Hodge

I have a 94, with 224,000+ miles on it now. I replaced the fuel shutoff/relay last year with a unit from Geno's. It has worked fine, up until about a month ago. Of all places, the truck wouldn't start back up in a bank drive-thru. That's not the easiest place to get out and mess with the shutoff. I just had to lift up on it until the magnet grabbed it. After that, it would refuse to work very sporadically. It has never malfunctioned on a cold start; just once it has been running. I had contacted Geno's, and they told me about a gazillion things it could be, and I am pretty electrical-illiterate.
The rep at Geno's mentioned two solenoids, the fusible link, the relay, and the rest I can't remember.
To summarize, it always starts cold. Up until today, the plunger very seldom refused to go up- maybe once or twice a week (always the most inconveinent time, of course). Today, it started once (out of about 8 times) without needing to lift the plunger. The magnet always holds, once lifted up. There is abnormal resistance when lifting the plunger.
Can someone give me a laymen's explanation of how the shutoff system works? What should I look for as a likely culprit? The boot is in perfect condition, and I have put maybe 6,000 miles on the truck since replacing the shutoff.
I have driven a Toyota Landcruiser pickup down in Haiti that had a manual fuel shutoff- that has been a tempting thought. Anybody done that?
Thanks in advance!

Hodge

Hmm... I posted this in the wrong section. Sorrry.

oliver foster

Sometimes if the truck is not used often the FSS will get stiff.
Try lubing everything and moving it through its range of motion a bunch, it might loosen it up.
It might be binding enough that it is not strong enough to open it all the time.
I had a '94 truck that was doing that for a few months when I first bought it as it had been driven as a back up rig only.
After a month or so of me driving it everyday and needing to manually help the FSS out once in a while, it loosened up enough that it works all the time now.

Manual shut off would be an easy fix as well...

Hodge

I drive the truck at least every other day or so; some of my trips are very short. But, it does get driven regularly. At the most, it has sat a week without being driven. I will lubricate things, but I believe that it is electrical, not mechanical.
The starter does not drag or show any symptoms, but to the best of my knowledge, it is original. The contacts have something to do with the function of the FSS, correct? I should probably go ahead and rebuild the starter, for starters.

oliver foster

The starter and the FSS not working all the time are not related.
The FSS works on three wires.
One to open the FSS, one to hold it open and the ground.
When the FSS starts binding/sticking the one that opens it doesn't have the power to open it.
You lifting it to the "hold" setting is helping it do it job.
Lubing and getting it moving freely should make it able to lift itself to the hold position by itself.

patdaly

Probably more info than you want to know, but your answer is in here somewhere.........

http://www.cumminsforum.com/forum/94...enoid-fss.html

http://www.cumminsforum.com/forum/94...m-writeup.html

Hodge

Thanks, guys. You have given me some handy tools to use!

gorms

I'd start simple too...a little light oil on the inner plunger after cleaning it and see how it goes. I did that a few years ago when it was acting up just like you described and (knock on wood) it's been good ever since.

kawi600

I had this problem not long ago myself. I figured it was a solenoid on the way out or something rusty. Turns out theres a metal arm behind there thats part of the linkage and it had come off and was floating around loose. It would randomly get in the way and restrict the solenoid.
Hope that helps

Robert Rausch

I had similar trouble with my fuel solenoid in 2011 that I couldn't seem to fix--it would work when cold, but not when hot, and it got to where I was manually pulling it up every time I wanted to start it. Guys here said it wasn't the solenoid, but I got tired of trying to find the real problem and just converted to a cable pull. For the cable itself, I used a hood-release cable that I got from NAPA some years earlier. It's very heavy duty and it locks when the handle is turned 90 degrees, but I found out I never have to lock it. Once it's pushed in, it's never moved in three years of use.

I used a piece of stainless, cut, bent and drilled it like the next pic shows.
I bolted this to the fuel shut-off lever thingy using the stock bolts. (I forgot the exact name of it) I drilled the small hole through that bolt so as to be able to clamp down on the wire, trapping it. It's never come loose in three years of use.



I pulled the solenoid and sawzalled the bracket a little bit so my push-puller would clear the edges of the bracket:



Then I made another bracket from stainless and bolted it to the underside of the dash. I drilled a small hole through the bolster and the firewall with a bellhangers drill and stuck the cable through. And I connected everything up. Pushed in, it starts right up.



Pulled out, it stops dead.




__________________

Robert Rausch

Oh, by the way, my push-pull cable fix cost me $15. I had the solenoid tested--it tested good, so I sold it on ebay for $65!! So I ended up making $50 on the deal.

mtdoragary

That's what I did on my 93.