Lister ST1 will not start

[Dallas]

We are off grid and this is our back up generator. I bought it 6 years ago with 40 hours running, it had hardly been used. She's done about 500 hours now without a hiccup. a couple of days ago, it ran dry for the first time. I bled the fuel filter and the exit of the fuel pump, but it just will not start. I have taken off the rocker cover and turned it over with the injector fuel pie disconnected and fuel appears to be coming out. it's electric start and vapour is coming out of the exhaust, but no hint of a firing. Anyone have any suggestions? I was thinking of a squirt of easy start to jolt it into action....

Mike

IOW

[Bent Trigger]

Don't use either or starting fluid on a diesel. You will break things  make sure you have return flow from the injectors with no bubbles.and if it has it use the preheat

[AdeV]

Could be dirt/debris in the injector, or in the fuel pump.

With the delivery pipe disconnected, are you getting a solid "squirt" of fuel out of the pipe to the injector? Or just a feeble drip or two? If it's not giving a good dollop, I'd suspect the fuel pump.  If the "dollop" is good, try removing the injector, re-connecting it to the line, then give it a crank or three. Are you getting a good mist out of it? If yes, then it's head-scratch time; if not, then there's either dirt or damage in there, making the next step either replacement, or rectification. Repairing an injector is quite challenging I believe, I've never tried it myself.

[Dallas]

Thanks for input, ok, no easy start! Will try removing the injector, quite challenging for little me..

[Dallas]

OK update, there was no fuel coming  through the injector, but was gushing out of pipe when slacked off. I have
taken it over to PB Asher in Southampton who repair injectors and also have a new one in stock. I should know in a couple of days whether it is the injector or not. (the sun has finally come out and is now merrily charging with the panels!)

[Dallas]

The injector came back as fine. Very strange, I have changed the fuel filter and actually there was no sign of dirt in the fuel. Can it only be the injector pump? it was chucking out fuel through the pipe when disconnected from the injector. What else could it be? Any suggestions would be most welcome.

[AdeV]

It's possible that the injection pump is not able to produce enough pressure to overcome the injector spring, when it's all bolted up. This would be the case if there was damage within the injector pump (deep scoring on the pump element or body for example). It's possible that when it ran dry, either it sucked a bit of crud in which did the damage, or possibly just the lack of lubrication after the fuel ran out.

First, though, I'd try reconnecting the injector (with it still out of the engine) & give it a fair few cranks again: Just in case it needs to bleed out the injector too. If you still get nothing/very little after a few minutes, then the injector pump would be the next place I'd look. The same place that checked out your injector could probably check out your injection pump too.

[Dallas]

OK, For those like me who have some experience with these sort of engines, but not enough to confidently take an injector apart, here's how this was resolved....eventually!
I did get a great deal of helpful advise from the camelot-forum.co.uk where there a number of off griders lurking. I took the injector over to Asher's in Southampton, injector specialists, and it tested fine. I returned with the pump, and the manager hand tested and said it looked almost new and thought it also was ok. He thought an airlock in the pump was the cause. Well, I had bled every orifice imaginable, but he said it would need pressurising with a pump. I bought an outboard squeezy pump and managed to attach it to the fuel line and squeezed fuel through the filter, pump and up to the injector. With the injector inverted and connected, I could see that no fuel was spraying from the injector. Crazy. After several days of trying this and that (suggestions included hitting it with a hammer while pumping, new pump, etc etc, One of the guys said that I should unscrew the top of the pump and remove the plunger, pump through some fuel and replace. By now I thought there was nothing to loose (the exploded diagram shows about 20 parts inside the pump, horror). Anyway, after reassembling, amazing! she eventually spluttered into life!
Well, I guess the moral of the story is not to let an ST run out of fuel, they can be an absolute nightmare to get going again. It's crazy that there is no shut off valve from the fuel tank, you have to pump the fuel out of you want to change the fuel filter. Diesel pours straight into the sump when messing around trying to bleed the darn thing! The joys of living off grid!

[AdeV]

Glad to hear you got her going again!

The moral of the story is: Use a 6/1 instead! No such problems with those engines...