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Cummins 12v fuel issue

Will L.

Will L.

Well-Known Member
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Location
Boulder City Nv
My sister's rv:

Before: you could turn key on, pull solenoid up with finger and it would hold. Then start engine and tour the world. Just had to pull the solenoid in hy hand. They bought it like this a few years ago and used it a few times. Now divorced, time to sell the rv, so wanting to fix the issue.

It has sat for a year.
So the solenoid was not pulling in, but would hold with key on. Nephew started to pull solenoid out with intent to replace. Saw an empty solenoid box in the storage area, and it looked new...
So I had him replace the relay that feeds the solenoid and reinstall the solenoid. Now that works, but...

No fuel to injectors though. Intersting enough no glow grid for heating air. Give a shot of wd40 and almost starts, with now gid, i give a little shot of starting fluid. It wants to run, but no fuel. I remove this screw in picture (wd40 straw as pointer), and pressurize tank. Fuel comes up and tighten screw. Figure air in line from it bleeding off over the time parked, crack injector nuts- can't get any fuel. That screw is onnthe line that feeds directly to injection pump btw.

Scratching my head- any ideas?
 
That's the bleeder screw. You need to remove that, follow the fuel line from it down and towards the bellhousing until you find the fuel pump. On the end of the pump will be a button, you pump it to pump fuel to the engine. What normally happens is the seal on that primer in the end of the lift pump goes bad, and allows it to leak. Once you get fuel out of the bleeder port, put the screw back in, and pump it another 30-50 pumps until you can hear a good steady stream of fuel squeeking through the return at the injection pump. Then crack open as many lines as you can, and start bleeding there. That is a high presdure injection system, and you WILL burn up the starter trying to start it with air in the system as it will take forever for it to build enough pressure with air in the lines to pish fuel through them.

As to the solenoid, it is a 3 wire, double action solenoid. 1 wire is a ground, 1 is a hold, and 1 is a pull. Most are wired so 1 wire is hot via a 30 amp relay anytime the key is on. This circuit is just to hold the solenoid closed, and does not have any real pull to it. Then the other circuit is activated via a 70 amp relay with either the starter, or a seperate relay that only energizes as power on(a relay that energizes itself, it sends out a very brief sugnal which is just enough to trigger the solenoid to pull closed). The pull side is a very high current side, and can only be powered for brief periods, otherwise solenoid failure WILL occur. Also I like to manually adjust them so when the solenoid is closed, the fuel cutoff is pulled, but not tight. If the solenoid is held even slightly not fully closed, it will ALSO fail in a short amount of time(I learned this one the hard way). So I always manually adjusted them to be certain it was right.
 
OK thanks. I knew there should be a primer pump some where, but didn't see it. Have to search again, maybe it is hiding down by that sweet little Allison trans. I removed the screw and had the nephew watching for fuel. I charged the fuel tank with 15 psi of air, and when he started getting fuel I stopped and had him screw in the bleeder screw 1/2 way. I charged again and told him tighten when air surges stopped. he called out and I dropped pressure. Then cranked 4-5 times. obviously not air free I walked away before anything could get tore up. then talking to him last night about it, he described it as if air was not done purging to the screw!! kids.
 
Sell it in the spring when people want to go use an RV and values are higher. Now, at the end of the season, it's store all winter then use it. Most don't want to store it all winter (some may have to pay for a RV storage spot) so lots of people want to sell RV's now...

Anyway post some pics. :D
 
Yeah, I was telling her back in March we needed to fix it and have it listed by April. She will probably eat a few thousand now just for that. Beginning of last summer she was offered $10k from a rv shop for it so they could flip it for $15, but thought she might need it to live in. She'll probably list it for $8 and cross her fingers now. She will be flat broke in 2 months. If I had the $ I was thinking buy it for the engine and trans alone for hummer, then sell the generator and other parts, then chuck the rest. It isn't a bad rv- plenty of power and 16mpg is what her ex-husband said it got on last trip to Cali. I just don't like rv's. I'll post some pics tomorrow.
 
My grandfather logged around 250k miles in a 36 foot pusher with the 5.9l 12 valve, and averaged around 11 mpg with them. His last one had the 8.3l 12 valve and gets around 9-10, but it's nice having the power to run 85-90 vs being limited to 68 flat out.
 
Her husband kinda babied it when he drove,mmaybe thats why the better mileage? Or he could have just flat out lied to me about it. He kinda went from a super trustable guy to compulsive liar, so maybe it didn't do that good and he was talkin out the side of his neck.
 
