fuel to come up to the bleeder hole while cranking the engine. Any tricks ??? Please help ! Thanks

 

[Warthog]

Welcome to the site.

As you have learned, never trust a fuel gauge in a military vehicle.

I personally do not have the knowledge to bleed the system, but someone will help you out in the morning.

Do you have a copy of the Tech Manuals for the HMMWV? We have them here on the site.

http://www.steelsoldiers.com/showthread.php?78861-TM-s-for-the-M998-series

 

[jw4x4]

Welcome to Steel Soldiers. That is one heck of a first post!!!!! No doubt someone will chime in with the solution.

 

[Retiredwarhorses]

crack open the Hard line with a Flare wrench at the Fuel Pump..crank the motor and make sure you are getting fuel into and out of the Pump.
move forward from there...pull off the inlet hose to the Fuel Filter, if your still good,move to the Outlet side and remove that hose to the IJ Pump and start again.
Once good there...crack an injector line or 2 and crank till you see fuel...., start, tighten IJ Line. once running I open the Bleed screw on the Fuel Filter to purge any
further air.....

 

[Hell On Wheels]

Did you ever get it started? I usually loosen a injector line which will take some cranking, just it give time for the starter cool off. It will bleed the air after a few times.

 

[dangood]

I have had to start over 30 of these things. Holding down the throttle around 50 percent while pressurizing the fuel tank with a air blower gun while someone cranks is sure fast most of the time. There is a metal fuel valve on driver side hood right above the driver front tire. open it up while you crank and pressurize the tank with air until it dribbles a little diesel seems to work nicely followed by shutting the valve closed quickly. Worst case, if you MUST use ether, turn the switch to run, wait for the glow plugs to cycle off after a minute, (have to watch the voltage guage until the needle stops bouncing every half second as the wait to start light goes off on the dash much sooner than the glow plugs actually turn off) and then hit it with a LIGHT mist of ether while you crank and pressurize the tank with air. (yes...that requires 3 persons unless you are Mr Speedy) Has never failed yet if you are really having problems. If that does not do the trick, you have other issues. Like an empty tank you moron...

 

[ClarkeF]

Don't use ether. If you must use a starting aid (and you shouldn't need to) you can use a squirt of WD40 or similar into the intake (after the filter).

what you have learned is that mechanical fuel pumps suck poorly. You have to crank and crank and crank to suck the fuel up to the pump, then up to the filter, then into the engine and finally down to the injectors. The pressurized air trick is interesting - I'll remember that one.

 

[bjones99]

dangood - you must be some kind of GENIUS! Thanks to your post, I used the tip to "pressurize" the fuel tank and she fired right up! Not sure if I did it the way you intended, but here is a link to the YouTube video I created to hopefully help someone else in the future. https://youtu.be/9Hn8QYdSEis

 

[papakb]

Great idea for pressurizing the tank! Sweet and simple. Just make sure you don't have the compressor regulator set at 100 psi!!!! Reading the first posting I was wondering if you couldn't crack open the fuel filter bleeder in the drivers wheelwell and use a MightyVac (hand vacuum pump) to pull fuel up into the filter. Once that was done the pump should start working and refill the IP and fuel lines. Any thoughts on this?

 

[TOBASH]

So I don't understand... It took since July 31, 2014 to get that rig started?

What has the Sheriff been using for "drug eradication" all this time?

That being said... This is awesome information.

T

 

[dangood]

Glad to hear you got your rig back up and going, and thanks for contributing to a great solution for others. Great video. If you are in a pinch you can squeeze a pneumatic blow off gun tip on the side of the fuel inlet with a plastic bag wrapped around a few small shop rags and push hard as you pull the trigger and blow air into the tank. After doing hundreds of hmmwvs, we ended up drilling a hole in the stock humvee fuel cap and installing a metal valve stem. Works perfect. When we are done, we put the valve cap on and it works as a fuel cap still just fine.

But....Love the drain clog expanding bladder tool you made. Never would have thought of that. Love it.

 

[TOBASH]

Mods... What about making this a sticky?

This thread applies not just to empty fuel tank. It applies to fresh engine rebuilds, engine swaps, fuel pump rebuilds...

T

 

[bjones99]

Great idea for pressurizing the tank! Sweet and simple. Just make sure you don't have the compressor regulator set at 100 psi!!!! Reading the first posting I was wondering if you couldn't crack open the fuel filter bleeder in the drivers wheelwell and use a MightyVac (hand vacuum pump) to pull fuel up into the filter. Once that was done the pump should start working and refill the IP and fuel lines. Any thoughts on this?

Thanks for the feedback. I mentioned in the video it only took about 30 psi to inflate the bulb and push some fuel out of the tank. When I opened the fuel filter bleeder valve over the front drivers tire, I was getting fuel there. And, I do not have a hand vacuum pump. I just tried to make it work with what I had available to me.

 

[bjones99]

Glad to hear you got your rig back up and going, and thanks for contributing to a great solution for others. Great video. If you are in a pinch you can squeeze a pneumatic blow off gun tip on the side of the fuel inlet with a plastic bag wrapped around a few small shop rags and push hard as you pull the trigger and blow air into the tank. After doing hundreds of hmmwvs, we ended up drilling a hole in the stock humvee fuel cap and installing a metal valve stem. Works perfect. When we are done, we put the valve cap on and it works as a fuel cap still just fine.

But....Love the drain clog expanding bladder tool you made. Never would have thought of that. Love it.

I was trying to come up with something that would not require drilling into the rig or it's parts and this is what I came up with. I strongly considered the air valve in the fuel cap as you mentioned if this did not work. Thanks to you, she's rolling again!

 

[Valence]

So I don't understand... It took since July 31, 2014 to get that rig started?

What has the Sheriff been using for "drug eradication" all this time?

That being said... This is awesome information.

T

That was not the original poster reporting success.

The original poster, Deputy Tim Clark, hasn't been back since the 3rd post on this thread.
Last Activity: 07-31-2014 08:54

 

[TOBASH]

That was not the original poster reporting success.

The original poster, Deputy Tim Clark, hasn't been back since the 3rd post on this thread.
Last Activity: 07-31-2014 08:54

My response above was tongue in cheek. I had noticed that.

Thanks though.

That being said... This is a terrific thread.

 

[rhinob]

Great thread, thanks.

 

[TonkaT]

dangood & bjones99,
Man, this is one of the coolest fixes of any kind I've seen. Thinking outside the box at it's finest. This should work great with tractors, too.

Awesome, guys!!

TonkaT

 

[surplusyes]

Picked nicest day so far this Dec to restart a HMMWV that ran out of fuel, (at least we hoped that was the cause). Thanks to the gents for above procedure, bleeding air out of fuel line worked like a charm, I did have to slightly crack open 1 turn or or so on each of the injector fuel lines, cranked 10 seconds or so until started to catch, retightened started up, spit a little then ran fine.

 

[StackJ]

Great solution. Now, the question is: You're 30 miles out, some dude in a truck just gave you some fuel to limp where there is more fuel. No air around. What do you do then?