D2 5J - Cranks N Cranks N Cranks etc Are we there yet?

[quote="RuralTowner"]Putting my own thread here to make it easier to keep things straight.

After having sat for 2-1/2 years finally went to fire up the old beast. The pony had managed to weep out most of its oil so topped it off. After fresh gas and multiple attempts finally got it started. After letting it run for a minute, moving the lever from RUN to START, went to engage the pinion and got a slug of water come out the exhaust and make a mess on the engine cover. Flapper on exhaust has been down all this time but seems to be from the rains (what little we do get here) running down the stack and through 1 of the 4 holes in the mount flange where the bolt is sheared off below. It also almost stalled out the pony in the process. Given the only options now were either tear everything apart or proceed...took door #2. Finally got it to engage and got a little more splatter out the pipe but it cleared up.

Now from the moment I bought this thing it took a loooooong time to get to fire up. Nowhere near the almost instant it should be (under ideal conditions) once the pony has warmed things up or the mere "minutes" that would be more common now. Would take about 1/2 a tank of gas to get it to start. NOW THOUGH! Got it to hiccup now and then with the audible sign of TRYING to catch but nope. This has been a huge contributor to why the CAT has NOT been used since the first weeks of ownership.

It's getting fuel at the filter housing...haven't yet pulled the top to see how plugged the filters are that AFAIK were old even when the PO had it. The pressure gauge doesn't work. Opened the vent at the filter housing and am getting a steady stream of fuel but pressure is unknown. With engine cranking and throttle wide open tried bleeding the pumps...the last time I had started this thing I bled the pumps and it fired off with only moderate effort.

But this time #1 seemed to spit out very little...enough to get finger tip damp but that's it. #2 seemed to barely get anything. #3 would just spit specks. #4 was light but steady...could see it pulse. It tried to catch once or twice with a very faint puff of black out the stack...but for the most part it would pulse the light haze of fuel vapor. Now it doesn't even do that. Proceeded to bleed the lines at the pumps. #4 was the only one to put out anything meaningful...with nut backed off most of the way fuel would anemically pulse out enough to coat the entire pump in diesel. But even with the nut back off enough to move the hardline up and down didn't provoke any change in flow. No sudden "gush" relatively speaking. #2 & 3 not a drop came out even with the nuts fully unthreaded so I could see the flared tips. #1 EVENTUALLY but barely wept. So I'm not getting anything to the injectors.

Am mechanically inclined and have worked on diesel's before. Half my "fleet" is diesel at this point are the old little VW mechanical diesels which run just about forever. Though only ever had the Stanadyne on my big Miller welder apart so far (about 4x total...long story). I'm not averse to working on the D2...something new (to me anyway). Just hope I doesn't mean I have an overpriced piece of yard art.

As I've seen mentioned on another recent thread here...I'll pull the hardlines and use a piece of stiff wire (instead of a punch) in the pump orifices to see if I get any movement before pulling anything apart.[/quote]

You aren't going to see any movement sticking a wire down the pump outlet. Remove the pump cover and see if the rack is free and rotating the pump plungers, and if the gear segments are going up & down fully when the engine is turning. As much as I hate starting fluid, do you get any response with it after the pony heats up?
Finally, do change your filters and fluids if you never have.

Pulling the cover would have been my next step. Only mentioned using a punch...or in this case a piece of wire to ensure it would fit down far enough...after someone else did this on their own D2.

The diesel throttle is wide open when the lever is pulled full back which is where I had it when attempting to bleed. When off the handle is full forward & vertical. The pony was running at full throttle.

Using starting fluid DID occur to me. Haven't tried it yet though this would help give a definitive answer on if it's a fuel issue or not.

The diesel engine oil is what it had when I got it. It's on the TO-DO for replacement, just haven't gotten that far. I have the page saved that tells which WIX filter is used for the fuel...and it takes either 1 or 2. I do have manuals that came with the CAT as well which will help.

Fuel Filter quantity is 3 for a D2

All 3 the same. Be very careful of the retainer rods that hold the filters suspended from the filter plate. Carefully set the assembly down on a clean flat surface to compress the springs on top and gently remove the pins. The rods are a plastic material and are easily broken, especially where the pins go through and at the bottom where the disk is threaded on the square rod.

Finally (procrastination not withstanding) getting some attention back towards the CAT. Pulled the side cover...actually looks fairly clean but a run-test is still a to-do. Did notice when removing the lower 3 bolts which also allowed the fuel to drain out something smelled off. The fuel that had wept out didn't smell like diesel even though that's what's in the tank. Smelled (had to just about bury no nose in my fingers) more like a cross between old WVO and old gas gone past even the varnish stage instead of the fairly strong smell diesel otherwise is. But was still slick.

If it turns out that I'm not seeing the shafts move up and down significantly...I'll use #4 as reference since it would actually BLEED...am I looking at an issue behind the cover (adjustments?) or fouling in the pumps themselves? If so how advisable is it to try cleaning them with the pump's still in place, leaving the rack alone, and just unthreading the tops off?

I think you are describing the pump plungers and their lifters with return springs that would be visible once the cover is removed from the side of the injection pump housing. First try spraying with penetrating oil and attempt to work the lifters up and down with a screwdriver etc. Note, at any engine position, at least one of them will be held up by a camshaft lobe. As the engine rotates they should rise and fall following the camshaft lobes underneath.

Normally there should not be any fuel in that compartment. There is a normal leakage from the pumps which serves as lubrication. This normal leakage is minimal and it should drain away through a small drain line at the left front corner of the engine block. There are usually two small steel lines tWerehere, one drains fuel from the top bleed screw on the fuel filter tower to keep from making a mess of the radiator and engine and the other drains the fuel lift pump seal cavity and the fuel pump housing upper compartment. The fuel accumulating in there may also have drained into the lower oil filled compartment and diluted the engine oil that is used to fill it through the plug on the side.

Once the pump plungers are moving up and back down on their own, then try moving the rack forward and back to turn the plungers in their pumps. The rack
should move very easily with a little spring resistance in the slow it down direction if you have the throttle lever set to wide open. If the rack cannot move, or move properly, the governor cannot control the fuel rate, and the engine may not start (rack stuck at no fuel), may run away and overspeed (really any fuel setting much above idle minimum cause you won't have a load to start with) or may even idle at normal speeds, but respond to load changes poorly, making it a challenge to operate with out choking down.