Thread: New fuel tank - now it won't start

Hi Mate
On old farm stuff that didnt want to bleed we always cracked the longest injector line at the injector then bled as normal.
See if that helps.
Another trick was a very small amount of petrol on a rag,you choke the air inlet with it.
Andrew

Get a compressor and blow some air into the tank. KLR Auto had to do that to my Disco last week. That will force fuel up the line.

That's when they found I hadn't tightened the sedimenter up enough after having had it off for cleaning. It was leaking.

Ron

be careful how you do this as diesel under pressure that hts the skin can be taken through the skin and kill you

Mick

Ron - we tried pressurising the fuel tank with an air compressor, but it was very hard to get a good seal. Might re-visit this tomorrow if we can think up a better way of keeping the air in the tank.

Andy - we are not getting any fuel whatsoever at the filter with the bleed screw open. We are hoping the fuel pump has not gone bung (too much of a co-incidence?) at the same time. Until we get some fuel, is there much point in cracking an injector?

Probably stuffed your lift pump. This usually happens as soon as you try to prime it.

How long since last lift pump?

I think the common consensus is to never touch the lift pump and just crank it over until the engine primes itself.

Pretty sure one of the standard tests for a thrashed lift pump is pull off fuel line after lift pump and if nothing comes out it is probably gone, of course barring other problems down the line.

Do you have a sedimenter? Any chance of an air gap there?

Was the new tank clean? Could it have send dirt and stuff down the fuel lines? Check sedimenter bowl and guaze on top of lift pump for dirt.

hth

Cheers,
Simon.

No sedimenter as far as I can tell. The line from the fuel tank goes along the chassis straight to the fuel pump. It is a 1998 TDi300 Defender if anyone knows different.

Tank was brand new (from Canada!) still in its wrapping. No knowledge of when the fuel pump was replaced - car's been with us for 3 years so who knows before that.

Is there any way we can introduce fuel at the engine end and have it run back down the line to the tank?

We are about to head out to tackle it again this morning. First try will be compressed air to try and fill the fuel lines. Hopefully it will crank better with our newly re-charged battery.

We have been assuming that the feed line is from the top of the tank, and the return line is on the side of the tank (joined into the sender assembly). Is this right?

Our new theory is to swap thinking and try feeding diesel into the other pipe!

check that you havent mixed up the pickup with the fuel return line.....

there doesnt appear to be a problem with the lift pump...as when you fill the filter it runs......
so it appears you have a problem between the filter and the tank......

it may be clogged with crap from the tank........

the first thing i would be doing is removing the pickup from the tank.....and using compressed air blow the lines out to
try and blow out any blockage that may be present........