First ... off I'm putting the truck back together from the conversion (RC 318 to 3/4 drivetrain)

The truck is entirely put back together - save for a few fender bolts - unless I've missed something the wiring harness is completely installed.

Battery with full charge.

Get in the truck (sitting on the floor since I haven't install the driver's seat yet) ... roll the key, I can hear the grid heaters engage, turn to start ... nothing.

So I'm thinking it's a PCM issue, is there a sensor I have to ground? I am running the PCM out of the manual donor truck.

Oh, before you have a change to say it, when the truck is on the road, I'll update my thread in the "cummins conversions" section with lots of pics from the saga

 

No crank at all? If so run a jumper to the starter and see if it cranks/ starts...Mark

 

Do you have the clutch interlock hooked up? or at least plugged together?

 

Find the wire out of the PCM (brown/yellow) #21 (i think). Ground it to the body. Its for the neutral safety switch. Unless you swapped the light harness from the donor truck you will need to do this for it to start. I did two 518 to nv4500 swaps this year. In doing so I found that I didnt even need to swap out the 518 PCM for a manual PCM. I just needed to ground the neutral safety switch out of the pcm to the starter relay. Dont ground it at the tranny or into the pcm, that will cause your cc not to work. Hope this helps you

I to will be doing a RC/ Cummins conversion here in the spring. Hope it goes well for you. Post pics when your done. I always love seeing Cummins powered ramchargers

 

When I did my 518 to G360 swap, there was a plug with three wires going to the top of the auto trans. The middle wire needed to be cut and ground to the chassis, the outside two hooked back up to the Getrag for the reverse lights.

 

I'll give that a shot tonight after I mess with the clutch interlock (below).

If you're talking about the 2 pin connector that's located on the clutch master cylinder housing in the cab - I had it hooked up initially, but when I tried Freighttrain's trick below, I unhooked it.

I only found one connector in that area of the clutch that was two prong so I just hooked it up originally - didn't know if i had to or not ... so when I tried what Frieght Train suggested, I unhooked for fear of not knowing what in the heck it actually did.

I grounded the NSS as instructed. By the light harness, do you mean the 50 pin connector that controls stuff like AC, grid heaters, cruise? I did swap that harness over. When I grounded the NSS, I unhooked the clutch plug under the dash (described above) ... so maybe I shot myself in the foot and all I need to do is plug that back in?

I swapped the engine harness over to the new truck, so I have the proper two pin connection on the transmission. Good thought though.

 

first off ... I got the engine to turn over , but...

I'm not an idiot I just play one on TV ...

I know the Neutral Safety switch was one thing I was going to have to address (thx freight train et al), however another huge problem was the fact that I grounded the wiring harness wrong. Dooh!

I originally had a brain fart and put the main ground to the frame and not to the engine. I switched the main ground to the engine, made a smaller jumper ground to the core support and everything appears to be functioning good electrically.

It still won't start.

I completely bled the fuel system opening every orifice it's got along the way ... finally I cracked the #3 injection line at the injector.

I saw a nice plume of fuel pop up from the injector line and a good quantity of fuel pop out, but no fire not even a hint of fire...

Q: Should the fuel be in a fine mist? I would expect something at 3000 psi to come out of their like a bat outta hell, but it kind of bubbled instead. The injector line still was resting on the injector at this time.

So I'm sort of at a loss ...

Possible failures:
1. Injectors not opening
2. Injection pressure not high enough to open injectors
3. No air (I have no idea how that would even be possible)
4. etc?

Ummm help please!

 

It'll spurt fuel everywhere.

Make sure the shutoff solenoid has power while you are actually cranking. If so, crack half the injector lines and crank it until you see fuel spurting out of of them, then close them and open the other half. Repeat until it starts, or until you get frustrated and just give it a little whiff of ether.

 

Wahoooo!!!

Thanks Faith - that was the ticket.

I hoping to have the beast road worthy by this coming weekend.

 

Devilz, what was your issue? Was the solenoid bad or was it air in the lines? Post those pics.

 

Problem was air in the injector lines.

I put a brand new FSS in the VE pump when I took the engine apart to paint.