HJ60 plugged fuel supply, trouble priming (1 Viewer)

[KlickitatPhil]

Happy new year!

It's not quite so happy for my 1987 HJ60 with the 2H diesel.

Last night I was driving home and it was around eight degrees F. The rig started up fine, and idled for a few minutes. After I got on the road, it started losing power and acting like it was starving for fuel. It wouldn't stay running and definitely could not get me home, so I parked it on the side of the road and got a friend to come help me out. We tried anti-gel first, but it didn't help, so he gave me a ride home. I thought it was the fuel gelling, but the plot thickens.

This morning I drove to the Cruiser with another car and tried to start it, since it had warmed up to a nice twenty degrees F. No dice. I had it towed to my friend's heated shop that was nearby.

We charged the batteries and pulled the fuel filter. It had some water and a bunch of brown gunk in it! I'll be able to pick up another filter for it tomorrow. We did try cleaning out the old filter with fresh diesel in the interest of getting it home, but couldn't get any fuel to come out with the bleeder loose and the priming the pump a couple hundred times or so. It just feels like the hand primer pump is moving air and nothing else. I took the screw out of the bottom of the fuel/water separator, but only a few drops of brown crap came out...

Is there somewhere else to look for plugged fuel flow, or some other secret to priming it? Does this thing even have a lift pump or a pump in the fuel tank to look at? I could really use some wisdom from you nice folks here.

Thanks!
Phil

 

[georgebj60]

If the priming pump is original, it’s very likely failed. I primed my 2H using a mityvac hand vacuum pump. Worked really well until I was able to get a replacement primer.
I would unscrew the water/filter separator and clean it out completely. Then pull a bunch of diesel through with the mityvac.

 

[georgebj60]

There is no pump in the tank.

 

[KlickitatPhil]

If the priming pump is original, it’s very likely failed. I primed my 2H using a mityvac hand vacuum pump. Worked really well until I was able to get a replacement primer.
I would unscrew the water/filter separator and clean it out completely. Then pull a bunch of diesel through with the mityvac.

Thank you!

So that bowl on the water separator unscrews? I'll check that out tomorrow. I have a hand-pump vacuum oil extractor that I use for my VW's oil changes, so that might do the trick with some adaptations! The pump doesn't look new, but I couldn't tell you if it was original or not. Are they a common failure?

 

[georgebj60]

Not sure how common, but cheap and easy to replace so I’d do it either way.

 

[duncanrm]

If you have an air compressor you can lightly pressurise the fuel tank to prime it.. open the filter bleeder and use a blower nozzle sealed with a rag down the fuel filler and give it a few PSI until you get a solid stream of diesel out of the bleeder it can take a minute or two. The sedimenter can be disassembled as below, they do rust out, so if you continue to have issues you may like to temporarily bypass it to prove the issue, and then fit an aftermarket solution in the engine bay for sedimentation/water trapping.

 

[KlickitatPhil]

If you have an air compressor you can lightly pressurise the fuel tank to prime it.. open the filter bleeder and use a blower nozzle sealed with a rag down the fuel filler and give it a few PSI until you get a solid stream of diesel out of the bleeder it can take a minute or two. The sedimenter can be disassembled as below, they do rust out, so if you continue to have issues you may like to temporarily bypass it to prove the issue, and then fit an aftermarket solution in the engine bay for sedimentation/water trapping.

Thanks for that, if the vacuum option doesn't work then I'll opt for your clever positive pressure solution.

What exactly does that electrical contrivance do on the "sedimenter", as you call it? The wires on mine were disconnected.

 

[duncanrm]

Thanks for that, if the vacuum option doesn't work then I'll opt for your clever positive pressure solution.

What exactly does that electrical contrivance do on the "sedimenter", as you call it? The wires on mine were disconnected.

The "sedimenter" drops water and sediment out of diesel. There's a small drain hole on the bottom, a bolt with a 10mm head, that lets you periodically discharge the water that collects at the bottom. The float you see in the photo triggers a dash light "Filter" when there's water, they actually work quite well but are almost never cleaned alas and consequently do rust out. The wires you have disconnected are for the dash light.

 

[KlickitatPhil]

The "sedimenter" drops water and sediment out of diesel. There's a small drain hole on the bottom, a bolt with a 10mm head, that lets you periodically discharge the water that collects at the bottom. The float you see in the photo triggers a dash light "Filter" when there's water, they actually work quite well but are almost never cleaned alas and consequently do rust out. The wires you have disconnected are for the dash light.

