I bought my quarts of Schaeffer's oil, my Fleetguard oil and fuel filters and got a fresh roll of toilet paper for the Frantz and settled in for a little work on the wife's truck. (1996 2500 with 170k miles)

All went well till it wouldn't start. I cranked 5 or 6 times and still nothing. I tried to pump the primer, found it leaked a small amount into my hand, nothing coming out of the top of the fuel filter. Closed that off and tried cranking with the injectors cracked, no fuel. Tightened them up and cracked number one on the injector pump, no fuel. Seeing a pattern in this no fuel thing and not wanting to kill my batteries completely, I thought I'd better ask before I really broke something as my knowledge stopped at changing the oil. At this point I'm guessing Fuel Lift Pump?

If it is the lift pump I want to keep the truck stock, who makes the best stock replacement pump I can get? (No electric ones getting past the wife) I see already that Geno's pump looks just like Larry B's for $40.00 less...

BTW, as I said, it's the wife's truck and I have already been chasing my tail for three days now, so any immediate help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Gotta get fuel out of the top of the filter before even starting to crank, shouldn't leak out of the primer button either. Can be difficult to prime with a weak lift pump, only a fuel pressure gauge can accurately diagnose that, but pressurizing the fuel tank with a few lbs of shop air with the bleeder open works well. Hold the throttle down a bit while cranking until it clears up. Can be a pain sometimes but I've never had to open injector lines personally.

Also don't forget the shut down solenoid needs to be up while cranking.

 

Go to gas station and buy a gallon of diesel. Take the filter off the truck and fill it with diesel and re install. Crack injectors loose and pump the primer until you see fuel escaping, rotate engine by hand 1/4 turn and pump primer again. Close those injectors that are leaking now. Rotate engine some more again and pump primer again. After 3-4 injectors are primed then try and start the engine.

 

I agree with Gorms, you've got to get fuel out of the bleeder screw atop the filter before getting concerned with the injectors. It's not starting because you don't have fuel even that far, you've got air. I sometimes use a mityvac to draw fuel up at the bleeder screw -- remove screw entirely, insert appropriate mityvac fitting, don't need a lot of vacuum 5-10 lbs should be enough. If the primer button leaks a little, there's an o-ring you can replace. I just had to replace my pump because it was leaking either at the weep hole or inside; it seemed to be coming from between the block and pump. I used one I had on hand, it might have come from Scheid Diesel. It turned out to have slightly different dimensions than the original, and my preferred filter wouldn't fit anymore. (Look at my thread "On the road again" for details.)
One resource I found very helpful is called "Joe G's fuel system writeup", it may help you.

 

Thanks for the input guys.....

I built a gas cap that I could put air through and ran it about 5 PSI although it is vented and does leak a little. I was able to get the fuel to come out of the bleeder screw on the fuel filter but it still wont start. I'm charging the batteries again now.

I did find an vacuum line that looked like it was off something. It was one of the ones shaped like a space capsule and had a white plastic part inside the rubber coating, can't find where that goes, it runs along a wire loom going down to the automatic transmission. I'm sure it lives somewhere.....

Any other thoughts?

 

Got it!! I needed to replace the O-Rings in the Primer Button, crack 1,2 & 3 injectors and she fired right up. Thanks to everyone that answered!