250 doesn't start

[brdietrich]

my 250 cummins doesn't start. I get fuel to the top of the pump but I don't know if it is getting to the injecters. It does start on starter fluid and run on it. Has any body have this problem

 

[ODdave]

Check the mechanical lever on the side of the PT pump. Make shure it isnt stuck.

 

[WillWagner]

make sure the manual fuel shut off is pushed forward...the little lever on the top of the pump. Also, theses are known for rotted fuel lines, could be sucking air.

 

[Barneyszoo]

Try pumping the cold wether start primer pump, I had an old fuel line that was sucking air but I could get it started once there was fuel up in the rail.

 

[papabear]

make sure the manual fuel shut off is pushed forward...the little lever on the top of the pump. Also, theses are known for rotted fuel lines, could be sucking air.

Yup...maybe someone accidently pulled the engine stop out.
If so..it has to be reset under the hood...common problem.

 

[brdietrich]

yes the lever is forward and I can get fuel to the top of the shut off swicth. Can the injectors get air lock. If so can you bleed them. I had the rubber hoses at the swicth for left and right tank was bad and swicth them out already.

 

[Irv]

You might also check to see if fuel pressure is present at the injectors. The simple way to do that is to barely crack open the nut on the injector line for each cylinder, one at a time. If you have pressure, you will see it leak out in pulses. That doesn't mean you have fuel getting through the injectors, though. If you have pressure, you might remove each injector, one at a time, and hook them back up to the lines and watch the spray pattern. It will be messy, but if you use a clean peanut butter jar, you can see them squirt. Use a flare-nut wrench, if you have one. You will probably have to loosen all the mounts for the injector lines in order to get the lines out where you can work with them. I used to have an extra line set aside in the tool box just for this thing. It was bent so that it would work easily with a jar to the side of the engine.

One last thing; the previous poster asked if you had reset the shutdown valve. Just checking to make sure you know that it involves more than just pushing the knob back in. You have to get out under the hood and grab the little valve with your hand and rotate it back to ready position.That was done intentionally by the mil so that if a driver had a problem so bad that he had to force a shutdown, they didn't want him to start it back up. They wanted it to go to the shop first. We collectors can use that feature to prevent theft. Just pull/push the lever and it will look fine but won't start. If you what to push on, you can make a stick that you can poke in from the fender well and reset the valve.

Oh, almost forgot: Check for spark. If you have spark, you have an even bigger problem!

Irv

 

[brdietrich]

yes the lever is set right thats how i turn the truck off because the solidoid is bad. Is the injectors under the rockers. So do i have to take off all of the top part of the head to get to the injectors and thier are two sets of allenhead screws by the fuel inlet and return at both ends of the block is that apart of the fuel rail. Could that be away to maybe bleed the injectors

 

[augiedoggy]

Me thinks Irv is describing a multi fuel external injector set up.
You could see if (while cranking) fuel is coming out of the return line
(out of the cyl heads). Also, to eliminate the possibility of sucking air
somewhere try disconnecting the fuel inlet line at the pump and connecting
a large fuel line directly into a diesel fuel can under hood in its place.
Hope this helps and good luck!

 

[Irv]

Augiedoggie, you're right! My bad. Brain flicked back into multifuel mode.

 

[WillWagner]

Don't take any plugs out of the head, don't take parts off the pump...except the shut off if needed. The PT system is self priming. Try running out of a bucket and see if it'll start.

 

[Floridianson]

Did you have it running after you changed out the fuel lines on the slector valve. They take a long time to fill filter canister. I sometimes drop the canister to see if it is full sometime I tap on it and when it's not full you can tell. You say your getting fuel to the top of PT and if there were a pressure gage there it should be putting out around 172lb. I would not use starting fluid and I am not afraid to crank them. I do use the primer pump to get most of the air out of the lines then crank. Also you can try for SAG turn the thumb screw in.

 

[Kalashnikov]

I'm having the eact same problem. It happened after sitting for a while and trying to adjust the valves. I'm almost positive it's bad fuel lines causing air to get into the system. I get fuel at the retun line in the tank and fuel at the pump. The truck did run so there really can't be anything serious that happened from sitting. My injectors are new too. I;d replace the fuel lines if they haven't been done. That's what I'm going to do in the spring.

 

[WillWagner]

Why did you "try" to adjust the valves? Did you touch the injector settings?

 

[brdietrich]

iI didn't touch the valves. I didn't touch the injector settings. It sat all winter change the fuel fillter got it all prime up to the pump by pressureing the tank. it fired right up.idle for a few minutes drove it about 20' turned it off and cant get it started now. I took the allen screws out at both ends of the head where the fuel rails run fuel comes out of those. I took off the return line fuel comes out of the fuel rail when i crank it over. Thats is as far as i got to night. When I'm cranking it over is there suppost to be 172lb pressure at the top of the pump after the shut off valve. I don't have a pressure gage but it doesn't seem to be 172lb there are is the injectors suppost to put 172lbs out

 

[WillWagner]

The pump only makes flow at idle, no measurable pressure even cranking. If there is pressure in the gauge when cranking, I'd check the manual shut off on the pump. It's pumping, but not getting past the FSOV,

 

[Kalashnikov]

Why did you "try" to adjust the valves? Did you touch the injector settings?

I replaced the injectors and they were dumping too much fuel. I adjusted them according to the TMs and couldn't get it to start so I tried different injector settings since I had rear in another thread some people couldn't get them adjusted correctly using the torque method.

After I redo my fuel lines I'm gonna have to readjust the injectors.

 

[802dot1q]

Use will's method of setting overhead. Search for it. I did it with much success thanks to will.

 

[Floridianson]

My bad that 172 is when she is running and spun up. Sounds like you have fuel flow. You getting any white smoke out the stack while your cranking her?

 

[brdietrich]

I just got it running. It has no power now and blows alot of white smoke.The line from the pump to the filter is leaking. I guess it is sucking air and I guess that might make a lose in pressure and power. I need to fix that and see what happens