ISSUES STARTING. OUT OF IDEAS.
 

I HAVE AN 84 300 TURBO DIESEL AND HAVE HAD MULTIPLE PEOPLE TRY TO GET IT STARTED AND ITS DEFFINATELY NOT BUDGING.

NEW STARTER. NEW ALTERNATOR. NEW BATTERY. 8 NEW MASSIVE GROUNDS. RULED OUT THE NEUTRAL SAFETY SWITCH AND IGNITION. CANNOT FIGURE WHAT ELSE TO LOOK FOR.

BACKGROUND:
BOUGHT THIS CAR LESS THAN A WEEK AGO FROM MY BROTHER. RAN PERFECT. STARTED EVERY TIME THE FIRST DAY I HAD IT AND THEN I HAD TO HAVE IT TOWED HOME. HE HAD MAJOR ISSUES GETTING IT STARTED FOR THE LONGEST TIME BUT PUT ALL THE GROUNDS AND JUMPED IT AND IT RAN FINE FOR THAT DAY.

ANY IDEAS ARE EXTREMELY HELPFUL THANKS
- CAT

Change both fuel filters, clean fuel strainer, check glow plugs. Sounds like you clould have drained the battery too..Go to auto parts place and get them to test the battery and alternator for you

OH YEA welcome!!!
You should have plenty more answers soon!!

ILL LOOK INTO THOSE (AKA ASK MY BOYS HELPING ME HAHA )

I check the glow plugs first. Make sure they are all getting voltage and are good.

Good glow plugs, strong battery and starter are a must for a diesel

The engine does crank over right? You just cant get it to fire on? Or will the engine not crank at all?

If the engine does not crank at all, take a jumper wire and jumper the starter connection to the battery connection on the distribution block. Regardless of key position, this should crank the engine over. It wont start it unless you either have the key on or have the vac shutoff unplugged.

If the engine does crank, but wont fire, check glow plugs and fuel system. Perhaps your diesel fuel has gelled up. We usually put some Power Service stuff in them in the winter.

Answer
 

You have a PM.




.

I bet I can GUESS what the PM's about!!!

Welcome to the Forum!
give us a little detail about what is going on with your car.
terms: Starting = motor running properly on it's own.
TURNING OVER = starter engaging properly spinning the engine.
Cranking = starter spins and turns the engine
adding Not in front of these terms assists us knowing what's going on.
Thanks!
oh, please limit the Capital Letters to sentence starting and proper names! thanks!
CAPS = Shouting online!

Also, the least expensive repair strategy is to have a proper diagnosis before installing expensive parts. Most parts can be tested to determine replacement need.

If you ran it out of fuel; you will need to purge the air out of the hard lines & pump up system.
Use Search for 'purging air out of fuel lines'.
WD40 can be used as a starting fluid; never use typical "starting fluid" on a diesel.
Glow plugs must be working or forget it.

In General.
Starter not Cranking Battery and Ground wires good:
The Neutral Safety Switch no good or. (“First make sure the selector is in P or N. Cycle through all the gear positions and try in N.
In front of the battery is a small rectangular box. Use a jumper wire to jump from one of the large posts to the small post with the purple wire. If it cranks, you've got an issue with the neutral safety switch or the ignition switch.

Above the accelerator pedal is a 4-wire plug with a harness that runs down to under the accelerator pedal and to the transmission tunnel. Unplug it, jumper across the two purple wires in the female plug and try to start again. If it starts, you need a NSS.”)

Ignition Switch not working. (In front of the Battery on the Fender Well is a Terminal Block. Clip a Remote Starter Switch to the left and right sides of the Terminal Bloc, or use a Jumber wire being careful not to get burned. If you are careful you can use this to start your Engine. If the Starter Solenoid does not engage and the Starter does not crank you have an issue with the Starter.)

Not starting due to no Fuel:
If the car has sat for a long time start pumping on the Hand Primer Pump untill you hear a squishing or squeeking sound. After that pump some more to be sure. That brings Fuel Up to the Fuel Injection Pump.
Air in the system. (Loosen the Fuel Injection Line Nuts at the Injectors and crank untill you see Fuel comming out. Thighten the Nuts and attempt to start.)

After you have pumped on the hand primer and loosened the Fue Injection Line Nuts at the Injectors and Fuel is not coming from the Fuel Injection Lines. (Change both Fuel Filters. Fill the Spin-on Fuel filter with Diesel Fuel but still pump on the hand primer. Leave the Fuel Injection hard Line Nuts at the Injectors loose until you see Fuel come out. ) (You could als could remove and install a longer Fuel Inlet Hose 5/16" ID using reglar Fuel Hose and run it to a Container with clean Diesel Fuel; you are doing this to see if something is keeping Fuel from coming from the Fuel Tank.)

Great sequence! thanks!

Sounds to me like it's not getting fuel. Is the tank empty?

Take the cover off the air cleaner and shoot some WD-40 down the thing while somebody else cranks it and see if it'll run off the spray.

Thank you so much for all of the helpful feedback. So, the issue is that the starter will not even attempt to turn. I went ahead and jumped the terminals and got a relay click from the driver side. Nothing from the starter.. Now, these two threads are from the previous owner.

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/diesel-discussion/275992-trouble-starting-starter-relay.html

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/diesel-discussion/291792-300d-part-i-d-problems-starting.html



I went ahead and added a 4g ground on the starter, cleaned the grounds and made sure they were all making contact with bare metal.

Is the starter getting the proper signal to to start? I would assume you may have a bad starter. (Not all new starters are GOOD starters).

You might look there first.

best of luck.




Very good advice.