T503 died and won't start. Need help/advice

[FixiniTY]

A few weeks ago we bought a used T503 at auction. We attempted to drive it back to our house nearby but the tractor died about half a mile from where we bought. It seemed to shoot a few puffs of black and then white smoke right before it died, but I might be misrembering that. The person we bought it from towed it back to their house and they thought it was low oil and low coolant and topped off both but it wouldn't start. We had it brought to our house and have been trying to get it working ever since. We found a few problems and have remedied most of them but it still wont start.
Problems we found are;

• One of the slow blow fuses at the front of the tractor blew when we tried to start it.
  • Turned out one of the glow plugs had gone bad.
• Fuel pump didn't seem to run.
  • After getting the pump running again it became very noisy.
• One of the fuses under the dash was loose.

This is a list of everything we've worked on, replaced, or tried so far. It's in as best an order as I can remember.

• Drained and replaced oil.
• Had the battery tested and charged at Autozone.
• Called battery manufacturer since it looked like it wasn't the original battery. Confirmed battery is less than a year old.
• Cleaned the glass fuel filter.
• We tightened up the socket that the loose fuse goes to. This seemed related to the pump not working.
  • Plugged pump directly to battery to see if the pump was bad or if was just the connection. Pump started working but became noisy.
• Replaced all the glowplugs and the slow blow fuse.
• Disassembled and cleaned the injectors and injector lines with carb cleaner.
• Disassembled, cleaned and reassembled the injector pump with carb cleaner.
• Removed valve cover just to check if anything looked chaotic or bent. Everything looked fine.
• Most Recent Installed new fuel pump.

It still wont start. I cannot figure out what is prevent it from starting. It cranks when we attempt to start it. White smoke comes out of the exhaust when we crank it (the muffler is off so the smoke is straight from the pipe out of the engine). I know the pump is pumping fuel, the injector pump is working, and the injectors are spraying. And I read somewhere that smoke from the exhaust means fuel is getting to the engine.
So what could possibly be the problem? What do I need to do or test next?

 

[katoomed00]

Check to see if you have any obstruction on the air intake, a plugged air filter will make it run rich. Did you crack the injector lines at the injectors and turned over engine till all air is removed then retighten? If it starts, make it run at a increased rpm to help remove the remaining air.
If all else fails I would hit it with a shot of starting fluid to see if it pops off, then I would know it's a fuel issue.
Also make sure you have good diesel, I had water get in the system and had to get it out, change filter and re-prime.


Good luck

 

[Btown]

Did you bleed the fuel all the way to the injectors.

 

[Billrog]

Is the motor turning over fairly fast ? What others have said and run the glow plugs for 15 to 30 secs.

 

[pete-mi]

A couple other items to check. One would be the key switch as with the electric shut off a bad contact inside the switch could not be giving power to turn on the injection pump. Another item would be the shut off on the injection pump itself to make sure the pumps valve is being turned on to allow it to run.

 

[Bud Soda]

Along with what the others have said. Try some starter fluid in the intake. If it won't start you have a pump or valve timing problem.

 

[FixiniTY]

I checked the air intake when I had the valve cover off. It's clear. We currently have the air filter off entirely.
I replaced the fuel filter and we did a complete prime and bleed including cracking the lines at the injectors. It still won't start. The cranking started to sound slow so we put the battery on a small charger and will try again in a couple hours.

When it first died while trying to get it home, the guy we bought it from tried restarting it with starter fluid but it wouldn't start. I've heard it's a bad idea to use starter fluid so we haven't tried it since then. It didn't seem to help when he did it.

One of our current theories is that it isn't turning over fast enough and might be because of the battery. The battery isn't the stock battery. It's a 12 volt battery rated at 725 cold crank amps. The only info I've found online for what battery this tractor should have is 12volts and 80AH, no indication of what the cold crank amps should be. Our battery doesn't have an AH rating.

Does anyone know what the CCA for a battery on this tractor should be? Is 725 high enough?

 

[FixiniTY]

A couple other items to check. One would be the key switch as with the electric shut off a bad contact inside the switch could not be giving power to turn on the injection pump. Another item would be the shut off on the injection pump itself to make sure the pumps valve is being turned on to allow it to run.

I've got the shut off solenoid that attaches to the injector pump off of the tractor so that shouldn't be causing a problem. And I cracked the lines at the injectors so I know I'm getting fuel from the injector pump (Maybe it's not enough fuel?) After we cleaned the injectors we did test them with the injector pump before installing them, so we do know it's providing enough fuel/pressure to make them spray.

 

[Btown]

How fast is it turning over? If really slow a diesel will not start. You may want to check the connections from the battery to to the frame and to the starter for corrosion.

 

[FixiniTY]

How fast is it turning over? If really slow a diesel will not start. You may want to check the connections from the battery to to the frame and to the starter for corrosion.

Here is a video of the most recent attempt to start it. Dropbox - 11[1].mp4