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78 300D lost power on highway and stalled, now wont start
I was recently driving down the highway when my 300D seemed to be starving for fuel. It had the usual symptoms, sudden loss of power, no engine response when I hit the gas. So I coasted over to the side of the road and as soon as I stopped, the engine shut off. Now my car won't start. I replaced both fuel filters a week before and have since replaced the glow plugs and still to no avail. I have checked the voltage at each plug and all 5 have power, the engine is getting fuel (although I don't know if it's getting enough) but it just cranks and won't fire. It was running great before this happened with no issues at all. I was thinking it may be a timing issue. Would this cause a no start problem if it skipped a few teeth? My mileage is just over a 250,000 and the car is in awesome shape but I don't feel like handing a few hundred over to the dealer...Help Me!
A few questions....
1. Did you happen to refuel the car just before this happened?
2. Have you loosened the metal fuel line fittings at the injectors, cranked the engine over with the throttle pedal to the floor? Do you have fuel squirting out of the fittings?
3. Does it feel like your engine has compression when you crank it with the starter or does it just spin over freely?
4. Did you do anything thing else to the car JUST before this happened?
No, I havn't changed anything
Check your fuel
Before you do anyting else make sure you have 100 percent diesel in your fuel tank. Take off the gas cap and check for any order of gasoline. Don't laugh. I have seen this happen way to often. I just had this happen with a Doctor friend of mine. He swore he could not have put gas in the tank of his 87 300TD (but I found a receipt in his center console for 8 gallons of regular gasoline) :-)
If it is not that then remove the fuel tank filter screen and inspect or replace.