So, for those of you that have been following...we finally got the injection pump back from Seattle. It came in late Friday evening (naturally) so we had to wait until monday for the mechanic to come out. At 8:30 AM the mechanic arrived and began re-re-re-re-re bleeding the system for the 900th time...and eventually...HO-LA! It finally fired (after extentive phone calls to Seattlle injector again).

Evidently...this all was a very silly problem of a air lock inside the injector pump that wouldn't allow fuel to come through. Drove us all nuts though...When it did finally get staightened away the engine fired right up! Now it starts and runs perfectly everytime.

In the end...I don't wish this kind of exhaustive diagnositc repair on anyone....it took us four weeks and about 14 mechanic hours plus two fuel injection pump mailings to Seattle to get it back to where we were before we started (minus the leak of course). Onward to the next thing.

More updates as we go along.

Ray out

It's still about the injection pump!

So, we got the pump back from Seattle Injection. Installed it, with the help of our son-in-law, James, who's pretty familure with diesels. We turned it on, and cranked it...and cranked it, and cranked it....NADA...James had to go back to Seattle so I stayed with the project.

Two more days of phone calls, bleeding the engine, re-bleeding the engine...re-re-bleeding the engine....more cranking...nothing...wouldn't even fire.

Got out Nigals book...followed instructions exaclty! again...NADA.

So, in the last paragraph in his book he says get out your wallet....in this case it was... call in a specialist! Our specialist came recommended by lots of people around...one of the best. Because of that he gets $75.00 hr. and hour....which was okay for us...figuring on a couple of hours.

He re-re-re bled the fuel system...checked all the pressure fittings, checked the vacuum and fuel pump pressure to the injector pump. Pleanty of fuel, (fuel tank was full of brand new fuel)....pressure everywhere...crank...crank...crank...NADA...re-bleed...crank crank crank...NADA...wouldn't even fire!...Three days...five days...7 days later...still wouldn't start. He called the specialist's specialist...a Perkins expert no less (30 years on the force). Said that there was probably something wrong with the new injection pump. Of course Seattle injector disagreed...but...after I took the injection pump off three times (by-the-way you also have to remove the starter and water pump to get to it)...I got a call today...go ahead and take it off again and send it back to Seattle Injector...they agreed to look at it. We don't have a car so that means...three hours to get the turkey off the engine...then a gentle 3 mile walk to the Post Office and back...ugh!

We are not happy campers...I'll post again when it comes back. Oh and I won't go into the fact that our recommended specialist caught a rag on fire in the engine room...threw the oily rag out in the hall way and down toward our aft cabin...and nearly burned our boat down...I had to use the fire extinguisher to put it out...in the process of course ...he burned his hand...fire extinguisher stuff is now all over the boat...and we are back at stage one...where I was when it all started...sending in the injector pump to Seattle!...Oh and just down a few hundred dollars and two weeks.

After a week now, and way too many hours in the engine room trying to figure out why our engine wouldn't start with the new pump... we finally had to surrender to calling in a specialist for the "no start" problem. Turns out that there were four seals shipped with the injector pump that were misplaced and not installed. Injection pumps in diesel systems are particularly vulnerable to any air leaks in the fuel feed system. No seals means air leaks...thus no start. We ordered a new set of seals (about $2.00 worth)...and they'll be here on Monday...we're about 99% sure this is the issue. Meantime, we're working on the boat taking care of the other issues.

Ray out for now.