there are actually several questions at the end of my sad tale
its just the preamble seemed so fitting

its a grim tale
many years ago I owned "one of those"
I came out of it feeling
shall I say
cured

fast forward to today
Ive always turned my own wrenches
even built several from the frame up
owned a fleet of Jags and old farm trucks
various farm vehicles
you name it
nothing so completely humiliated my abilities as a mechanic as that ford did
I was cured, or so I thought
it was greed got the best of me
it was free

about a month ago a friend of mine and I were talking about how I needed to find an old truck to haul lumber in
he pointed to an old ford F250 diesel 7.3 1990 beater dead in his back yard and said
if you can make it run its yours
something told me this was a mistake but I took the bait

I had it running like a top in about a day
I expected that
two weeks later I took it to Missouri on its first lumber run and dragged 4 tons of oak 500 miles home
thing was working fine
I wasnt expecting that
seemed like things were going to work out
and then it happened
it was way to easy

some fool I loaned it to filled it with gasoline
made it three blocks
dead, done and history

now any fool can make a mistake ( I thought Ild screwed up pretty hard in my day, but I cant lay claim to putting gas in a diesel )
and any fool can purge a fuel system ( that would be me, how hard can it be )
but only ford would make an idiot test out of were the dummy switch is that turns the electrical system back on
12 hours of looking at least as many phone calls and half as many so called "specialists" later
and no one has any clue why the electrical system has shut itself down completely
or how to reset it
or if, or were, a reset switch may be
or if a 90 diesel even has the famous inertial shut off switch let alone a reset switch
or why if it did would that possibly cause a complete shut down of the electrical system rather than just fail to power the fuel pump
and actually the fuel pump is mechanical anyway
both of em
so there isn't much point to a electrical kill switch
most of the "experts" claimed there was one
so

we spent today
all day
two people
12 hours
looking for a switch
demolished the dash area
not a snow ***** chance

so my question is
whats the big secret
Im not even convinced this thing has a computer in it
so
why no juce

if I disconect the batteries and let the caps drain
reconect
and turn the key
the glow plug warming signal comes on
everything apears normal
but when you turn the key the rest of the way to crank
instant dead and from there
if you try to turn the key again
it will not indicate the glowplugs
untill you drain the caps again
actually it wont indicate anything
not even the dome lamp comes on

seems to me that there is a sensor somewhere that's been tripped
and its a mater of untripping it
or
a switch

so whats the deal
anyone got any ideas as to how to beat this thing into running again
cause its scrap metal at the moment
for want of a reset switch

Q
were is the secret switch
is there a secret switch
what sensor/s are capable of comanding a system shut down
once replaced
will it automatically comand the system to function
is there a code reader for this vehicle
were do I plug it in

to answer the obvious

yes I purchased a manual
no, neither defined the procedure to purge the fuel system
they did not discuss inertial shut of switches nor did they discuss the function of the various sensors on the primary pump assembly
it did not provide a single answer that would shortened my 12 hours on the wrack

none of the folks I spoke with today had ever heard of the electrical system shutting down in the even of fuel contamination

anybody have this issue come up
if so
I would dearly love to hear what you were able to do about it
thanks
B

edit
having reread the previous I realized that what is intended as humor might be mistaken as some serious digs on Ford
it is but its meant lightheartedly
so please take no offense

I suppose we all have our favorite brands
Im just hoping you folks have some suggestions that might work
I was kinda starting to like that truck
thanks
B

 

Have you made sure the battery or batteries are fully charged? Those diesels need alot of cranking power.

 

first thing I did
my buddy said he tried to restart it and killed the batteries
so first thing I did was put it on the charger overnight

 

I would still have there cranking amps checked by a battery store...also a bad connection can cause what you are describing.

 

well I can certainly check the connection quality
but it would be a strange coincidence if a cable connection on two new batteries less than a year old were to just happen to go bad at the exact same time as Jim putting gas in it

will definitely check it out just as a process of elimination

I suspect however that it is a sensor
the vehicle would not act once the caps are drained like it wanted to proceed through the start up process and then revert to a dead stick if it were merely a battery issue
edit
( there is no sensor that detects fuel contamination so its unlikely a sensor )

is there a code reader node for this vehicle
edit
( no, I talked to ford, what there is, is a pig tail assembly to a blinking light array and a code book that you look up the blinking light pattern in to determine whats going on with the sensors )
is there an electrical shut off ( no )
do you know if this vehicle has an inertial shut off for the fuel that might possibly be causing this
( no both pumps are mechanical )

edit
just got off the phone with someone who suggests the IDM module
cant be tested
costs about 1200 bucks
any ideas
( unlikely to be the IDM module as its purely elec and would not react to a fuel contamination )

also suggested that in three blocks the pistons are likely burned through
depressing eh ( possible depends on how hot the engine was when it was run on gas most folks are telling me this is not likely )
I could really use a few things to try when I go back out to were this thing is laying dead tomorrow
thanks Mr Shamrock
I appreciate your efforts

edit of the edit
being on the phone all day trying to resolve the issue the general consensus is that its not likely to be the IDM
that things purely electrical and would not likely have been effected by a fuel contamination
basically I went back through my post and gave the general consensus answers to my own questions as I discover em

the battery idea has got potential as Jim may have caused a short in the batteries that is screwing up any substantial power transfer to the vehicle elec system
not sure how that works and Ive never heard of it before but funny things do happen to batteries that are drained farther and faster than they want to go
so far its the most common suggestion and the one I have yet to disprove
so its off to test the batteries first thing when I get up there tomorrow

rrrrrrrg

 

ok
was not the connection nor the batteries
I replaced the fusses that were not obviously good
small metal relays is what they looked like I think they are supposed to be the type that trip and then reset themselves
checked the wires and cables
nothing looked amiss or resulted in anything but the same dead stick
so I tried the old beat on the starter trick
seemed to work
thing now rolls over

Ive purged everything and am now cleaning out the tanks

next question is
how clean do they need to be
I siphoned them down to what must be less than a gallon each
filled em part way up with diesel and drained it again a few times
assuming an even mix ( which I may not actually get )
1 gallon of gas diluted with 3 gallons of diesel and drained down to 1 gallon again
3 times
= 1.5% gas to 98.5% diesel
and then fill the tank with 15 gallons of diesel
= 00.10% gas to diesel

is that an acceptable ratio of gas to diesel
I have no idea whats ok and what isnt

 

progress report
got the tanks cleaned
theoretically they should be at less than 0.002% gas to diesel ratio
not perfect but seems like it should be good enough in light of no available information as to a safe ratio
put it all back together and fired it up
idles smooth
but
it was so lathered in fuel that I hesitated to even let it warm up
so now I need to clean the engine
but so far so good

22 hours into it
half that in figuring out the electrical issue that turned out to be a melted starter
+ the 8 hours or so of drive time
my budy killed the truck about 160 miles round trip from my house and I been up there three days so far
nice eh

oh well
Im getting it slowly
tomorrow Ill know more when I actually drive it