Need help have a early 99 f 350, 7.3 motor with 300,000 thousand miles. Been running great went to go to lunch and it felt like it hiccuped a little pulling onto street got on highway ran fine then suddenly it just died like someone shut off the key. Coasted to side of road cranked it over three or four times not even a hint of starting. Turned off the switch tryed again fired up drove back to work no problems.
Got on here searched forum and decided to try cps put on a new one fired truck up let run for maybe 3 minutes while I washed hands went to get in it, it died like you shut off the switch. Got in truck it started right up drove around work and ran fine. Where do I go next? Any help would be greatly appreicated.

 

What's missing when it dies/won't start? Spark or fuel?

 

I didn't know diesels had spark plugs.

 

Not sure about what was missing was so freaked out it died I just wanted to get it off the road, I did not notice any smoke cloud when it started back up and when I was trying to get it started it was cranking fine but did not even attempt to hit a lick, spit or sputter or anything. When it died at work I just got in it turned the key it fired right up. I wanted to add to my original post I have checked the oil level and it is fine. I have just finished looking at all the wires and connections on top of the motor no leads, checked fuses under dash nothing and pulled covers off stearing colum and under dash and inspected wires and no leads there. Getting ready to take it for a test drive if it dies again what are the things I need to check for?

 

When I left work friday it was running fine, just jumped in to take for test drive and it won't start cranks over fine just wont start. What and how do I check to see if its a fuel problem?

 

Flipped drain lever on fuel bowl fuel ran out turned on key and fuel came out faster but not sure how powerful but was a increase from just draining. Tried to start severl times and truck still won't start.

 

One other thing is when cranking the engine the tach does not move the wts light works like normal. I had the recall on the cps done and when this happened I put in a new cps.

 

Not sure about this. This is of course a Guess.


I have a 99 V10 F350 4X4 so its not a desiel but I would bet the same thing is possible.


I have had issues where while driving my truck just shuts off or conks out.

Then I sit there trying to start it over and over with no luck. Then let is sit some time and try and again.... no luck. Doesnt even seem to be fireing fuel. And then out of the blue it fires up and drives with no problem!!

After it happening two times I realized I was low on fuel but not empty. Somewhere around 1/8th tank. For 11 years I have been able to run my truck under E without any problems. So when this started I new I had fuel because my gauge was over an 1/8th tank.

Then it started happening at nearly a 1/4 tank. So worried I took it to my Maryland Mechanic(shame I dont have him here in Florida because he is a know it all for sure and always gets it right) and he told me it is the fuel filter. And he told me dont let it get under 3/8 tank. I listened to him and its never happened since. I also remembered another friend who had an old 96 ford V6 and he had the issue with his truck too. That was years ago and both our trucks are still running.


I was told if I allow my truck to be ran down to E eventually the Filter will clog. Once it does filling it up mostly will clear it enough. But if it doenst get enough fuel it will not start.

Maybe its just clogged?

 

Thanks for the suggustion I dont let my truck get under a 1/4 before I fill up and I fill up completely everytime. Currently I have 3/4 of a tank in the truck. I changed the filter before last winter and the history of this truck is when the filter starts getting clogged the was light comes on and I start to lose power, that has not happened this time.
Heres the latest tried for about 3 hours to get it started yesterday and not even a hit came back this morning and tried and it started ran great for 4 minutes and just shut off went out tried to restart did then just died and would not restart, let it set 15 minutes and it starts up put timer on it it runs for 9 minutes and dies. Go out restart and it runs for 20 minutes I drive it around work for about 5 minutes and no problem, let set and it runs for another 10 minutes. No smoke when it starts and on mine the tach does not move during cranking only when it starts. When it was running this morninig I got on top the engine and pulled and wiggled every plug and wire I could find nothing happened. Please keep shooting me Ideas please sending it to shop but would like to have some Ideas to help them out if they dont find problem.

 

Everything in my sig is a link. The last one will offer some real help.

 

How old are your batteries? I think the fuel injector module needs to see 10.5 volts to fire (someone please correct me if I am wrong). Your symptoms describe the first sign of a weak battery or a problem with the charging system.

 

did you have the crank position sensor replaced under the recall yet? They are known to just quit and the truck dies. sometimes it will restart other times it wont

 

Thanks for the help to answer your questions batterys a couple of years old have not checked the voltage cranking but in the past when my batteries we going out I just had trouble turning it over enough to start it never this problem. Yes I did have the cps recall done that is the one I took out and put a new one in when this all started.
If it was the voltage on the batteries why would it start fine then die and restart, and the whole time this has been going on all the cranking I have done the starter has never drug down like the batteries were getting weak.

 

Amps and volts are different.

I would check to make sure you are getting good voltage output from your alternator, and make sure your batteries are good and the connections are not corroded. It is "low hanging fruit".

 

Thanks Tugly for the link thats great info like what I was looking for, if the shop does not do it I will have them check the voltage. That was something I did before it left was checked all the battery terminals and all the grounds I could find nothing lose and all cables clean and no corrision. Thanks for the ideas please if anybody else has anything please post. Thanks