JD730

My dad is looking to buy an '84 Peterbuilt 359 with a 3406B from a friend of ours. He bought it new and put a million miles on it pulling produce from CA to NY. He parked it about 7 years ago and it hasn't run in about 5.

Some specs on it.
3406B with the brake saver and a jacobs engine brake, 15 speed. He orginally speced it out with the servere duty package. Has rockwell disc brakes on all wheels.

I went down yesterday to get it ready to move. Prelubed the engine with my prelube pressure tank, pushed about 4 gallons into it. Put air in the tanks from his compressor and got the brakes to release, disc brakes so we expected them to release easily. Changed the batteries out to get ready to crank it.

Not sure how much fuel is in the tank so we unhooked the inlet to the fuel filter and put fuel in my prelube tank and pushed fuel in through there. Got it to the point where we got the air out of the fuel line and the injectors were spraying fuel in and we had some smoke. Tried a sniff of ether and it fired a couple of times, but wouldn't catch. At that point we decided to pack it up for the day and try another day.

I'm pretty sure it'll run and it would make it a whole easier to move the truck out from where its parked so we can get a wrecker hooked to it and get it towed home. Next time we are going to see if the coollant heaters work and put one of our big torpedo heaters under it to help heat it. Hopefully that little bit of extra heat will help.

Anything else that I should try?

Thanks,
Mike

k.si.

A 359, a classic. Does it have the corvette style dash? If you just need to move it a short distance, just air it up, release the brakes and then tow it with a cable to the desired spot. If you really have to start in order to get it to the shop. You should do a full service. Good luck, ksi.

1-5-3-6-2-4

yea. how old is the fuel in it? id you change the fuel filter? check the intake for mice cats women and children.

change the fuel and filters and oil and filters at least before you actually run it. don't use that old junk. oil has deteriorated for sure. fuel is junk. filters may may have collapsed.

if you got it prelubed thats a really good start. but finish the service for sure. and don't use the old fuel. probably packed with algea.

AH64ID

I agree with all new fluids..

The 3406 we had in out boat would sit about 9 months a year, we would disconnect the throttle cable at the injection pump. If you go towards idle it will click, and this turns fuel off. Run the starter for 10-15 seconds to get oil pressure up and get everything moving.. Then reengage the throttle cable, it should fire pretty quickly.

JD730

Got to be moved 30 miles. Foot valve is siezed up tight, going to have to put a new in. It sits in a tight spot down by his shed and the drive way is not very big.

Fuel is old, isn't a whole lot in the tank, I think its almost empty. Trouble is I can't get the fuel cap off that tank.
I used my preoiler with fresh fuel in it connected right to the fuel filter.

Hvytrkmech

Fuel lines crack and delaminate inside restricting or preventing fuel flow.

What everyone else posted also.

Good luck.

JD730

UPDATE:

Got it home, got it running off the main tanks and pulled an oil sample.