Can't slip the slip

Ford Lehman 120 no start. Seems starved for fuel. Filters have 60 hrs. Any suggestions. Thx

If the engine is otherwise healthy, air leak. Don't forget that if you have raw water cooling, excessive cranking can fill the exhaust manifold with water and backfill into the cylinders.

Check the fuel shutoff is actually on.

Find out where the air begins - primary filters? Secondaries? Injectors? Then start to eliminate it. My experience is the injectors are self-bleeding, but many argue that's not true.

Have you ever replaced your lift pump? They fail occasionally. Work the lever and see if you are pumping any fuel. They are about $100 from a farm shop. It's worth buying another and if your original is serviceable, keep it as a spare.

If no crank, it's probably not in neutral.

Good luck.

Lots of possibilities:

Any fuel in the tank(s)? Yea I know, but people do forget.
Tank or manifold fuel valve(s) open?
Plugged draw tube in the tank.
Plugged fuel filters. 60 hrs. means nothing if there is junk in your tank?
Bad lift pump.
Bad injector pump.
Plugged injectors.
Air bound injectors. (most likely with something else as you have been cranking it for a while).

Eliminate the easy ones first (fuel in tank, valves opened, plugged filters, plugged draw tube). You will likely test the lift pump when you bleed the filters.

Next step is to crank it over and bleed the injectors. If you don't know how, have a mechanic do it and learn how.

If none of that works, well it gets more expensive from here.

Ted

Xsbank said:

If the engine is otherwise healthy, air leak.
If no crank, it's probably not in neutral.

Good luck.

Click to expand...

agreed its probably air as Lehmans are extremely sensitive, one bubble with shut it down.
One time mine wouldn't start and it was actually in gear and wouldn't turn over quite fast enough. Found out I did not have a neutral switch in the system. Many Lehmans do not.

When was the last time you changed your fuel filters ?

Attitude of gratitude

Thank you skippers for your insights. Mucho appreciated. Feels great to be included. Mahalo

Absolutely agree with XSBANK...a little air in the fuel system stops a Lehman cold. Good Luck

The Lehman 120 operator's and service manuals describe the bleeding process. Basically you start at the back and work forward. If you can't get the manual lever on the fuel lift pump to move fuel for bleeding purposes, bump the engine on the starter to put the pump activating arm on another part of the cam it rides on.

Some people feel it's important to bleed the injectors once the secondary filters and injection pump have been bled. I think that's dependent on the individual engine. We've never had to bleed our injectors after bleeing the secondaries and injection pump, but some engines may need this.

A dc priming pump is "must have equipment" on any diesel engine owned by me. I like the marine Walbro of old but they are getting harder to find. I buy them when I can and keep a few around, just in case. Makes filter changes and injector bleeding easy.