Hi everyone,

I recently bought a 1990 Ford van with the 7.3 IDI. It also has a Banks 6.9F turbo installed.

This was a great running van until recently. The engine always fired right up quickly, especially when the engine was warm.

The batteries recently got weak. It would fire up with a jump from another vehicle or a good long charge from a battery charger.

A few days back the van got stuck in the snow on my steep driveway, nose uphill. After two days of sitting there, I tried to start it and it is cranking too slow.

I had enough with dealing with these batteries and I pulled them out to have them tested. One of them turned out to be bad, so I replaced it with a new one. The other one tested good. The battery cables were cleaned and both batteries reinstalled.

It cranks fast, but it will not fire. I hear rapid cranking, but no sound that it is going to fire. Then I plugged the block heater in for 24 hours and tried the next day, no change.

Here is what I verified too far:

1. Fuel tank reads 1/2 full.

2. I tried a two second squirt of ether into the air filter, and it ran for a few seconds.

3. I moved it down on the road so it is on flat ground. No change. Still fast crank, no start.

4. The glow plug light comes on for 8 seconds after the key is turned on. I put a volt meter on the battery, and it drops 1 volt while the glow plugs are energized.

5. If you cycle the key more than once, the glow plug light goes off quicker the second time. I need to pull the doghouse and test the glow plugs, I suspect a few of them may be bad.

6. Engine oil level is full.

7. There is a fuel filter over the engine with a valve on the bottom of the filter. I reached in and opened the valve. A little bit of diesel came out. I had a friend crank the engine while I had the valve open, and it squirted diesel out every other second. I'm not sure if this is considered normal.

The fuel system on this engine, particularly the fuel pump I am not as familiar with. What can I do to ensure that the engine is getting fuel?

Thanks in advance.

 

ALL starting attempts, should be done at full throttle, plug it in and crank it, twenty seconds, wait four min, and crank again, it will take some time. or remove one of the small wires off the glow relay and spray ether, into engine directly, not on air cleaner, it will start, short sprays till it stays running.

 

I will try this tomorrow, thank you. I kinda have a feeling it may not be getting fuel. I am also going to pull the doghouse and test those glow plugs with a test light.

 

If you are not getting a constant flow of diesel out of your schrader valve, then your lift pump could be shot. It should be flowing without bubbles or air.

Maybe your diesel filter is clogged. Or your IP has an issue. One way to check is to crack an injector line and see if diesel comes out. If you only got air, then it's something like your IP, lift pump, or filter.

before you start doing glowplug stuff, make sure you are getting fuel.

Also, check to make sure fuel solenoid is connected and working.

 

my bet is you have a slight air intrusion problem that was worsened by parking on a hill engine facing uphill for two days, and the fuel filter drained back to the tank. .
now my reason for this : when you opened the water drain you only got a little fuel out. if the filter was full , you should have gotten 1/2 quart out of it.
the fuel pump is working because you have fuel coming out when cranking the engine
so here is what i would do.
remove the fuel filter and fill it up with diesel, auto trans fluid, or diesel kleen. put it back on and start the engine. if it does not fire up within 20-30 seconds, remove the filter and fill it up again.
once the engine starts, hold the throttle down 1500 rpm or so until it clears up.
then get it up to the garage and order a return line kit.

one other thing. batteries should be replaced in pairs. the one battery that "tested good" is still weak, when one battery dies it greatly reduces the storage capacity of the other battery.
so that "good" battery will draw down the new battery until it is equal to the old one.

 

I just pulled the fuel filter and it was mostly full of fuel.

Had my friend crank the engine with the fuel filter removed, not a single drop of diesel came out of the fuel filter housing.

It sounds like I have some type of fuel pump problem, but I'm not sure how to troubleshoot it.

 

ok. first thing to do is add fuel to the tank. i am not sure about the vans, but with the pickup trucks the pickup tube in the tank tends to crack between the 1/4 ans 1/2 full mark and then suck air.
the strainer foot on the end of the pickup tube is also known to rot and fall off giving you the same feeling that you ran out of fuel while the gauge still shows fuel in the tank.

 

Like TJC said, put fuel in the tank. Then work your way back to the pump from the filter head. Do you have a brake bleeder? If yes, see if you can pull fuel from the fuel line right up to the lift pump. If not, then you have a clogged line or kink or something wrong with your fuel pickup. If you can suck fuel up to your lift pump, then maybe your lift pump is getting old.

 

**SOLVED**

For once I threw a part at a truck and guessed correctly! It was a bad fuel pump.

I was surprised to learn that from 1982 to 1994 these engines used a mechanical fuel pump on the engine just like an old carbureted gas V8. It was only $23 at AutoZone for a new one.

The one that was on there looked old, and sure enough; when I pulled it there was gray paint on it just like on the engine. That pump was 27 years old!

I also replaced the fuel filter with a Motorcraft FD3375.

Runs good like a Ford should!

Thank you everyone for helping me!

 

good deal. and those lift pumps last a long time, the one on my 88 had 295,000 miles on it when it died. i replaced it with a facet duralift electric pump because it was sunday afternoon and i had the facet in the shop for a trailer refrigeration unit.

 

When my lift pump went, I upgraded to the duralift e-pump too. Makes bleeding lines so much easier. no need to crank.

Good to hear you got it fixed.