I have an 88 F-250 with an IDI 7.3. The other day, when I parked it, it acted like it was running out of fuel. I added a coupla gallons of diesel and cranked and cranked, it finally started up and ran rough for a little bit, then died. Now it doesn't act like it's gonna catch. I tried opening the drain on the fuel separator, and that didn't even help.

Also, how do I set up the trickle charger on the starter to keep from wrecking my battery?

 

is it smoking at all when you try starting it see if your fuel filter is full and if not fill it with clean fuel most trickle chargers have a 6 volt or 12 volt setting set on 12 volt and clamps go red to + and black to - hope this helps

 

i normally through my battery on anywhere from 12-24 hrs depending on the size of the battery.

have you tried bleeding your injectors?

 

You dont open the water drain, you need to pull the cap off the schrader valve that is on the mount, and have someone press and hold it open with a screw driver or anything really. Hold it open and crank the engine till the filter is full and squirts out of the valve.

 

Huh? What's a Schrader valve? Is the point of this exercise just to make sure the filter is full?

 

pretty much. a schrader valve is like a valve in your valve stem on your tires. jsut a valve that opens when you put pressure on it and when you let off it closes back up. they use them in ac systems too that allow you to add freon to the system.

but yes thats what he was trying to explain

 

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See the filter mount? Look at the line coming out of the top of it with the red hose clamp, its the threaded thing in front of it. That's the schrader valve.

 

BTW, I dunno about mechanical stuff; nobody ever taught me. You need shoes on a horse, cows caught, an elk packed in or ammo loaded, I'm your guy!

 

Good thing you don't have a powerstroke then You have one of the simplest engines ever to work on.

 

That was the plan; just mention a sensor problem to me if ya wanna see me throw a wrench for distance and learn some new words! I HATE bending wrenches, but believe in maintenance.
One of the reasons I bought this truck is that the purchase price was less than the cost of most of the add-ons it already had installed that I woulda required. I really wish it were 4WD, since it gets stuck so easily, but for a $1,500 truck that runs as good as this one (normally) does, I couldn't pass it up. It has a Banks turbo, a B&W turnover ball, all the light hookups I could possibly need, running boards, toolbox, etc.. Even came with a receiver, since Ford can't figure out bumper manufacturing.

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Well, it's fixed now; nothing $200 worth of batteries wouldn't fix!

Went to Sam's club and bought two Energizer 31A-N batteries for $97.33 EACH, plus a $9 core charge. Interstate quoted me about $130 for similar batteries. This one trip paid for the Sam's membership, plus a few gallons of diesel!
The old Interstate batteries were 800 CCA; these puppies are 950 CCA. LOTS of difference! When I had one new battery in and was trying to wrestle the other one in, the positive cable end hit some bare metal and put on a pretty good light show; you could WELD with these bad boys!

The new batteries are about a third bigger than the old ones, but I'm already noticing a performance difference; even my girlfriend noticed that the truck doesn't seem to lag as much between shifts for some reason? Now, I guess I might as well put half a dozen HID lights on my truck, a huge amp inside, as well as a coffeepot, microwave, minifridge, and kegerator.