Murymann

Cold weather.. teens to 30's, my '89 Gen-I fired up instantly, and I mean you turn the key and it fired NOW, right after the idiot light went off. Now that it's warm, the light doesn't even come on and I don't hear the starting relay click as I did before. It's very difficult to start, so I'm avoiding use of the truck.

Not that I'm being cheap, but I called my local Dodge dealer who said it's a module, glow-plug and maybe even an injector pump replacement to fix the problem for about $1080.00 parts & labor. I don't know much about my Cummins yet, except that if I had that much trouble, would it start (or run) much at all.

Ok.. so I'm being cheap. But, where do I begin looking without the Dealer's shotgun approach? How 'bout giving a hand to the newbee here! E-mail reply is great or just post back. I'll check again tonight after 6pm eastern.

Thanks, all.
Bob
'89 Ram W250 4x4 LE, A/T - Cummins Gen-I

wannadiesel

No glow plugs on a Cummins, just a toaster grid in the intake to reduce white smoke on cold starts. It'll start just fine without the grid down into the teens, so that's not your problem. By hard to start, you mean it has to crank a while to get going, or that it cranks slow? If it needs to crank a while, the likely problem is an air leak in one of the fuel lines. Does it run rough at first once it fires? If so the leak is likely one or more of the injector lines. Once you get it warmed up does it have good power and a smooth idle? If so it's probably the return line to the tank. If the truck runs good and has good power it's not the injection pump. This is probably a pretty cheap fix once you find the leak.

Smokee

If the weather is above 40 degrees, the heaters don't count in any case.

I would look at two things to start:
First, check all of the rubber hoses to make sure that they are not sucking a bit of air. The lines are easiest to check by applying a bit of air pressure at the filler neck with the opening blocked.
Second, make sure that you are getting a solid connection to the fuel shut-off solenoid at the back of the pump. On the first gen there are push on connectors that come loose, corrode, etc. Ensure that that connection and the wire leading to it are in good shape.
After that, give us some details of what you mean by hard to start. Does the engine turn well, is there fuel at the injector, etc.

A low battery will also make atarting dufficult.
george