Hi All, have a problem with me ol 81 300TD. It won't start. Have bled the lines.Checked the filters.checked the fuel.

Have a question about injector pump.

I disconnected one one the lines to one of the injectors and cranked the motor over, the diesel seems to drip out. Was wondering if this is right? Seems to me the fuel should shoot out under some kind of pressure.

So wondering if I have a fuel delivery problem to the injectors from the pump and how do I check?
Any ideas?

Much Appreciated

could be clogged at the tank or the lines that come to the engine.

I had to disconnect all my lines and blow them out and clean out the tank on my 80 due to it having sit unused for a few years.

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-justin

1987 300TD, 1987 300TD
2008 R32, 2000 Passat Wagon

Just so you rule out other possibilities, disconnect the vacuum line attached to the sutoff valve, atop the pump. If you're getting no fuel at the injectors, the fuel shutoff may be preventing it. Is the manual shutoff lever all the way up?

Did this just happen all of a sudden, or are you resurrecting a car that hasn't run in a while.
I found out the hard way that if all glow plugs are dead, it will NOT start, so you might give them a look also. Info on doing that here if you search.
Your starter also needs to be spinning with vigor, so weak starter or battery will hamper the starting.

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Jimmy L.
'05 Acura TL 6MT
2001 ML430 My Spare

Gone:
'95 E300 188K "Batmobile" Texas Unfriendly Black
'85 300TD 235K "The Wagon" Texas Friendly White
'80 240D 154K "China" Scar engine installed
'81 300TD 240K "Smash"
'80 240D 230K "The Squash"
'81 240D 293K"Scar" Rear ended harder than Elton John

On mine, even with the stop lever wired closed, the fuel will SHOOT out. so I vote on you having a fuel feed problem. Try putting the two fuel lines in a bottle of fuel, to eliminate the tank screen as a problem. if still not starting, look at the pump...
John

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John HAUL AWAY, OR CRUSHED CARS!!! HELP ME keep the cars out of the crusher! A/C Thread
"as I ride with my a/c on... I have fond memories of sweaty oily saturdays and spewing R12 into the air. THANKS for all you do!

My drivers:
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 190D 2.5-5SPEED!!!

1987 300TD
1987 300TD
1994GMC 2500 6.5Turbo truck... I had to put the ladder somewhere!

Hi Terry, It seems to be a fuel problem, when I cranked it before, it use to bellow out black smoke from the tail pipe before it started, it does not do this anymore, so it appears no fuel is getting to cylinders.

I disconnected all lines from IP and it squirts out fuel from each of the 5 holes, on top of the IP. My question is, how does one determine if its sufficient, and if it has enough pressure?
Even though it comes out of the ports on the IP, its seems like its just a little quick squirt but, it still does not seem to be getting into the cylinders. A friend of mine says it should gush out at very high pressure but wondering if you have some info on this. Also I discovered this morning that the oil was very low, It was leaking out of the filter seal, Relaced, and filled. I added 4 quarts, was wondering if this could have damaged IP.

Hi John, Mine shoots out of the IP, will hit the hood. but it seems just a very small amount?? How does one tell if sufficient and enough pressure?

Appreciate.

Hate to ask the obvious, but have you checked all your glow plugs? I've experienced hard starts with one bad plug. If you have two or more you may not be able to get it started if it is cold.

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hook up a temporary tank in the engine compartment to bypass the tank, as has been suggested multiple times.

__________________
-justin

1987 300TD, 1987 300TD
2008 R32, 2000 Passat Wagon

I hooked up a temp tank. Used a l litre clear bottle and ran a clear line to inlet of primer pump, via the inlet filter (replaced the filter), and ran a clear line (return) to a seperate 1litre clear bottle, then I primed all air thru. It started. Just as it was about to run out of fuel, I connected the clear lines to the (feed) from the tank (just slipped it on) and to the return, (to the tank), and I could see the fuel flowing, (supply and return). The air cleared out pretty soon, I am surprized that the car did not die. Once it warmed up, I then replaced the feed and return hoses with new ones and new clamps and it started right up, then I bled out all the air at each injector.

I guess sometimes one has to be told "multible times" but I am glad I was, it saved me replacing the IP, which I thought was faulty.

Just a note, I had a serious oil leak out of my filter seal ( may have not been tightend down enough after oil change) lost 4 quarts. And was driving the car at high speed for 100 miles. I thought I had damaged the IP due to lack of oil, and initially it was squeaking when I cranked it over. With this, I thought that I may have damaged the motor and the IP. But all seems fine.

