I'd drove my truck about ten minutes to go get something to eat last night, went in for maybe an hour and my "wait to start" came on when it went out tried to crank it just turned over, repeated from the off position w/ the key... started the 4th time with a fight but I gave a lil fuel when I tried to crank it....After it started ran fine, grid heaters cycling fine....

This truck has done this several times but normaly starts on the second try. But this happened twice tonight once on the cold start and once with the warm start, the warm start was the one that took 4 tries...45-50F temps! could this be a fuel problem only has 15.5k miles on it...

 

Alright I'll just run by the dealer,maybe they'll know something
I just don't truct the guys down here, they don't work on many diesels

 

Somethings definately outta whack. I don't think I've ever had to turn my key more than once unless I just changed a fuel filter.

 

I was wondering if it may be a sign my fuel pumps getting weak and bout to crap out, but since its running fine after starting its got me all confused, lost about 1mpg so far to!

 

Called my uncle a minute ago said he had the same problem (same x-actkinda truck)and it turned out being a bad battery, it was trying to pull power from the other one but wasn't getting enough for it to start right...also said he finally tripped a code, I'm not tripping any codes, and went by autozone to use the battery tester, both batteries are testing good, we did4 alternator checks and got 19, 26, 38, 40 on peak amps, he said it should be around 190 I'm not good with eletronic so does that sound right?

He said it may be a voltage regulator or solenoid on the Alt. I'll have DC look at it tomarrow and hopefully its something simply like that, if not they want the truck overnight until they can "Recreate" what happened as it doesn't do it every time [:@]

 

At what RPM's where those readings taken at? I think our trucks have a 160-190 amp alternator (somewhere in that range, can't remember the exact #) The faster an alternator spins the greater the output. Due to differents sizes of pullys the alternator spins faster than the engine does. Around peak RPM (3200 in our trucks) your alternator should be spinning in the neighborhood of 6,000 RPM's. At peak RPM's you should have 160-190 amps
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They did the test at 2000 RPM, that still seems kinda off though reading between 19-40amps at that RPM doesn't it, I'm not good with electrics like i mentioned earlier... (and yes it was a very steady rpm during the test)....

 

I called my dealer back in Oklahoma where they actually work on diesels regularly and he said it sounds just like a lift pump going out, or the battery that is connected to the starter is bad, since my batteries checked good seems its pry leaning toward the lift pump....

Since it doesn't give a hard start every time what'd you guys think, leaving for OK on the 15th and the dealer here can't get me in for 2 weeks!....Man it out 1300miles to the mechanics that know what theie doin? or leave it with the guys here overnight the 13-15 so they can try to duplicate the problem, then order the part

The mechanic here was honest with me at least and said we hardly get any diesel's through here so we have low real world practice....and don't keep hardly any diesel parts in stock 1-2 days to get them in....So if it is a lift pump or alt. they would have to order it if its a battery I'd be good...

If he has to order a part I'm outta vehicle and pretty much screwed, or I'd have to drive the truck 1300miles knowing for sure somethin in its about to crap out!
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Does the starter strugle to turn the engine over? It doesn't sound like it is. If not, I too suspect the lift pump.
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Did the battery tester Autozone used give you an amperage output number? Something like 650-750 Amps, or did it just say "good or bad". When they hooked up the tester did the check it with the ground connector hooked to the battery or to the frame? or both? If you have a tester that gives you the number of amps that are able to flow, doing a test on both the frame and battery post will show if you have a corroded connection somewhere.
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