Okay I have a 97 F250 with 7.3. The truck has been doing fine for me lately until this morning. I went to start it and the truck cranks but will not fire! My buddy came over and we checked and checked and checked and I am still sitting with a truck that wont start.

Here is a list of what we checked...

Batterys and connections
Fuel pressure
ALL FUSES including #22
Fuel level
replaced CPS with another unit

Now a few things I noticed... when cranking on it I can hear the injectors firing off so I assumed they are working. Also removed the fuel filter (which is clean) and cranked and the housing is definately filling with fuel. I thought maybe it was the CPS so I replaced that. The tach needle just BARELY moves a little bit when cranking. How much should this be moving? Checked all wires and connections to verify they were good. I also am getting my WTS light like normal.

So... any suggestions?? The temps were probably around 60-65 this morning so I did not worry about the cold being a factor.

Another thing we noticed which now that I read was a big no-no was that we tried ether. I was cranking on it while my buddy sprayed ether into the intake. When we did that it would fire up but only run on the ether. What does that tell me?? (Again now that I read its a no-no I surely wont do it again!!)

Where should I start or be looking at???

Thank you greatly!

 

With glowplugs, the ether could have hurt your engine. Are the glow plugs working? How long does the Wait To Start light stay on when you turn the key?

 

Just a Wag ,,IPR is stuck ,,unplug the ICP sensor & try starting it ...Sometimes it will unstick the IPR ...

 

Okay the wait to start light stays on for about 30 seconds or so (estimate). Even if it hurt them would that still cause it not to start even though its warm outside now??

Action... I forgot to mention but I did try starting it with the ICP unplugged. Still just cranked and never fired off.

 

No. The glow plugs only heat the heads up so it will fire off the diesel fuel easier when cold. Ether could fire off too quickly causing major engine damage. Not good. The glow plugs usually burn for about 2 minutes tops when the engine is cold.

 

Did you check the oil level in the HPOP after all that cranking?

 

How fast is it turning over? The battery need to be supplying 10.5 volts minimum for the IDM to fire the injectors. Also try another CPS even a new one can be bad.

 

Kevin, Yes I checked the oil level. It was right at the top of the resevoir.

Jeep... It was turning over slowly on my batteries so I hooked up my buddies service truck to jump it. It was definately turning over fast. Once the cables were hooked up I checked with a voltmeter and was getting right about 14 volts.

If the battery cables are rather old and corroded could it be causing me to get enough juice to crank it, but just not enough to signal the computer???

Thanks.

 

any tailpipe smoke? it may take some cranking to produce it but if the injectors are firing fuel then you should get some white smoke after cranking for a bit

 

Coon... according to my buddy that was helping me he claims there was no smoke. I did not notice myself.

Could this solely be an issue of bad batteries and corroded cables? My batteries were only reading about 10.7 volts when all hooked up and 11.5 when I checked them independently. All the cables are corroded pretty well. In playing with the batteries I pulled one of the posts out of one battery trying to get the terminal off.

Earlier we were running jumper cables to the pass. side battery.

If any of that helps...

Thanks again!

 

YES! Youlikely found your problem. If you aren't getting 10.5 volts, the injectors won't fire. You said you've got 10.7, and that is without cranking the engine. Engage the starter and that number will drop below the required 10.5 needed for the injectors.

 

Today I put two new batteries and new positive cables in the truck. Went to crank and still no luck!! It turned over VERY VERY slowly so I checked ALL my connections and it still cranked slowly. So I hooked a set of jumper cables up and cranked on it. This time it cranks up just fine with plenty of power... but still wont start.

I pulled one of the injector harnesses off the outside of the valve cover to check voltage. It seems the outside pins had 13.5-14 volts with the key on then went away... assuming those were glowplugs. So I checked pins 2 and 4 assuming they might be injectors. These pins had no power at anytime... tried with key on and while cranking.

So I am thinking my injectors might not actually be firing off?? How bout thoughts on this one : )

Thank you all for your help I am very greatly for all of it!!

 

Interesting. You may be right on the injectors not firing. 1 and 5 are GP's, 2 and 4 are injectors and 3 is ground on the plug.

If you have a chip installed remove it. Also try to get a loaner IDm to eliminate IDM issues.

 

Neal if that is the case on the pinout then I am surely not getting any power to my injectors. Kinda dumb question but where is the IDM and what does it take to swap it out? My buddy has a 99 PSD that I can use to try this with.

If it does not turn out to be the IDM what else should I be looking at?

 

the 99 idm will work fine, 10.5 volts is more then enough to fire off, the pcm will run till it gets into the 7's. while cranking the voltage can drop into the 9's even with good batteries