new info! i removed all the injector lines from the IP this morning and got just a dribble out of them. no squirting, no nothing. my wife was in the car and we tried it with both the pedal to the floor and not pressed at all.
i tested the fuel pump again and it jumped up and pegged my gauge immidietly. 14psi+.
is there anyway i broke the IP when i tried to adjust the idle speed manually?

by the way, i appreciate all the help. but no more "this car is the worst" blah blah blah. this is the car i have and this is the car i am going to keep, if i can get it running again. so if you arent going to help please post on another thread.

thank you.

You won't get any squirting out of the hard lines, the fuel volume is too low.

I'm not sure how long you attempted this procedure with your wife. Crank it with the hard lines off and your right foot on the floor for 15 seconds. Then repeat. Wait a minute or so and repeat. You should get a decent amount of fuel coming from all hard lines so that it makes a bit of a mess underhood.

Once you get that, then tighten all the hard lines and it will start.

You didn't break anything when you adjusted the idle speed.

AFAIK, that vehicle should not need a mechanical idle speed adjustment. It has a computer controlled idle speed and you adjust it via a dial the it right in front of the windshield, under the hood, on the driver's side. If you have it, it will have seven numbers on it..........you turn it to adjust the speed in small increments.

i am confused. should i get a stream by disconnecting the fuel lines from the injectors or not?

one user says this -
"What about taking off the hard lines and cranking. A healthy IP should shoot fuel pretty high and make a bit of a mess. A not so healthy one may only trickle."

another one says this -
You won't get any squirting out of the hard lines, the fuel volume is too low.

let me do this; ask a new question.
what will i get if i loosen all the hard fuel lines at the injectors and crank the engine with the pedal to the floor?

i will also try it with the 15 second procedure that was mentioned in the last response and let you know what happens.

BTW: thank you for the idle tip, i will use that if i ever get it running again.

Paul was confusing the issue with the "shooting fuel pretty high" statement. If you removed the hard lines from the IP, you'll get the fuel to shoot directly out the top of the IP, but, it won't proceed down the hard lines with any velocity.

You'll get a decent amount of fuel to come out near the injectors if you plant your right foot on the floor when cranking. But, remember, the engine uses only about 10 ounces of fuel per minute at maximum rpm's and maximum power. At cranking speed, the fuel delivery with the rack fully open would be somewhere around 1.5 ounces per minute..........total for all six cylinders. It's not a lot of fuel.

ok, i understand. but with all the lines taken off at the injectors i get two or three drips out of them in 15 seconds of cranking with the pedal to the floor. so i get a total of 18 drops in 15 seconds. is that what i should be getting? or should there be more?
if so, and the fuel pump is working properly, where do i look next to see why the ip is not pumping enough fuel?

remember when i stated that the person before me replaced the seconday screw on filter and they left the plastic molding remains from the center seal on the screw on filter? could a small piece of this broken off and plugged something down line from the filter in the IP?
i did completely remove the secondary filter housing and blew and scrubbed it clean.
the only two lines i have not replaced are the two clear lines that go from the secondary housing to the IP. i have used a flashlight but have not seen anything foreign in the lines.

That's not enough fuel.

The reason the IP is not pumping enough fuel is because it's not getting the fuel.

There must be air in the secondary or in the lines to the IP..........but........without being in front of it..........I'm at a loss as to how it was introduced and why it won't purge.

What's the total cranking time been with your right foot on the floor and with the hard lines off the injectors?

Brian I am home today,I have my 350sd so if I can pull any line for a flow comparison let me know .Will be monitoring the post.Johnny

__________________
85 300sd SOLD ,85 745i,95 740i,1972 Suburban,1938 International

60 seconds cranking with them off.
15 seconds each time.
i know i get fuel at the secondary filter housing, could there be something plugged so that it is all going to the bypass and not to the IP?
could i have used the wrong fuel lines or wrong clamps when i replaced the lines? i see no bubbles in the clear fuel lines.

one other odd thing i have noticed, in the morning when it starts to start, a few days ago i opened the secondary fuel filter and it was only half full? i have not checked it in the last two days.

what should i do next??

This tells me that the secondary is not getting fuel from the fuel pump. However, the pump has sufficient pressure...........so.........you've got the possibility of a plugged line between the pump and the secondary filter.........I say "possibility" because it would be very unlikely for this to occur.

The problem with the secondary half full must be cured otherwise the engine will never start.

I don't know what you adjusted, but to adjust the idle on these cars you move the black plastic knob behind the fuse box. It is numbered 1-9 the computer controlls the idle. Sounds like you messed with the ALDA, but if it ran after this adjustment your are fine. What the ALDA does is for another thread.

The problem is with that secondary filter only being half full. Do you see air in the clear lines that attach to the IP? Sounds like an air leak.

Did you refill the filter to the top and did that change anything?

__________________
1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

when i tested the pressure from the pump i did it by disconnecting the discharge line from the pump at the connection to the secondary filter housing and hooking my pressure gauge up.

remember i unscrewed the filter, just so it leaked, and fuel pushed out and filled the filter.

so should i continue testing pressure through the lines to the IP?
should i plug the overflow/discharge line?

thank you all for your help!
what it ended up being is one issue that was existing and one i created.
the existing condition was that there was a piece of broken plastic in the feed line to the IP. so when i took the lines off the secondary filter housing and cleaned it, i removed that piece, however when i replaced the lines i mixed up the two lines on the left. so basically i hook the return line from the IP to the input line from the secondary housing.
swapped them, bled the lines like i have done so many times over the last few days, and bang! instant start.
thank you again for all the help.

Good job.

We were out of options at this point.

The lack of fuel in the secondary was your clue to that debacle.

Wow ,thats good news on a holiday weekend.I think ya might wanna raise a toast to these guys,Johnny

__________________
85 300sd SOLD ,85 745i,95 740i,1972 Suburban,1938 International