I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this, but does anyone know of a decent diesel mechanic near Ft. Knox, KY?

 

what u need done?

 

I need someone to trouble shoot my fuel system. I'm pretty sure it just needs a new lift pump, but I want to be sure. I'm trying to stay close to ft knox, so towing it won't be to expensive

 

im in e-town. whats your truck doing? not alot of diesel mecanics around here.

 

well its sitting dead now. the only way I can get it to run at all, is if I prime it at the lift pump, then it will only run for about 15-20 seconds and die. The injection pump seems fine-its only 3 years old, and my fuel lines look to be intact, if a little dirty. I've not looked at my injectors, but the previous owner had them replaced about 4 years ago, along with having the entire fuel system cleaned and checked(he left me a ton of reciepts)

 

Also, I replaced my fuel filter and cleaned my pre-filter recently as well

 

Were you having problems before you did the maintenance? I've only replaced my lift pump twice. The first one had over 300k and the second nearly 400k. Neither one had totally failed, just ticked due to weakened springs.

 

I've been having problems with it since I drove from colorado to knox six months ago

 

is the fuel shut off silenoid working?

 

Have you ever replaced the rubber fuel hoses? Sounds like the classic sucking air. You have two long hoses, one from the tank and a return hose. The is also a rubber L shaped hose between the prefilter and the pump. The L shaped hose is about $8 from Dodge. If it won't stay running it is probably either the hose from the tank or/and the L shaped hose. If it will stay running but is hard to start it is usually the return hose.

 

The fuel shutoff solenoid is working fine (1st thing I checked), I have not replaced any fuel lines, but I did take a look at them, and they seem intact, can't find any holes, leaks or kinks in them. Would the truck run at all if they were screwed up? Also, when I can get it to run for a few seconds, its blowing some whiteish blue smoke out the exhaust. Right before it died, it seemed to be blowing a lot more black smoke as well...at least more than usual.

 

None of the rubber hoses are under pressure so you won't see a fuel leak unless they split apart. The intake and L shaped hoses are what the pump pulls fuel from the tank through, so if they are bad the pump will suck air along with the fuel until they get really bad, so yes it will run for quite awhile before the deterioration gets too bad. The pump won't suck air alone so you won't be able to keep it runnning once that threshhold is reached. If you have a regulated air source try pressurizing the tank or just the line from the tank to about 15 psi and you will more than likely get a fuel leak from the hoses. It is alos possible that the steel lines are deteriorated if you drove a lot where roads are salted. Pressurizing the tank will make those holes visible.

 

A shop vac will not allow pressurized fuel tank.

 

I replaced my lift pump today along with my hose between the pump and prefilter, and the truck started right up, after I bled the air out of the system. Thanks everybody