If you run the fuel tank dry

[newbusser]

Don't panic if it won't start again.!!!! Do not run the batteries down to nothing cranking it !!!!!!!!!! And whatever you do, do not do not do not burn up the starter trying to get it to run!!!!! Hard lessons learned today, I did every thing except burn up the starter.

Today I learned that if you run it dry, unscrew the filter and look in top. If there is air inside the filter, you have either run the tank dry or your pump is no longer working. DO NOT CRANK THE ENGINE WITH FILTER OFF!!!!!! This will either make a huge mess if you are lucky enough to have the type of pump that will self prime and shoot fuel all over, or you will make the air lock in your lines even worse. If you have a knob on the top of filter housing that says "lock" with arrows on it, this is a priming pump. (I had no clue for about 3 hours till my neighbor the logger got home and helped me) unscrew the knob a few turns and start pumping till you feel a lot of pressure. (This is assuming you have re-filled tanks) Crank motor a few times and repeat......a lot! I pumped and cranked for about 20 minutes till all air was out of system and my beloved cat motor took over on her own

Never run the tank dry!!!

I think this is going to be how I learn about diesels and how they work.

 

[newbusser]

I did! He saved my butt on that one

 

[lapeer20m]

whenever i run a diesel out of fuel, I like to hook the batteries up to a charger before i even begin cranking the engine. I helped another skoolie member who shall remain nameless (phillbus) when he ran out of fuel on our way home from texas. He had cranked until his batteries were weak. I showed up, put the charger on his batteries, primed the injection pump hit the starter and in a few minutes we were back on the road.

if you run veggie oil, you'll get more practice at priming. If i ever have to do any work to a fuel line on a bus, i like to install a priming bulb from a outboard boat motor fuel tank into the fuel line. like this:

This makes the priming process much less painful. Another great alternative is to install an electric 12 volt pump to use just for priming. I had to do this on jacuzzi bus IV since it didn't have any sort of primer built in.

 

[Papabear-SKO]

This is why we should start a dedicated mechanical thread, to put this useful info in one place.

 

[GoneCamping-SKO]

I ran mine out of fuel, and spent 3 days chasing ghosts trying to figure out what was wrong.... turns out the fuel gauge doesn't read right and I run out of fuel when it reads just under a quarter tank. Go figure.

However, being I work for a truck dealer, the mechanics told me exactly what to look for on my 3208. There is pump mechanism above the filter, you turn the knob and then pump the thing like a Coleman Lantern. They also told me to break loose the fuel line at the injectors so you could bleed the air from the lines. I only had to bleed from 2 injectors to get it to fire up, then let the other injectors work the air out of them from running for a while.