I sent the wife to town yesterday, to pick up some steel, and she ran the truck out of fuel. She said the light was on for five miles at the most.

So I go and confirm, yep no fuel getting to the IP. Put five gallons in the tank, bleed fuel through the pump and start bleeding the injector lines.

I bled and bled and bled, lots of fuel squirting all over the place from the lines cracked at the injectors, but no smoke at the exhaust and no start. I cracked six at a time, I cracked three at a time, I cracked two at a time, I tryed every combination. I probably took a year off of the starter and sprayed a gallon of fuel all over the engine compartment. I double and triple checked for no air in the IP and filter. So finally I think I'll crack an injector line at the pump and watch the fuel squirt all over from there just for fun.

Turn the key and it lights right off! What is up with that?

It is probably the first line in the FSM (which I don't have) bleeding procedure but why?

JP.

 

I doubt that this has any relevance, but when my diesel tractor was acting up after running on air it wouldn't start, then it would start and had zero power. Then it would run long enough to stop right in the road. I bled it every which way from Sunday. It wound up being the fuel return line. It was clogged with rust. I found it by accident. Once I opened the line it ran like gangbusters. I still haven't figured that one out. The tractor is a 1958 Ford with a rotary distributor type injector pump similar to the VE.

 

I was reading on the VWDieselParts forum a while ago that internal IP pressure is used somehow to operate the governor. Some of those guys monitor it. A clogged return line could definitely affect case pressure.

I'm sure that somebody who knows how these pumps work internally could explain both of our experiences.

Thanks,
JP.