Some of the technical parts of this story will be told later, but this is just another of, "This is the first mistake I ever made." I told you that you would hear CaptnWil say that often when I made the first report to the list so long ago. This story begins in 1993 when I made a RV trip to Alaska with a group of 32 other RV's -- 14,000 odd miles all told. There was a person named Ted on the caravan with a very expensive motor home. He was a big spender and even bought his girl friend a fur coat on the trip. Ted had a Cummins 6BT engine in his RV. We headed across the Top of the World Highway from Yukon Territory to Alaska -- a gravel, one lane wilderness road. Since I knew something about diesel engines, had a tool box and had a good truck with a good tow rope, I was asked to bring up the rear to help any who had problems on this wilderness road. Ted's expensive motor home and new diesel engine quit twice on that road. Each time I purged the fuel system and got him started again. Then it quit a third time, and I was getting desperate. As a final thought, I checked the fuel tank with a rule. The fuel gauge showed plenty of fuel, but the rule measured only 1/2" in the tank. After a tow truck pulled Ted into town -- about 40 miles -- the fuel tank was filled and the engine ran just fine. Ted had been too cheap to buy $2.30 per gallon diesel in Canada and learned the hard way that diesels don't run well without diesel. We never let Ted live it down, and I swore that the first thing I would do when an engine quit running was to check the fuel supply, and from that came one of CaptnWil's laws, "Always start at the source to troubleshoot anything." I did that for a lot of years with good results. Fast forward to Trawler Fest in Melbourne, 1999. For reasons that will come out in the technical reports, I decided to install, among other things, a GCF diesel filter on my own Cummins 6BT in my pickup. Among the innovative things GCF did for this installation was to install a simple outboard fuel bulb type pump with check valve to prime the new and existing fuel filters. What a marvelous, simple thing. It worked like a charm -- for 1,450 miles. The 6BT is a marvelous engine. It is strong, efficient, and starts in no more than 2 seconds -- that is, until today just after lunch. It took about 10 seconds to start it this time. Next time it took 20 seconds. The damned filter is stopped up. Check the filter. It has no diesel in it. Prime the system with the marvelous bulb pump. The container fills up nicely -- great touch. It now takes 30 seconds to start the engine. The filter now has no diesel in it. The check valve in the bulb is defective. Get a new bulb -- it's easy at West Marine. Easy to install. Pump the container full. Now the engine won't start at all. The filter is dry. Dummy! Check the fuel tank. Fool! The selector is on a completely empty diesel tank. Select the correct tank. Now the fuel stays in the filter, but the injectors are full of air. This is no Lehman-Ford, it will not bleed air itself. Now bleed each injector manually. The 6BT starts with a little complaint and gently explains that it does need fuel to run. The 6BT is back to starting in less than 2 seconds, and CaptnWil tips his hat to Ted. Don't ever repeat CaptnWil's first mistake. Begin at the fuel source when you start to troubleshoot why any diesel won't run. CaptnWil 40 Pier Pointe New Bern NC 29562 (252) 636-3601 captnwil@coastalnet.com