Depends on the size and height of the RV for MPG. IMO Height has more to do with it as my 27' 5th wheel gets me down into the single digit MPG. Both it's height and height of the grades I drag it up. :p You bet I turned the screws up on the TV to the limit of it's Evans filled cooling system - and that made no change to the MPG.

This Thread Is Worthless Without Pics!!!
 
Ok. Today I finally got back to it. Like most people that post a thread for help, we did something I forgot to mention. There is a nice fuel water seperator in one of the underneath compartments. I had the nephew crack the screw to drain any water that may be in there before we started.
Sigh...
No, he didn’t get it tightened. We were sucking air the whole time. Tightened it up.
The primer pump was right where @THEFERMANATOR said it would be. Cranked the engines for an entire 4 seconds and VROOM.

@WarWagon pictures are coming tomorrow, I promise.

I am really having a hard time not buying it. Less then 11,500 miles. Wife even said “Are you sure we shouldn’t get it?”

She has had insurance on it the whole time but put hold on dmv registration, so not legal to drive it right now. I want to do a test drive just to enjoy the power that sucker has before she sells it, and to verify mpg for my own interest. Probably playing with fire and would convince myself to buy it though. Haha.

Anyone want to do a cummins swap with a near new 12v and an allison? Comes with a slightly bigger wrapper than a Dodge.
 
I looked at it today, its a 1995 36’. I swear the odometer says under 11,500, but it has to be more because they have those sticker maps that show where you went and it has the left half of the US.

No belts on the a/c compressor- wonder what thats about.

I agree on the size. If you look in one of the pics you can see my little camp trailer. ‘77 shasta 14’or16’. And the engine should be under the hood of my truck!

Driving back from breakfast with the wife this morning, drive down one of the little streets here in Boulder City. Knowing my poor little camper was part way in a shot, figured I would show a few pics of what we see here in town all the time: 2 cool trucks and a nice car towing a camper similar to mine. Yeah, I would trade my camper for his...
B94D7506-265B-406A-B45B-E48470623127.jpeg
1CB67861-E50E-4A66-8A23-5CBDAA8943A0.jpeg

4FD087C1-45DE-4562-AE6E-83BA7053ABA5.jpeg
8E3806B3-1712-410E-93B9-7A87BA0C531C.jpeg
I have to talk to the owner of that camper, to measure the wings. Mine are gone, so I am going to make some knock offs.
I have owned both of the trucks (not these exact ones of course) in the pics, except not the stepside bed, mine was fleetside.

If I knew how to do a 2 hour video, I would just drive the whole little town here to show you guys the cool rides out here. They are just everywhere.
 
@Will L.
I`m into old campers too.
Here is an old home made camper I just got done doing a total rebuild on. all I know about the camper is that it was built in Gillette Wyoming and put together for very cold climates.
1-1/2" styro board insulation throughout, double back foil lining the paneling on the outside portions of the inside walls, styro board insulation in the floor and the wheel wells have boxes built over them that is filled with poured in foam insulation.
I put it all back together with the same type of insulation. About the only time I use it is when I take off in the winter to go fish through the ice.
IMG_3264.jpg
 
I took her rv for a testdrive today, just had to see. I expected more of a squishy ride. I think it may have air ride cuz it felt ok. She pulled out scrap paper where they wrote mileage figuring it out on the trip they did from vegas all through cali, up to Wa, then Id back down Nv. Math actually showed 16.15 mpg is is not fast off the line, so maybe real hiway gears helped it out. I know how I am, I could cut it to 10 mpg and have that sucker racing off the line- haha!

And that was hour meter not odometer reading btw.

She asked me to wrote down the sales list thing, so:

1995 36’ pusher RV
12v 6BT inner cooled cummins turbo diesel
6 speed automatic Allison transmission
Less than 11,500 on the clock!
16 mpg highway!

King size bed plus conversion couch sleeps 4 large adults comfortably. Plus full recliner, and stick your kids outside because they are young and need to toughen up anyways!!! Haha:)

Push button leveling system, auto steps, all the stuff to make it easy. Lots of underneath storage, ladder to roof also.
Twin roof a/c, microwave etc all powered by big generator.
Refrigerator,stove/oven, Sinks, bathroom, shower, all great shape.
Only $8,000 obo because It must sell this month.
The perfect family Christmas present/ or go see Family for Thanksgiving with it!

What do you guys think, does that fit the cheesy Las Vegas car salesmen pitch?
 
I have never been to Las Vegas and talked to a salesman but if I was there and he said that about the kids sleeping outside I would give him a extra $1000 for trying to get parents toughen their kids up.

Maybe you need to be a motor home salesman. Might make some extra cash for a sales pitch like that. Every motor Home salesman and camper salesman needs to throw in a couple tents and say the kids should sleep outside
 
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