without giving the go peddle a tap. It has steadily gone down hill. At first it took holding the key to start for about 5 seconds. Then it took longer and longer. Now I have to tap the go peddle to get it to crank. I get white smoke sometimes and black smoke others. Anyone have any idea what could be the problem? I have tried priming it till I could hear fuel coming out of the overflow valve. It sounds like air coming out though. I have been thinking it was the batteries, but had them tested and they are like new. Gues it could be the starter, but it seems ok. Also even thought it could be the LP. I just don't know.

 

Theres a list of things that it could be , you need to get fuel pressure test/gauge , are you checking to see if the fuel shut off soliniod is lifting , then there is a adjustment for the linkage , is the boot that is on the solinoid is 1 piece ? how much fuel in the tank , I found that my lift pump & overflow valve were very weak , when my tank got down to about 1/4 it was harder to start , needed throttle play to start , then there is the easy stuff , fuel filter -how longe since it was changed ? also it could be getting pluged with the cold weather & some questionable fuel .
How cold where your at ? fuel gelling , any antigell in your fuel ?

 

I am going to change the fuel filter tomorrow. I usually keep 1/2 to 3/4 of a tank in the truck at any given time. I will have to find where the shut off solenoid is so I can check it out. It just recently started doing all this after the temps have stayed consitantly cooler. But now that it has warmed up it is still doing it, so I don't know what's going on.

 

Well, I changed the fuel filter just a few minutes ago. Now it starts up good. It only has to turn a couple times then fires right up. Fuel filter was definitly a problem. It felt and looked as if it had oil in it. The LP must have been working double time to get fuel through that thing. One maintenance project down, a few more to go.

 

if you are getting oil into the filter , then you want to look deeper into the lift pump , maybe a seal to the eng. is allowing oil from the eng. to get sucked into the LP , have you used waste motor oil as fuel ?
Maybe a bad batch of fuel , how long since the last fuel filter , just some ideas , to keep from happing again , to preventive maintance