W

WhatHaveIDone

New Member
Fellow Land Rover Series owners,

I recently purchased a long awaited LR Series 3 1979 SWB. She's a beauty, but now running. Initially, everything went great. However, yesterday, I ran out of Diesel. After topping up and refilling at the gas station , the car felt like it was running out of power as I changed gears. After 10 mins or so, it stalled. Started it up and ran. This continued for 15 - 20 mins with everytime it stalled it would become more difficult to re-start. Now, she turns over fine, but very difficult for start up. If she does start up, she runs very badly then looses power and dies. I mixed in some injector cleaner in case there is any gunk in the system. Before I start to take things apart, I wanted to get some ideas on where to start first, if anyone has any thoughts.

I am very grateful for any insight.

Martin
 
Priming info here
May need lots of pumping on lift pump lever , if you’re not feeling any resistance turn engine over a bit as the lever won’t pump if it’s on the cam peak , manuals online here

http://www.retroanaconda.com/landrover/2010/03/series-iii-workshop-manual/

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Thanks guys. I replaced the diesel filter with all new rubber seals. I then loosened the two small screws on the distributor. I then pumped and pumped (manually) but there was zero resistance. I turned over the car and still no resistance and no diesel coming out of the screws. I loosened the screws even more, and repeated. No success. I loosened the bolts on the injectors and turned over the car to see if diesel is actually flowing to the injectors. Some diesel leaked from the loose bolts area but not as much as I expected.

Could this be a faulty diesel pump? The little tube feeding the pump from the tank shows very brown fuel. Not sure if the tube is naturally dark or is the fuel totally dirty.
 
WhatHaveIDone said:
Thanks guys. I replaced the diesel filter with all new rubber seals. I then loosened the two small screws on the distributor. I then pumped and pumped (manually) but there was zero resistance. I turned over the car and still no resistance and no diesel coming out of the screws. I loosened the screws even more, and repeated. No success. I loosened the bolts on the injectors and turned over the car to see if diesel is actually flowing to the injectors. Some diesel leaked from the loose bolts area but not as much as I expected.

Could this be a faulty diesel pump? The little tube feeding the pump from the tank shows very brown fuel. Not sure if the tube is naturally dark or is the fuel totally dirty.
Click to expand...

Possible, but not by any means certain.

Did you use a Delphi filter, and are you sure you got the 4 O rings in the right places, they are all different?

If your fuel is contaminated, you are wasting your time. Drain the tank, and the fuel lines, and change the filter again.
Throw away all the old fuel, and replace with new clean stuff.

And if you aren't getting any resistance on the hand priming lever, there is a problem, either the pump is on the cam, the lift pump is completely knackered, or there is no fuel in the lift pump.
 
I'll try to run the same process tomorrow and see if I can get the manual pump to work. If not, I'll proceed to drain the fuel tank and wash out all lines. Would mixing in gasoline into the diesel tank (small amount) have anything to do with the problem?
 
WhatHaveIDone said:
I'll try to run the same process tomorrow and see if I can get the manual pump to work. If not, I'll proceed to drain the fuel tank and wash out all lines. Would mixing in gasoline into the diesel tank (small amount) have anything to do with the problem?
Click to expand...
Very much doubt it. It used to be common to mix a bit of petrol in diesel in the winter to prevent diesel waxing.
 
When you drain tank, it’s worth taking out the level sender unit and the inlet pipe to check the gauze on bottom then you might be able to clean crud inside tank which could block the pipe later
 
The 2.25 Diesel can be a cruel mistress when run our of fuel - 'specially if there are any issues in the system, like crud, or a dicky LP ... ( ask me how I know :oops: ).

IMO, Start at the tank, as post #12, then make sure all the lines are clear of sh*t by blowing them out with air ... then new filter + clean new fuel and try to bleed... If the LP doesn't pump anything despite turning the engine to get it off cam, ( so the hand lever works), then it's past its sell by date :rolleyes: ... a new one should pump fuel more or less straight away - probably best to get a proper branded one ( Delphi ) - not some no name special ;) ...
 
Fitting a Glencoyne spacer tomfuel pump maybe helpful have one on mine.
LIFT PUMP SPACERS (updated 13/8/19)

The later pressed steel lift pumps fitted to four cylinder diesel engines from around 1988 have a tendency to break the operating linkage inside, as they are operating very close to their upper limit of travel. To reduce the stress on the linkage I developed a 5mm spacer plate to fit between the pump and its mounting. These will fit all four cylinder 2.25 / 2.5 engines with the cast aluminium pump mounting plate, and 300TDi engines where the pump is bolted direct to the block. I have sold around 200 of these. Good stocks at the moment in my eBay shop .
http://www.glencoyne.co.uk/ownparts.htm
 
Update. I repeated the whole process again. 1. Removed the diesel filter, 2. refitted the rubber seals to ensure they were correctly fitted, 3. loosened the two small screws on the fuel injection distributor pump, 4. pulled the diesel pump lever several times. The diesel pump lever did have some resistance and I could hear some pumping. There were small bubbles emerging from the two screws on the fuel injection distributor pump, but only a trickle of diesel (ie. no squirting). I tried to start the car and no luck. I turned the car several times and repeated steps 3-4 several times. I also loosened the bolts to the injectors (all 4 of them) and tried to start the car but only a trickle of diesel came out. I noticed that the see thru tube feeding the diesel pump is connected to a Sedimentor and this has some bubbles. When I press the pump lever, the bubbles do not move (makes me think that there is a blockage before the diesel pump.

I'm thinking that the blockage may be somewhere between the fuel tank and diesel pump. Does anyone know if there is a way to test the Sedimentor? I would like to test all options before emptying out the tank and cleaning out all lines as I have limited resources for this right now.
 
Before you loosened the pump screws did you get fluid without bubbles coming from top of sediment or/ filter , this needs to be primed before the pump distributor screw is bled , see instructions above

pumping the lever for me with an empty filter is lots and lots rather than several !
 
Thank you, Steve. I did not Prime. I will try this before unscrewing the pump distributor screws. If this does not work, I will try to clean out the Sedimentor.

When I said "several," I mean 15 mins of constant pumping.
 
WhatHaveIDone said:
Update. I repeated the whole process again. 1. Removed the diesel filter, 2. refitted the rubber seals to ensure they were correctly fitted, 3. loosened the two small screws on the fuel injection distributor pump, 4. pulled the diesel pump lever several times. The diesel pump lever did have some resistance and I could hear some pumping. There were small bubbles emerging from the two screws on the fuel injection distributor pump, but only a trickle of diesel (ie. no squirting). I tried to start the car and no luck. I turned the car several times and repeated steps 3-4 several times. I also loosened the bolts to the injectors (all 4 of them) and tried to start the car but only a trickle of diesel came out. I noticed that the see thru tube feeding the diesel pump is connected to a Sedimentor and this has some bubbles. When I press the pump lever, the bubbles do not move (makes me think that there is a blockage before the diesel pump.

I'm thinking that the blockage may be somewhere between the fuel tank and diesel pump. Does anyone know if there is a way to test the Sedimentor? I would like to test all options before emptying out the tank and cleaning out all lines as I have limited resources for this right now.
Click to expand...
If there are any air bubbles anywhere in the system, it won't start.

Check the intake pipe from the tank leading to the lift pump. They often rust through, and if it does, all the lift pump will do is draw more air bubbles into the system.
 
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