I just did a search and found a couple of other people that have wrote in saying they have had the hard injection lines crack and break. I work with a guy that it happened to on his truck, and now I have become a victim.

I was on a long trip from Virginia to Pensacola Florida, and right after I passed through Knoxville, the truck started missing. I pulled into a station, and found the #1 injection line leaking at the fitting going into the pump. It was tight. I took the fitting off, and the whole line had broken off at the weird flare they use on the end of the line.

I limped to a auto parts store, and all they had was regular fuel and brake lines. I did try a brass compression ring off a brass fitting. The injection line is 1/4" OD. That lasted about 5 miles before it popped loose and started leaking again. I am not sure it would have lasted longer if I had been able to get the fitting tighter. I see in the manual they have a "special wrench" for these injection fittings.

My first thought was to take the line off the #1 injector and and put it on the pump, and pinch the other end shut. But I then thought of the "positive displacement pump" description and thought I might ruin the injection pump.

So this is what I ended up doing. I did reverse the line, installing it backwards onto the injection pump. I then bent it over near the #1 injector, took the little return line off #1 injector, and stuck it on the bent over #1 line, with the little clamp holding it. I didn't know if the return system would take all that fuel, but it did. I still had fuel running out of the #1 injector, and I found this was coming from the return of the fuel filter. So I took that line off the #1 injector, ran it around and installed it on the shrader fitting to plug it off.

Believe it or not, this worked ok from Tennessee all the way to Florida, running on 7 cylinders. It was then my #1 priority to find another line. I went to every junkyard in Pensacola, and only one had two of these engines laying around. I begged and he finally let me have a line off of one of the 6.9's he had sitting there.

 

Nice recovery method........ you must ensure all the line clamps are installed correctly. They hold the steel lines firmly so they do not vibrate. 6.9 and 7.3 are same lines so no problem there. only differences are between F #1 and E series #4.

 

I've heard of that too, always seems to happen to people when they are off in another state. Glad you made it back ok, quick thinking on your part.

 

I had a brand new line do that. Didnt realize that the clamp was missing to keep it from vibrating. So 50 dollars for the new line and a clamp the second time around and no more problem.

 

ya this happend to 2 of my lines on my truck im just waiting to see what breaks next when i do my injectors

 

I thought about the clamp, and my #1 line does have the clamp missing, as well as the other three(I believe these are #3, #5, #7 on the the passenger side). The problem is the line will not go back the way the factory had it. And the line I replaced it with in Pensacola also did not go back were a clamp can be used, so something is not right somewhere.

And I am not back home yet. That's why this was such a shaky situation. Me and my wife have had this 2 week trip planned for awhile, and I had all this trouble right at the beginning of it. After dropping my daughter off, we stayed for 3 days at Henderson state park in Destin. Good thing she planned 3 days there, that gave me time to limp back to Pensacola and finally find the line.

After that we went down to St Joseph state park and stayed there 2 days. We are now staying at Jekyll Island in Georgia, and they have internet access, so I am back online for the moment.

P.S. I won't mention how I ran up on the sidewalk at the college and the power steering box started gushing fluid out the bottom seal. My wife said one more problem, and this truck is gone.

 

Here is my home for now.

 

well if ya wanna travel an hour and a half inland from Jekyll, let me know.
I'm in Douglas Georgia.
Just lemme know what parts ya want, I'll roll on down to the junkyard and we'll get ya square.

Drew

 

Im in Panama City Beach, if there is something I can help with let me know.
619-971-2336 can get a hold of me. The names Gary.

There are a couple pick and pulls here in PC. try emerald coast auto salvage. they have treated me well. They have a website.

 

just realized you said your in GA. a little far from Panama City. still if anything i can help, let me know.

 

86 and earlier #1 injection lines are about 1" longer than the 7.3 lines are.

The 6.9 used a luminosity probe in the glow plug hole to time the engine.
The 7.3 has a pulse sensor screwed onto the top of the #1 injector and then the injection line screws onto the pulse sensor.

The line will probably fit right if you remove the pulse sensor from the injector and screw the line directly to the injector.



You can see the pulse sensor in the #1 line in that picture.

 

i just had another one break on me today! this is the 3rd one to go in the last few months and i cant seem to find anyone who can make me the line for any less than 100$ and the used ones from the rip off used auto parts place here charges almost 50$ a peice and look in no better shape then the ones on my truck but i have no other choice living in this stupid little town i want to move back to kelowna bc where i can get auto parts every day of the year and if someone does not have it someone else will so i just used a brass gas fitting to get me by till payday by the way nice truck looks way taller then mine!

 

Dave, is this the pulse sensor. I was changing return line caps and lines and took a picture of it the other day and was going to post to figure out what the purpose of this was. I found this between the #1 injector and #1 injector fuel line.

 

That is it.

The 87 and later engines have that, when you time them there is a sensor that clips on there to sense the line pressure increase as the injector is about to fire.

86 and older used a luminosity probe in the #1 glow plug hole to see the actual ignition event start.

That was a way more complex timing method.
Fuel cetane and specific gravity of the fuel were two of the factors used to determine where the timing was to be set.
Using that method, .5 to 2.5 ATDC were what you were looking for.

 

wow! $50?!

I pulled one for $5.

I got sick of the junk yard here on the central coast over charging me, so now i let them know that i am going to go get a part and i tell them how much I am going to pay for it.

Once they tried to charge me $50 for a used power steering line! They can be bought for $30 brand new.