Northern Lights Genny Lift Pump

[Avenger]

Speaking of bleeding,... those little injection pumps are an absolute horror to bleed because they dead-head and pump so little fuel that it's near impossible to get the air out of them. Some of the newer ones have bleeder screws, but most don't. I'd say 90% of the ones we see had nothing wrong with them except the inability of the operator to bleed them. Then they assume something is wrong with it and try to take it apart. That's when they suddenly have something wrong with them.

[MikeP]

No luck so far...

Well, maybe partial luck:

I rigged an elec fuel pump and bypassed the lift pump. With the E-pump the genny will start but it still won't reach normal operating RPM (1800). There is a bit of diesel "clatter" at the reduced RPM (there was never any at normal operation/RPM). I bled all four lines at the injectors with the engine running and each "cracked" injector reduced engine RPM, as it should. Unfortunately, I have to quit work on it to get ready to leave the boat for a while. So further troubleshooting will have to await my return in September.

Forgot to add:

NL tech suggested I take a look at the muffler to see if it may have collapsed internally/causing a serious exhaust restriction. He thinks it's very unlikely that there is an issue with the injection pump itself. I'll check out the muffler when I get back to the boat in Sep - it's the original muffler installed with the genny in the mid 1990's.