Series 3 2.25 Diesel engine won't prime after fuel filter change

Hi there,

Really hoping a resident landy expert might be able to help before i pull the rest of my hair out.

I have a 1984 Series 3 2.25 diesel. We were doing the servicing on it and everything was going well, the engine was running really well until we changed the fuel filter. This killed it.

I have read a few posts about the routine of priming the engine and we have done them all so I was hoping someone here might be able to help me problem solve.

Here is what we have done:
1 - Changed the fuel filer and fitted the new one
2 - bled the nut on top of the fuel filter (using hand primer)
3 - Bled the 2 bleed screws on the injector pump (using hand primer)
4 - Cranked the engine until the battery died.

Then charged the battery with a battery charger.

Repeated 2-4 above but adding:
- loosening the unions with of the 4 injectors

We then cranked it again. No fuel came out so we then separated the unions completely to see if any diesel came out. It did not. So we read yet more forum posts to see if there was a slightly different approach we could take.

One of the suggestions was to tow it with 3 gear engaged which we did for 5-10 mins at a good speed. it still didn't catch.

Back to giving it a full bleed and doing what we described above. At this point the battery died and wouldn't fully charge again so off to the shop to buy a brand new battery.

Again, gave the system a bleed, we only cracked one of the unions a single turn to see if diesel would come out. It does drip out but not with the pressure we were told to expect.

So, we bled the screw of the return pipe on top of the injector pump (no air and fuel came out well).

So in summary...

- Fuel dribbles out of the fuel filter but has no air.
- Fuel spurts out of the 2 bleed screws on the injector pump
- We struggle to get fuel to come out of the injector unions

Have we somehow broken the injector pump in the small amount of time it has taken to change the fuel filter or is there more air somewhere in the system and if so, how to we get it out?

Thanks for reading this far and any advice you could give would be greatly appreciated.

One last point, and not sure if this will help, but the accelerator peddle feels really lose with no resistance other than the return spring...

Cheers,

Pete

Sometimes there is a brass screen in the inlet to the pump. Check if there is one and, if present, that it's not clogged with stuff dislodged when you changed the filter.

Is the stop cable correctly adjusted at the pump?

Regards to the pedal, possibly messed up something in the pump. I have never had loads of fuel come out the filter so that should be fine theres not alot to go wrong there. I only ever had success when there was a steady stream out the 2 screws on the inj pump, from there i only needed a dribble from the injectors while cranking and it fired happily without some extreme pressure some describe. I had a problem with air ingress at one point, check all seals such as on the pump, bleeding methodically revealed the location of a leak for me. I always used a friendly discovery to give me jump boost and more cranking oomph. If you have some fuel at the injectors then i would like to assume itd go, less theres timing off, i had to retime my inj pump and it finally went for first time in about a year of having your problem, but this likely isnt the case with you, just an experience i had in case there are no other areas you havent covered

Hi Pete did getting going I no was a bit ago I having same if can help me please

HI Brian
Welcome to forum, the link below is good for the Series 3 manual , the procedure is there for priming filter and pump

what have you tried on yours, when i got my series 3 diesel, i had problems with starting and running and air leaks on the fuel side

http://www.retroanaconda.com/landrover/2010/03/series-iii-workshop-manual/

If you are still struggling after following the instructions in the book then one of those vacuum bleeders should help pull fuel through - start at the fuel pump and then do the injector pump at the bleed point (probably have to botch something with tape to get an OK seal that will quickly die once it gets in contact with diesel so be aware of potential mess)