Rig won’t start! July 2004
1994 Fleetwood Bounder 36.5′
190HP Cummins Diesel Engine
96,000 miles
Previous owner was a RV rental place in Fairbanks, Alaska
This RV has had many miles from Alaska to Florida and back again every year for several years through states that use salt on the roads in winter or it tended to be near the coast (rusty chassis). There is some evidence that the rigs front end once or twice went through a gully or creek with water in it. Up in Alaska that’s not an everyday occurrence at all for a RV but if they rented this to someone I suppose it could happen…there was a couple pounds of gritty sand & small rocks like you see up in Alaska inside the genset compartment that took me a couple hours to remove.
Starting problem: After picking the coach up at the consignment dealer, ran fine, restarted several times.
Got it home, parked it on a 3-5 degree slope, nose down.
Next day started fine.
3rd day would not start, strong batteries, just not getting fuel. Would not start for the next week.
Neighbor and my son worked on coach and gave up, but son did notice that an air release banjo screw on the engine was striped, would not seal and allowed air into the fuel delivery system. He spotted bubbles around it when I’d try to star it. We should have followed up on that but with neither of us having any diesel experience decided to hire someone.
Hired a mobile diesel mechanic who did some magic involving removing the output hose from the water separator and dipping it in a can of diesel fuel, pumping the lift pump, cranking it for many seconds several times, etc.
Mechanic decided that the banjo screw assembly needed replacement and that the in-the-tank fuel pump wasn’t working or was weak. Whatever that means.
Ordered and replaced banjo screw, two washers and the sealing screw, $39 worth of parts, $245 for labor (including trip charge) @ $60/Hr.
Since I had already picked up a backup in-line fuel pump ($55, cheap insurance) with a 5-9 GPM output, I went ahead and plumbed it in near the engine while we were waiting for the parts to be delivered, bolting it to the frame and rerouting the fuel hose. Additional parts needed were fuel hose ($3.60 per foot! needed 8′) brass couplers and adapters to mate the 1/4″ pump with the 1/2″ system ($20 or so), clamps, and electrical connectors. Got lucky and found a nearby live wire that is live during ‘run’ and ‘start’.
This picture is very similar to the Airtex external I bought, though this one has a connector whereas mine had unterminated wires. This one is specially designed for diesel.
Here’s a link to Summit Racing which carries a broad line of external pumps, I bought my Airtex from NAPA along with the brass fittings and fuel hose I needed to mate up the two differing hose sizes between the pump and RV setup.
Starts great now! All I need do now is place a fuel filter for 1/2″ hose in front of the pump.
I mounted the pump as noted above and you can see from this picture that I looped the fuel hose and mounted the pump so that it was well away from road debris (but not road dirt it seems).
[Update 5-’06: Talked to a RV’ing friend. He carried a spare in-tank fuel pump with him when he traveled. Something I’d originally intended to do. He’d had it for two years or so. When his fuel pump went bad on him on the road, he was towed to a dealer and the dealer installed the pump he had with him. After around 300 miles, same symptoms, and he broke down in downtown Reno on a stretch of road that was being rebuilt. After sitting for several hours, and after the traffic cleared, he was towed to a shop and they replaced his pump again. They explained that since the spare fuel pump had not been soaking in fuel, the seals dried up, rotted, broke free and plugged the pump. They also mentioned that fuel pump stock levels are kept low at auto parts stores just to avoid having that problem. His was an in-tank pump and I don’t know it that applies to in-line pumps too. My advice: If you’re going to carry a spare fuel pump, store it in a sealed tub of fuel.]
Edit: Feb. 2016
After 12 years of owning this RV, living in it as a full-timer, I know personally that the external fuel pump worked flawlessly for the entire time. Never had any symptoms of fuel problems. No leaks either so I did it right. I had 184,000 miles on the RV when I sold it, and the mechanical lift pump never needed service or repair, as many 190HP Cummins engines in this era RV did. Perhaps because it didn’t have to work as hard as it would have without the external pump? Who knows.
This is a great tip. I have a 95 gas engine Bounder. Recently tried to start but doesn’t seem to be getting gas. Since it started about 2 months ago I believe a mouse has chewed a fuel pump wire on top of the tank. I have bad mice and pack rat problems where I live in S Az. Thanks for sharing your struggles.
The Bounders were also known for the rubber fuel lines on top of the tank rotting over the years. So they’d start weeping and sucking air. So what DIY’ers have been doing is dropping the tank 6-12″ and replacing the hoses with new. So you could do that of course. But if you think it’s the pump wiring, then just disconnect it from it’s source and measure the resistance. The pump and emergency shutoff wiring should read fairly low, like 50 ohms on a digital resistance meter. If not, then check that the e-shutoff switch and wiring is okay (some RVs didn’t have that fuel shutoff e-switch). If you do have that 50 ohms, then…
You could add an external fuel pump near the engine safely out of the way tucked in a frame rail where it wouldn’t get too much engine heat. That would assist the in-tank fuel pump and wouldn’t require the tank to be dropped immediately. As it could supply fuel as long as the leak wasn’t too big. So you could get to a good place with good weather where you can drop that tank. Gives some breathing room for not much money.