I have a fuel leak at the mechanical pump that I know of. But even with having it plugged in it just sat there and turned over would not try to even fire. So is it just loosing prime? Im gonna change that pump and go from there but not sure what to do next. This is my first diesel.

Oh yeah its an 89 f250 with a non-turbo 7.3IDI. And a 5 speed if that makes a difference.

 

yep, if fuel is getting out air is getting in causing hard starts. does it start eventually with enough cranking?

 

Eventually yeah. Used ether once. Then read that that was a dumb idea. So now gonna bypass the glow plug relay and see what that does.

 

Ok well I was wrong. The lift pump is not leaking it was a few lines in between the injectors that were leaking. I fixed those and then did a manual bypass on the glow plugs. Went to start it this morning and still it took forever to start. Had smoke coming out if the exhaust the whole time. It was white and gray smoke. I think that's not bad. The controller could be bad and that could cause my issue right?

 

test all your glow plugs to make sure they are good. could still be getting air in the system.