Thank you for clarifying. We were trying to find voltage on those wires on the suspicion that it might be a fuel lift pump. The light in the dash works, because it comes on during startup, but it goes away almost immediately. I was wondering if that was for the air filter or fuel filter, turns out it's neither! If it's just a float switch, then it shouldn't matter which way the wires are connected back up.

 

[MarkBC]

 

[Freewheel]

if you only got a few drops out of the sediment, it could be plugged full. When you open it, you should get a bit of water, then a flow of diesel. Mine was always pretty good, sometimes a couple drops of water then nice clean diesel. I took it apart on a whim a couple years ago, and it was one of the most disgustingly gooey jobs i've done on the truck. (and yes, I've done leaky knuckles..)

Ha! I looked at the video above. Amazing! Horrible mess, just the way mine was...

 

[roalco]

Yup, black or brown junk/slime means either someone has tried to add waste oil to the fuel tank () or more commonly you have algae/bacteria contaminated fuel, and water in the fuel tank. They live on the oil/water interface (they need water to live, and eat the oil) and eat and reproduce like crazy, then die, and the dead ones (often called “bugs”) float downstream and gum everything up, filter, sedimenter, piping, etc etc..
The only way to get rid of them is to drain, flush and clean the entire fuel system, and then use only good quality diesel, along with regular doses of biocide and a good diesel treatment (I use Biobore and PRI-D, no issues for the last 500,000km.). If you are worried about water contamination at the point of fuel sale, use a water separating funnel (like theMrFunnel, all the boat guys use).

 

[KlickitatPhil]

The Cruiser lives!

We started the day by taking off the sedimenter (sheared off both bolts holding it in the process). It was full of ice! The air compressor on the fuel tank trick worked beautifully to get fuel flowing out the pipe to the sedimenter. We hooked it back up with new fuel lines and let gravity fill it up. Still no fuel to the priming pump, so we shot air through the line and whoosh! diesel slushie came rushing out the other end. Still nothing on the priming pump after that, so we used a heat gun for roughly 15 minutes to warm up the injector pump and the surrounding pipes. Things started to happen after that.

Ice in sedimenter:

It turns out that the bleeder was also clogged with crap, and only found success with it removed completely. A little soak in brake parts cleaner and some air blasted through it got it flowing again. The priming pump does indeed work, but not so well with ice clogging the lines. I put some Iso-Heet in the tank along with the winter diesel additive.

HJ in the shop:

After she was purring like a kitten, I drove it the rest of the way home nearly trouble free. On the way back, the temperature and fuel gauges suddenly went to their 100% reading, which caused me to load my trousers. Upon further inspection, there's something wrong with the gauges. I guess that's the next thing to fix!

Thank you all very much for your wisdom. I love this forum!

Phil

 

[duncanrm]

We started the day by taking off the sedimenter (sheared off both bolts holding it in the process). It was full of ice!

Crazy stuff.. must be super cold where you are. I've never had to deal with gelling diesel.. it rarely even gets to 0deg C here.

Good outcome!

 

[mongoose2231]

The Cruiser lives!

We started the day by taking off the sedimenter (sheared off both bolts holding it in the process). It was full of ice! The air compressor on the fuel tank trick worked beautifully to get fuel flowing out the pipe to the sedimenter. We hooked it back up with new fuel lines and let gravity fill it up. Still no fuel to the priming pump, so we shot air through the line and whoosh! diesel slushie came rushing out the other end. Still nothing on the priming pump after that, so we used a heat gun for roughly 15 minutes to warm up the injector pump and the surrounding pipes. Things started to happen after that.

Ice in sedimenter:
View attachment 2882513

It turns out that the bleeder was also clogged with crap, and only found success with it removed completely. A little soak in brake parts cleaner and some air blasted through it got it flowing again. The priming pump does indeed work, but not so well with ice clogging the lines. I put some Iso-Heet in the tank along with the winter diesel additive.

HJ in the shop:
View attachment 2882514

After she was purring like a kitten, I drove it the rest of the way home nearly trouble free. On the way back, the temperature and fuel gauges suddenly went to their 100% reading, which caused me to load my trousers. Upon further inspection, there's something wrong with the gauges. I guess that's the next thing to fix!

Thank you all very much for your wisdom. I love this forum!

Phil

The issue with both the temp and fuel gauges spiking has to do with the fuel tank sender. Mine used to do it when it was rainy and wet outside. Truck is taken apart so I will be fixing that when it gets put together.

 

[mongoose2231]

As far as the priming pump, get a Bosch mercedes diesel priming pump, they are direct bolt on. I did that and it works perfectly.

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