I just put this in so someone in the future who has the same problem does not conclude what I did, without running a bypass fuel system.

Thanks for everyones help. Much appreciated. I'm sure a leaky line, was much of the problem, Thanks Marl and the bypass system of Justin's suggestion confirmed, Thanks Justin. I changed my bad glow plugs, thanks to Andrew, that I took for granted worked, and 4 of 5 were dead, so this was all due to a leaky hose, and dead glow plug combo.

Thanks, all you guys made the start to the new year a very happy one, instead of a misarible, costly one.

Replace the 12" long section of rubber fuel hose that connects the hard fuel line from the tank, to the plastic pre-filter. I know this from experience....I would bet that in many of our 20-year-old-plus cars, this hose is original! It will develop cracks on the inside diameter that may not be visible from the exterior...when you connect it to the fuel line and pre-filter and sinch down tight with a band clamp, the cracks distort and allow air in. On my car, this was the cause of many days of poor running, and ultimately a no-start condition. When the hose just starts to leak air, you will be able to drive the car fine, but you will notice hesitation and lack of power when you accelerate. Eventually, as the air leak gets worse,a big air bubble will form in the IP preventing starting.

Another thing, when the car is not running, you will not see fuel leaking here because there is no pressure head.....(on my 300TD, the fuel tank sits very low, and this hose connection is above the tank. On sedans, the tank sits up higher, so I would suspect that you might see fuel leaking here when tank is full).

Anyway, replace that hose and you might solve the problem.

Good luck,

Mark

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1984 300TD Wagon, 407,800 mi (current daily driver)
1985 300DT Sedan, 330,000 mi (gone to that great autobahn in the sky)

"A little WD40 down the intake and Voila" ......be careful when using a fuel like starting fluid and the like i.e. WD 40 because their flash point is low. What will happen is when the piston is about 3/4 into it's compression stroke, the fuel will ignite and force the piston down. serious engine damage will happen
Bill

Thanks: I did not do the obvious, and it has caused me a lot of headaches. This morning I tried to start after yesterdays sucess, and once again a very hard start, but it started, wheras before the fuel line problem was solved it would not start at all.

So I checked the glow plugs and yes 4 of the five where DEAD. so I replaced them, now the funny thing is I put in two new ones less than a year ago and they were also dead. So anyone reading this. "CHECK YOUR GLOWPLUGS, I don't care if you think they are fine, CHECK THEM NOW!!!!!! not tomorrow,not think about it, NOW!!! NOW!!! NOW!!!

This is an easy way:

1. with a voltmeter and the GP's connected, turn on ignition, measure the voltage between a good ground connection and the lead going to the glow plug, check ALL of them for voltage, if the voltage is present (12V) all is good so far. it shows you are getting power to the GP.

2. Disconnect the wire from the 1st glow plug. (With the ignition off.) put your volatge meter to OHMS setting, or better still if you have one the checks diodes with a beep sound, use that setting. Place one lead of the meter to a good ground, and the other to the connector (on the glow plug), and check for continuity, it will beep or it will show continuity in the OHMS setting. If the cuicuit is OPEN, (ie no Continuity) the glow plug is bad. do this for ALL, and I MEAN ALL glowplugs. I am sure that this is 90% of all hard start, cold weather problems. Hope this helps for anyone having hard, cold, starts. CHECK YOUR GLOWPLUGS, NOW!!!!! Do NOT take for granted that its too obvious, CHECK THEM NOW, Also I would stick with BOSCH!!!!!!!

Yes bill, you are correct. Thanks for pointing it out. I guess WD is NOT recommended.

Over the last few years I have noticed that my glow plugs do not last very long. In the past, 3 to 4 years and must change two or three because of hard starting. (Hard starting for me when the engine does not start within seconds of cranking, bad for the starting motor)
Recently noticed a glow plug I replaced last year was bad this year which makes me think the life cycle of a glow plug has been reduced to 1 year...and now I see another MB owner had plugs go bad after a year. Make me speculate that the life cycle has been reduce making higher profits for the manufacture and our costs go up.....
My method of when to change a glow plug is to look at the threads on the plug. The more the dis-colorization, older the plug, and it gets changes.....so far always removed a back tip plug.

Bill
1981 300 TD


Bill