Hello everyone! I'm not new to diesels, but new to troubleshooting problems. I have a 1990 F250 IDI diesel that I traded for the other day. As I was driving it home it just died and would not start. It didn't even attempt to fire. I've been reading the forums and troubleshooting items accordingly with no luck. Here's what I've done:

1. Changed fuel filter
a. filled new filter with part fresh diesel and part sea foam
2. Changed oil and oil filter
a. used Powerstroke FL-1995 oil filter for extra capacity
3. Added enough fuel to put the truck on a half a tank
a. I read that the "shower heads' can fall of the pickups causing 1/4 of tank to be the new empty
4. I cracked all of the fuel lines except one and verified fuel was coming through from the injection pump when the truck was turning over
a. I would crank the motor over for 20 seconds and waited a couple of minutes before I tried it again.
5. Checked fuses to make sure nothing was blown
6. Verified I heard the Fuel Shut off Solenoid click on when the ignition was switched in the run position.

When I bought the truck it did smoke a good bit (blackish blue smoke). It ran fair, but didn't have a ton of pickup and sputtered a bit during the time it did run. Also, the "wait to start" light does not illuminate and PO verified the glow plugs have never been changed.

Honestly, I'm not sure what to expect in the realm of pickup and smoke from these IDI but I'm trying to learn.
The engine does not even act like it wants to fire off. No smoke. No sputter. No nothing!

Any ideas, thoughts, suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

A solenoid can make noise and still be bad. In order to make sure a solenoid work you need to test it with a DMM. Not sure the best way to do this. But probably pull the top of injection pump off with wires still connected and click the key with the DMM connected or do a continuity test through the circuit.

 

Again, I'm pretty much a newbie when it comes to working on these IDI's, but I thought if the fuel shut off solenoid wasn't working correctly then it wouldn't be getting fuel to the injection lines. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

the fact that fuel is coming out the injector lines tells me that the FSS is working, allowing fuel to get past it.

your description of how the truck ran before it died suggests that timing wasn't set properly.

the fact that your glow plugs aren't working means it won't start by itself even if the fuel side of things is up to snuff. you can disconnect the glow plugs and then use a TINY bit of ether, and that may be enough to get it going.
if that gets it started but it won't stay running, you can try putting a gascan full of diesel in front of the truck, then put a hose from it into the suction side of the lift pump (bottom-right-front of engine), and this will eliminate any fuel leaks on the suction side. if that makes a significant difference in how it runs, check the fuel lines back to the tanks and in the tanks, as you've already read about.

your starter on-time sounds reasonable, but FWIW, the suggested policy is 30 seconds on followed by 5 minutes off to cool down. close counts, but a little more off-time might help it live longer.

 

I can most certainly give that a shot, but I also read that ether could fry the rings. I would assume using only a small amount probably wouldn't hurt, but how much is a small amount?
I've got the breather off at the moment. Is it safe to spray it directly into the intake?

 

pretty much, you want to hold the can back a bit, and give the shortest spray you can, then crank it over. too much is obviously a bad thing, so obviously use caution - but you already knew that.

 

Why are we all so convinced this is a fuel related issue. Sounds like an electrical issue. What is the voltage at the batteries prior to start, and idling? Use a Multimeter and measure to the tenth of a volt.

If you are below 12.1V, it might crank for a long time, but not start these old engines. If you have a voltage problem, it could be the batteries, alternator, etc etc. etc.

 

Success!! The Blue ******* lives again!! I think my problem was a few fold here.

1. I ran the truck below 1/4 tank which ultimately caused it to die because it was sucking air since (I assume) the pickup has fallen off in the tank.
a. Since I wanted to do it anyway, I replaced the fuel filter and bled the fuel lines. However, I still couldn't get it to fire off.

2. Since I had air in the lines, the truck required several cycles of cranking in order to purge the air from fuel lines. Unfortunately, the batteries would not last very long at all. Two cycles at the most.
a. After a closer inspection, I noticed that the PO had really small batteries in the truck. The largest being 750 CCA and it was not even the primary battery.

So, just as a test, I swapped in a larger battery onto the primary side (passenger side), hit it with a small shot of WD40, and she turned over about 4 times and fired right up.

Wow! What a lesson in troubleshooting and a way to become very familiar with the workings of my new project. Thanks guys for all of your help!