Hello, I will prefix this with that I'm asking this on behalf of my friend who has limited internet access. I myself have the 2.25 petrol so am not versed enough in the diesel to offer him help other than I would ask online for ideas. He has sent me the following;
The vehicle is a 1980 Series 3 diesel which was running perfectly until a few weeks ago when it just
refused to start.
The cut off and quill shaft were OK so I sought the advice of a friend, an experienced CAV technician
who thought it would be down to air in the system.
Having bled it I attached a spare injector to the distributor pump outside the engine and it atomised
so it seems to me that once primed the dist pump works.
Incidentally I removed all injectors to test.
Why doesn’t it fire?
The timing is set at 13 btdc on no 1 piston being at compression at which point a thin wire can be
inserted into no 1 port.
So it should fire but doesn’t!
I have checked compression which is even across all cylinders and also fuel pressure from the pump
at 7 psi.
As for air in the system I think air enters somehow after it has been primed but how can I check this
in a methodical way?
Can the spill pipe cause problems? Should I start at the pipe from the tank, but if I do that I would
need to take out all the piping via the double banjo at the fuel pump to the return pipe at the
bottom of the dist pump and block all the unions.
Years ago I had a problem with leaking seals in the dist pump but after priming it would run without
problem although leaking all the time and now after priming it will not even start.
Thanks in advance for any helps and ideas.
The vehicle is a 1980 Series 3 diesel which was running perfectly until a few weeks ago when it just
refused to start.
The cut off and quill shaft were OK so I sought the advice of a friend, an experienced CAV technician
who thought it would be down to air in the system.
Having bled it I attached a spare injector to the distributor pump outside the engine and it atomised
so it seems to me that once primed the dist pump works.
Incidentally I removed all injectors to test.
Why doesn’t it fire?
The timing is set at 13 btdc on no 1 piston being at compression at which point a thin wire can be
inserted into no 1 port.
So it should fire but doesn’t!
I have checked compression which is even across all cylinders and also fuel pressure from the pump
at 7 psi.
As for air in the system I think air enters somehow after it has been primed but how can I check this
in a methodical way?
Can the spill pipe cause problems? Should I start at the pipe from the tank, but if I do that I would
need to take out all the piping via the double banjo at the fuel pump to the return pipe at the
bottom of the dist pump and block all the unions.
Years ago I had a problem with leaking seals in the dist pump but after priming it would run without
problem although leaking all the time and now after priming it will not even start.
Thanks in advance for any helps and ideas.
