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1995 3500 6.5 Diesel Started Yesterday, Dead Today


B.Smith540
12-28-2012, 06:13 PM
My 3500 sat in my barn for nearly two years when last month I pulled it out, gave it a shot of ether and fired her up on second try.

I first bought this truck in 2007 while I built my house. It was great because it had a flat bed and it pulled my trailer w/Skid Steer with no worries. The guy I bought it from had gotten it out in Wyoming and it wasn't running so he put some time and money into getting it running before he sold it to me.

I didn't look at it as hard as I should have when I first bought it and didn't have time to look under the hood while I was building my house. Since getting it fired up after two years the only way it would start was with a shot of ether. I started researching what the problem was and found that it could be my glow plugs. Opening the hood I noticed the glow plud wires had been spliced and looked pretty ragged. I bought a new glow plug harness and installed it. It looked great with the new harness but there was still an issue of it not starting without the ether. I did some more research and found that it could be the lift pump. I located the lift pump and noticed that a mouse had chewed through the lift pump wire and the lift pump was leaking a little fuel so I spliced the wire, bought a new lift pump and it ran for a few minutes and stopped. More research and I found that the Oil Pressure Switch may be the reason the Lift Pump stopped, so I bought a new OPS and guess what it did the trick! I had fuel to the IP, I had power to the Glow Plugs. But it was still hard to start but I was starting it without ether for the first time in two months!

Now comes the bummer! Since I had it starting without ether I was starting it everyday and letting it run for 20-30 minutes just to make sure I wasn't dreaming. This went on for 5-6 days until yesterday when it didn't quite start and the batteries would not give enough to start it. It almost started though before I new there wasn't much left in the batteries. Today I bought new batteries and got them installed and to my disbelief it won't start at all! Not with ether, not after sitting for an hour or two, it just plain won't even burp! The OPS is new, the Lift Pump is new, the Batteries are new there is fuel coming out of the fuel valve at the the front of the engine the glow plugs have power and now it won't start! Even with ether it just cranks and nothing!

What have I done? Was it because it almost startred yesterday and I shut the key off without saying to the starting God I would be back? Was I rude? What is wrong now? Could it be the ECM, the TPC, the APPD? How many acronyms must I replace before my truck sees the open road again?

Any help from the Diesel gods would be much appreciated. Mahala!
:banghead::rolleyes:

Could something

Schurkey
12-29-2012, 10:57 AM
Is there any power going to the glow plugs?

Seems to me there's a glow plug relay or two; they don't turn on, the glow plugs don't heat.

B.Smith540
12-29-2012, 11:07 AM
Shurkey,

Thx for responding. I have power to glow plugs and glow plug relay is working. I checked fuel from fuel petcock at the top of motor and fuel is coming out but I just cracked one of the injector nuts and no fuel to the injectors! I am going to check the ECM fuse now. Any thoughts? How can so many things break at once?


ECM fuse is good w/power at fuse. It is snowing here so not sure if I will be under the truck to crack the LP line to check fuel flow. The pump is running so that means the OPS is functional.

Researching how to test fuel shutoff solenoid.

Used paper clip to short A & B on ODM and got no codes other then the Service Engine Soon flashing twice pause than flashing 9 times over and over. Maybe I need to leave paper clip in longer? Or does that mean my computer sees no issues?

MagicRat
12-29-2012, 10:26 PM
How many acronyms must I replace before my truck sees the open road again?

This is the best quote AF has produced all year :)

some observations - glow plugs are pretty fragile. A bad controller can overheat the plugs and burn them out. Also ether is hard on the plugs and likely will damage them.

You can pull the glow plugs and test them. Hook them up to a decent 12-volt power source for about 2 seconds and see if they glow or get warm. Do not leave them hooked up for any longer than 2 seconds. Some plugs are not self-limiting and will burn-out if hooked up longer. Dead glow plugs should be replaced.

Ether tends to be hard on everything. Lots of commercial/industrial diesels have no glow plugs. (I think they have pre-combustion chambers instead. ) Many of these are designed to use ether to aid in cold-weather starting.

But your 6.5 is not one of these. Ether is a big no-no because it can cause internal damage.

Its reasonable to take a look at the fuel shut off valve and check the wiring. .Certainly on older Fords, the have power when the key is on. No power means no fuel flow.

Finally - have you checked the fuel filter and drained the water from the separator?

DeltaP
12-29-2012, 10:49 PM
A code 12 would be no issues. A 29 is glow plug relay. Spraying is bad for these engines,especially every day on this fragile beast. It gets abused easily...we tend to get heavy handed with it. It can damage glow plugs and cause internal damage too.

B.Smith540
12-30-2012, 08:06 AM
Magic Rat,

Thanks for giving my quote a promote!

The glow plugs are brand new along w/ glow plug harness. I am worried now about the ether. Most rednecks in my area promote duck tape and ether. Guess they aren't edumicated about combustion chamber vs. glow plugs. I'll spread the word from deer stand to deer stand until all knoweth. :nono: (ignorance is not bliss, ignorance cuts into my beer money)

I replaced the fuel filter but did not know about the water separater and have not located the fuel shut off yet. I am just getting into it and thank god for you guys helping to point me in the right direction :)

B.Smith540
12-30-2012, 08:58 AM
DeltaP,

So my ODM has no bad codes other than "Check Engine Soon" If I have a bad PMD, IP, APPD or Fuel Shut-Off Solenoid FSOS? would/ should the ODM give me a code indicating as much? :confused:

MagicRat
12-30-2012, 10:15 AM
This description is from another site:
The water separator is part of the fuel filter assembly; however, the drain valve for it is right up at the front of the engine by the thermostat housing.
The drain hose snakes down by the power steering pump if you want to put a catch can underneath before opening it...

I have not personally done this, but I've been told the following: The fuel shut off valve should be on top of the injector pump. You can unscrew it and jump the lift pump with 12 volts and fuel should come put where the shut off valve attaches. If you get fuel, the valve is either bad or not getting power.

Hopefully someone with more experience can advise further

B.Smith540
01-05-2013, 03:18 PM
I want to thank everyone here for helping me get my truck back on the Road for sure!
Today through many searches and forums I found this link which is the first step by step "No start" I have seen for the 6.5 Diesel and it worked and I didn't have to buy a PMD or IP!!
It ended up being my Optic Sensor, go figure......
Here is the link http://www.accuratediesel.com/nostart.html for those of you that will ultimately find this post and have a similar problem with your 6.5 and need to know where to start in Acronym Hell to get your beast bellowing gray smoke yet again!
:jump::jump::c::tu::w2::pca1:
http://www.accuratediesel.com/nostart.html

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