Originally Posted by barry123400

Reading the glow plugs is the simple thing to do. It gets you clear of or involved with the fundemental problem the quickest or most accurate way possible. You either have all cylinders preforming properly or you do not. It is not likely the rack bolt unless the spring packed it in all of a sudden in my opinion from your description. I think it should just grow weaker with age usually. Not a sudden change. But then nothing is impossible. Also the gentleman that mentioned poor fuel lines should be considered. Both from a perspective of him having had simular symptoms in the past and your observance of a larger than normal bubble in the pre filter. I would not even change the injectors out until there was an indication that perhaps one cylinder was reading different than the others by a wide margin. Also the smoking is not an indication of fuel starvation itself but strange things occur that do not make common sense from time to time.