Yanmar 1510D won't start but cranks

[grandmajo]

Good morning,

I hoping to get some direction for troubleshooting a starting problem with my Yanmar 1510D. This little tractor has run and performed like a champ until yesterday. My fiance was moving snow yesterday with the bucket. He had a load in the bucket when he said it made a popping noise and shut off. We have tried restarting it and it will crank but won't start. I've followed the directions for the cold weather start and it almost started a couple of times. It has a brand new battery (last week) in it and was starting and running fine, we used it to clear 10" of snow from our long driveway after the previous storm. And we have the additive in the diesel to keep it from gelling. My fiance gave it a quick shot of ether just to see if it would start that way. It did start but only ran for a couple of seconds.

We serviced it around the end of October...changed the oil and oil filter, replaced the fuel filter. I also replaced the radiator, belt and all the radiator hoses shortly after I bought it in the spring of 2013. It has been fairly cold here, yesterday was warmer with a daytime temp of 2 degrees F.

I'd appreciate any thoughts or suggestions on what we need to do next. We've looked it over and there doesn't appear to be anything loose or broken anywhere. Fuel is not gelled. When I did the cold start procedure I got puffs of white smoke from the exhaust pipe.

 

[Danny C]

I assume it's a diesel. Diesles need fuel, compression and air to run. Sounds like it's not getting fuel. I would:

1. Check to make sure it has fuel in the tank.
2. Check the air intake to make sure it's not frozen.
3. Crack the bleeder screw on the fuel pump and pump to see if fuel or air comes out. If fuel, we have to look elsewhere. If air/bubbles, proceed to the next step.
4. Remove the fuel filter and water seperator (if equipped) and replace them. If that's not practical, empty the fuel filter, fill with warm fuel, re-install and bleed the fuel pump.

I would also put it in a heated garage if available, if not, plug in the block heater if equipped or tarp over the tractor making a tent and put a heater under the tractor. I've had good luck draping diesel engines with an electric blanket. Diesels relay on the heat generated from compressing the fuel/air mixture to ignite the fuel. A cold engine with cold fuel absorbs most of the genrated heat, thus preventing combustion.

 

[grandmajo]

Thank you Danny C. We checked the fuel first thing it has plenty of fuel. We will move on down the list of items that you gave us. Thanks again!

 

[Danny C]

If the fuel system isn't the problem which I suspect it is, then we have to check the oil and cooant levels. Check to make sure the oil is black and not grey or mily which would indicate a blown head gasket or cracked head (allows coolant to get into the engine and contaminate the oil), which inturn would cause loss of compression. You don't want that! Hope it's in the fuel system!

 

[Danny C]

Read this thread too, you should find it helpful.

Will diesel fuel and filter "ungel" if warmer and additive added?

 

[winston1]

Danny C gave some good advice. I would be very careful with the starting fluid. You can do damage to your pistons and rings. I hope not, but the "popping" noise you heard would sort of make me think something happened with one of the cylinders. If checking out fuel flow, bleeding and assuring fuel is getting to the injectors doesn't pan out I would consider pulling the rocker arm cover and assuring all valves are opening and closing properly.

 

[grandmajo]

Thanks guys, we will be looking at it this afternoon. I appreciate all the help/suggestions and will update when we figure out the cause of the problem.

 

[Danny C]

How did you make out getting your tractor running?

 

[grandmajo]

We're heading out to the shop shortly to start working on it again. We were trying to finish getting dug out from the big winter storm we had here. Now it's raining of course. But at least the temp is in the upper 30's. Thanks for checking on us Danny C

 

[grandmajo]

Ok, we checked the bleeder going into the fuel pump and there is fuel going into the pump, no bubbles, just fuel. So we went on to the injectors. There is nothing coming there, no air, no fuel. So are we right in thinking that the pump needs replaced?

Oh, and we checked everything else on the list. Coolant is good, oil is good.

Thanks!