power major wont start

[fran63]

hi all
my 1960 diesel power major wont fire up.the battery is fully charged but she wont spring into life.i suspect it is a fuel problem.i have loosened the pipe from the fuel filter housing where it enters the injection pump and fuel comes out from the pipe.it also comes from the bleed bolt on the side of the unit but when i loosened an injector pipe at the pump and another at an injector there was nothing.i tried pumping the lift pump and turning the engine on the starter but nothing,
any ideas?
thanks

fran63

[oehrick]

If you are in the UK and had a subzero night you might have some ice in the pipework, if in the warm, scratch that for a stupid idea

Is your engine stop lever in the right place ? if not it will inhibit pump output

Is it a Simms or Minimec pump ? if Simms you might have a pneumatic governor diaphagm problem.

Other than that you may need to give a bit more info.

[Brian]

Why loosen the pipes when you have bleed screws on the filter and the fuel injection pump? When you operate the primer do you get air free fuel out of these?

You can take the glass bowl off the fuel pump itself and see if you get a flow out of there from the tank.

If you have air free fuel down to the pump bleed screws and none from the injector pipes the rack may be stuck in the pump. Thoroughly clean around the pump and take the side plate off. The rack is at the bottom of the pumping elements and should move with a screw drive, from side to side. Do not touch anything else in there.

If the rack is free, and you have fuel to the injectors then it may be that you do not have enough compression to fire the fuel. Try a very small amount of ether and see if she will start with that.

[whirly]

Sorry in advance if this is redundant for you, but have you pushed in the extra fuel button on the pump before starting? On my PM I have to do that before every time I start, even when the engine is warm.

[fran63]

Hi
Sorry for not posting replies sooner,but we have been really busy with our chickens and ducks due to the avian bird flu alerts.
I have had a look inside the fuel injection pump and it was not a pretty sight.it was full of a mix of dirty water and diesel so i think a re-conditioned pump is needed.the pump is a simms p4685 pump that looks like a super major pump.can i fit another type of simms pump or does it need to be the same as what is already there?

[ianpdexta]

Hello Fran 63

I think that you definitely need exactly the correct pump as even one that looks the same could have been set up for a different engine. But as Brian has said, your best option might be to get your pump reconditioned, they can generally be brought back to life. The injectors might need a once over as well if they have seen any water. There are diesel injection specialists in most areas.
My local one (Cambridge) is:
www.cambsinjectorservice.co.uk/
01223 262 306.

Regards

Ian

[blackbob]

Sorry the numbers mean nothing to me.. Does it look like the one in Whirly's photo above here? (It should do, on a Power Major)
.or when you say, it looks like a super major pump, I guess you mean one with a mechanical governor, so you won't have the butterfly and the pipes between your inlet manifold and pump - so you can't use an older, vacuum-governed pump.

The tractor-puller boys seem to be able to make almost any pump work with almost any engine.. but like others have said, I think getting your own pump overhauled would be easiest

[ianpdexta]

The tractor-puller boys seem to be able to make almost any pump work with almost any engine. but like others have said, I think getting your own pump overhauled would be easiest

True, but I don't think the tractor pulling boys care too much about the life of their engines, even less so about the fuel consumption!

Regards

Ian

[oregondave]

Hi I have a similar problem.

My tractor won't run, white misty "smoke". Runs on ether briefly.

I bleeded the fuel system several times and tripped checked the timing. And I put in fresh diesel (and drained the old one). New pump, new coupler, new fuel pump.

I discovered if I run it with starter fluid or ether for 1-2 minutes, it will run on its own. Although if I adjust the throttle, it dies immediately. According to the Fordson Fuel section of the manual, the flow chart saids bad injectors. But the tractor did run 4 months ago briefly.

Do I do the same ATF in the fuel procedure here? how long should I run it on ether (i'm afraid of blowing it up).

Thanks!

[fran63]

Update on my power major.
Got a fully reconditioned pump from Brant diesel injection near newark on trent last week(8th of feb).fitted it today in about 1 1/2 hours including bleeding the system and at last she runs. .
A very happy fran63.

[58vintage]

Could I be really cheeky and ask for an indication of what they might charge for a full recon of the pump?

[fran63]

Hi
Dont mind revealing cost at all.they charged me £390 including vat for an exchange pump.they told me they have hundreds of pumps on the shelf so should be able to sort you out.probably be best to call them with your pump details to get a price.their phone number is 01522 788295.

[58vintage]

Hi
Dont mind revealing cost at all.they charged me £390 including vat for an exchange pump.they told me they have hundreds of pumps on the shelf so should be able to sort you out.probably be best to call them with your pump details to get a price.their phone number is 01522 788295.

Hi thanks for that. I was actually being cheekier than you realise. I own the largest diesel specialists in Wales and a good chunk of the South West and was wondering how our recon price would have stacked up. Some of our older guys just about remember working on these pumps when they were fitted new and we still retain our old test and calibration benches for them.

[easy.start]

That is quite cheeky! But, at least there are still specialists out there who will work on 'old stuff' I took a Bosch pump to a Bosch/CAV specialist with all their fancy entrance, outifts, signs and coffee machine only to be told once the whole team had looked at it (and commented how nobody there was older than the pump) that they couldn't do anything

Make sure the old guys pass on their knowledge before they retire