Sometimes it's the simple things

Got a call this morning from a customer with a mini excavator they couldn't get started. The info I was given was that the machine had been running and was cut off and now wouldn't restart. So I loaded up and headed that direction. The first thing I did when I got there was turn it over and notice there was no smoke from the exhaust when doing so. So I broke the injector lines loose and saw there was no fuel getting to the injectors. Since each pump is individual I knew it had to be something common to all three pumps so I checked the fuel level. There was plenty of fuel, and the electric transfer pump was working, so I moved to the next obvious thing, the fuel filters. I checked the primary screen and the filter and both looked OK so I moved to the next thing which was the fuel shutdown solenoid. I had power going to it so I thought it must be bad. With it pulled from the engine the engine should start but again it wouldn't, still no fuel to the injectors. So I put it back in and 'scratched my head' trying to figure out what I had missed. Then I happened to notice that the levers on the two filters were in different positions. When I checked them earlier I only turned off the one on the primary filter screen as it fed out into the other filter housing so effectively cut the fuel off to both when it was closed. It took a bit of doing to get my head cocked around were I could see the instructions on the filter housing but once I got them in sight it was obvious that the valve on the secondary filter housing had been turned off. So, I gave it a quarter turn, blead the lines, and she fired up in short order.

Given the info I was supplied with in the call all I can figure is someone decided they wanted to go home early Friday and did the one thing nobody would think to look at on a machine that had been running not to long before to shut it down...... I guess it just goes to prove when you think you've seen it all someone goes and comes up with something new for you to check out...

At first I thought you were going to take us through the whole troubleshooting procedure and then say it was out of fuel

My BIL is an electrician and told me a story about when he first started out. He spent 2 hours in this woman's house, tore the service out, crawled in the attic to check wiring, replaced the switch, all trying to figure out why a light in her hallway didn't work before he realized that the lightbulb was burned out

Nah, Dad ran into that one a few years back an a Thompson pump. The guys swore they had filled the tank on Friday before they left and given that they had a lock hanging on the fill spout he took them at their word and didn't check. After about an hour of checking everything that could be checked he discovered that the tank could be accessed without removing the lock.....and someone else had done so over the weekend and drained the tank.

I had a call, where a machine had no reverse. I got to the machine, they had already began to tear it down, and went home. I found a piece of steel, lying in the frame, blocking the shift lever. As you say, someone wanted some time off!

When I was with Ford, one of my techs tore his hair out for two hours trying to figure out why a Tempo's high beam headlights were inop.

Finally found out both high beam bulbs had burned out at the same time.

Another good piece of advice I got from Dad: always try your fix before doing a second. If you don't, you won't know which one did the trick!

Thanks all you guys, it was interesting reading indeed!

I'm sure you all heard the story of the lady broke down on the side of the road (car wouldn't start) and to make a long story short the man who stopped and tried to help her after all his trouble checking this and that come to find out the ladys' car was outta gas.

Had that double bulb burnout on a Bronco II more than once. First bulb would go, and second was only a short time later.

Never guess if you can diagnose. Easy things first. Dave