What's new
CK5
Register an account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members.

Getting a 12 Valve Cummins started.

The Griff

The Griff

High drag, low speed
 Premium
GMOTM Winner
Joined
Sep 2, 2012
Posts
4,820
Reaction score
10,138
Location
Fieldon Illinois
Ok, It's been a while since I poked my head in here, but I figure y'all would be my best bet for this.

I have a 94 12 Valve 5 spd one ton Dodge with 156,000 miles, it's been sitting for about 6 years, with the occasional start to move it around the yard, most recently being a year and half ago, and that time, it didnt want to start, and when it did, it would not idle for about 15 minutes I had to keep it from dying, and had white/grey smoke for the first 12-20 minutes as well.

I put a big, deep cycle marine battery in it, and it cranks over plenty fast, but it does not fire, I cracked the injector lines loose, and when cranking there is fuel bubbling out, But I feel there isnt enough pressure, So I think either the overflow valve is bad, or, more likely, the fuel is no good.
Also, I took the intake horn off and squirted some fresh diesel down into it, and it did pop.

How do I go about getting the old fuel out? I cant get a hose into the tank, there is some kind of screen or mesh about halfway down the filler neck.
 
How much fuel is in the tank? If it's pretty low, I wouldn't be afraid to dump 5 gallons of fresh in, and shoot it with ether and see if it will run.
 
Well, It had a 1/4 of a tank, I put a gallon of fresh in it, finally got a good piss out of the fuel/water separator, bled the air out of the lines, and it fired and ran. It doesn't want to idle right away, and I have to pull the shutoff solenoid up every time I want to start it,

But it made it around the block under it's own power, I call it success.
 
A quarter tank equals about 8 gallons in the tank roughly, so 1 gallon of fresh isn't going to do much. I would dump 4 more in, giving you 5. When I am in your situation, I prefer to dilute old fuel more, and make more gallons total and burn the old stuff out slower, rather than trying to get rid of old fuel by not adding hardly any fresh and trying to just run it on old fuel only.
 
Ok, truck is running, mobile, and Now has a bed.

Next problem, it only has 5 tires that hold air, and they all are dry rotted to hell, and don't have much in the way of tread. I have 3 sets of 265/75R16 tires, all in good shape, no rot, good tread, etc. but I fear they might be too wide to run as duals, any input?



scc0AGDl.jpg
 
I had to use 1.5" spacers to run Duratrac 265's
 
Ok, well, I've got the truck out and about, no plates or insurance yet so it hasn't left our little "town", but is running fine, driving fine, no more haze, it's idling high, about 950-1000 RPM, but I'd rather it idle high than low.

The only mechanical issue I'm having with it is that if it sits for more than 5-6 hours, it won't start without a little squirt of starting fluid, but once its going, it'll run fine, and it I shut it down and let if sit for 2-3 hours, it'll start on the first crank, and if like 4-6 hours it crank a little longer, but It will start on its own, any longer than that it will need ether, and I hate putting ether in it, I can only imagine what thats doing to the turbo and the grid heater.

Also, it wont pull the shutoff solenoid up on its own, I have to turn the key to "ON" and manually lift the solenoid up, and It'll stay up, and shut off when I turn the key off. Do I need a new solenoid or just the relay? Because I found another relay brand new in the box behind the seat.
 
I'd look over the fuel lines good,see if any old rubber hoses look cracked,and if any metal lines are flaky with rust..a small "leak" can let air sneak in but not actually drip fuel..have you changed the fuel filter yet?..it might be full of algae..also have you checked to see if the grid heater actually works?..without it working it'll act like a diesel with bad glow plugs--hard or no cold starts..

I don;t know about the fuel solenoid,but its possible it could be the relay or the solenoid,or both at fault..
 
ditto on checking the supply lines to the lift pump....a small compromise in a line could suck air.
 
With solenoids, actually any electromagnet, the amount of "pull" increases as the air gap decreases.
So, its common to have something that will hold but not pull in by its self. Most of the time, its caused by low voltage at the coil.
Can you measure the voltage at the coil terminals when its trying to pull in?

A loose connection, or bad contacts on the relay could be causing that. If you have low voltage, then you need to trace it back to find the bad connection or contact.

If you have full voltage, then most likely the plunger or moving parts need to be cleaned.
The plunger on units like that are almost never lubricated. At most you clean it with a solvent and then maybe wipe it with an oily rag.
Anything more than a trace is going to gum things up due to clearances. Any pivot points might need a really light oil.

But voltage is the first suspect.
 
Also, Today I went over to the soda machine with it, which involved about 2 miles of back roads where you can get up to 55-60, and 3rd, 4th, and 5th gears are all extremely loud (growl-ey) as in they are louder than the engine. They don't grind, its not hard to shift, theres no wierd vibration, and it doesn't pop out of gear, but they are just very, very loud. It seems almost that it follows wheel speed, 4th is louder than 3rd, 5th is louder than 4th.
If I push the clutch in, the growl goes away.

Could it just be from sitting? since it hasn't been in any of those gears in 6-7 years. 1st, 2nd, and reverse are all quiet, but they've been used in just moving the truck around.


This is with an NV4500.
 
The Griff said:
Also, Today I went over to the soda machine with it, which involved about 2 miles of back roads where you can get up to 55-60, and 3rd, 4th, and 5th gears are all extremely loud (growl-ey) as in they are louder than the engine. They don't grind, its not hard to shift, theres no wierd vibration, and it doesn't pop out of gear, but they are just very, very loud. It seems almost that it follows wheel speed, 4th is louder than 3rd, 5th is louder than 4th.
If I push the clutch in, the growl goes away.

Could it just be from sitting? since it hasn't been in any of those gears in 6-7 years. 1st, 2nd, and reverse are all quiet, but they've been used in just moving the truck around.


This is with an NV4500.
Click to expand...

What's the fluid look like? If it's been sitting for several years it's probably due for a change.

You could have some noise from lack of use, although growling/whining that increases with speed frequently points to a bearing issue. Don't rule out the rear end, as it may get noisy under load and quiet when the bearing isn't loaded.
 
I might have found why it doesn't like starting, its called I'm an idiot, when I first got the truck running I had to bleed all the air of the fuel lines, and that worked, but it seems like I only got them all finger tight, snugged them all up, and I have no idea what difference it made, because when I when to start it the positive terminal on the drivers side battery sparked, and it turns out the terminal broke in two, the bolt fell out of it, and took half the wires with it, the fuse-able link for the solenoid and the crossover from the pass. battery stayed with the bolt, and the big 2/0 wire going down to the starter, and the two wires going into the fuse block stayed with the broken half-a-terminal.

k5S5QMvl.jpg
 
Yep, that can cause low voltage problems at the solenoid.

And everywhere else too........
 
Ok, update time.

The truck has been "weened" off of ether completely, it starts on its own fuel without any help from me, besides lifting the solenoid, And its starting fairly easily.

But, remember the broken battery terminal? Well a friend of mine found one he had sitting around and I stuck it on there, and it was fine for a couple of days, until today, I came out to move the truck, went to start it, and sparky sparky, check the terminal, and its broke too, just like the last one.

What could cause this? they aren't melting, but breaking, they are splitting in half.

Also, the same day I replaced the terminal I decided to make a video showing what the solenoid is doing.

(Ignore my ****ty camera skills)
https://youtu.be/4UtwtdSAe-I


Also, I found the cause of the growling, 2 piece driveshaft, and the carrier bearing isn't what it used to be.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest Posts

Top Bottom