M1009 wont start

Recently purchased this vehicle and had been driving for approx. 6 months without issue. Drove it 500+ miles home from purchase point and while I did not take it over 60/65 it ran fine and got good mileage. Had started reliably since every time I turned the ignition. Recently changed the oil and drove for three days afterwards steady 20/30 miles/day. Suddenly it won't start. Cranks and cranks but no start. Drained the batteries and had to charge them, after charging it fired and ran well for 10-15 minutes. Shut down for the night and came out the next morning to verify and again crank no start. No idea what's going on as I am new to diesel but with hunting season approaching I am besides myself as most diesel shops or other shops will not even consider looking at it.

Now I am considering fuel pump, filter, injection pump, will check or replace fuel lines from tank to lift pump, it does produce smoke out tail pipes when cranking.

Any helpful though processes would help here.

What Preventative maintenance have you done to the truck? Any service to any of the filters since you have had it or fluids?

Have you tested the glow plugs to make sure they are functioning?

What is the temperature where you are? Has that changed very much lately?


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You may have a fuel line leak getting air in the lines. What is your fuel filter setup like? Is it original?

You also could have a glow plug problem, either or. If it runs good once it starts, I would lean away from it being a bad injection pump.

Now if its black smoke when cranking, I would look into the glow plug system first before anything.

Once its running does it fire right up again and only not start if left overnight? Probably a leaking fuel pressure sensor on the back of the fuel filter base. If you stop for the day, go around and crack your fuel cap, to release the vacuum. Mine would fire up in the morning every time, until i forgot to crack the cap. So took a very small drill bit and made a hole in the cap. Field expedient modification was a success. Started every time..I finally found another OEM filter base without the sensor and replaced it. There's also a thread here to remove that sensor and plug the hole.

Gator57 said:

it does produce smoke out tail pipes when cranking.

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Have you checked your glow plugs, what color is the smoke? unburnt fuel will cause smoke... and lead to the question of why is the fuel not burning?

make sure your glow plugs are all good AND the system is turning on (check your voltage gauge as a crude way to check)

Matt5 said:

Have you checked your glow plugs, what color is the smoke? unburnt fuel will cause smoke... and lead to the question of why is the fuel not burning?

make sure your glow plugs are all good AND the system is turning on (check your voltage gauge as a crude way to check)

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This is where I was after hearing the symptoms.

Are you getting the WAIT light?

Try this first: Turn the key and watch the WAIT light, when it goes out wait about 20 seconds, then turn the key off. Repeat this cycle three or four times and then try to start it. If it starts (or sounds close to starting) begin with new glow plugs.

White smoke is raw diesel, so you're getting fuel to the cylinders. Now we just need to figure out why it isn't lighting off. Glow plugs are much cheaper than randomly throwing parts at the truck.

EDIT to add: Make sure you're using the proper starting technique as printed on the driver's side sun visor.

British Columbia? Sounds like a glow plug issue. Start by cleaning all terminal connections at the fire wall bus bars, perform the glow plug resistor bypass and make sure all grounds are golden. This is just basic CUCV 101 maintenance and is considered mandatory for all CUCV's who's prior maintenance history is unknown.

I live in Yuma AZ and if it's below 80 degrees you can forget starting without draining the batteries. (I forgot to hook up the glow plug harness after some maintenance LOL)
The Ricardo Comet swirl injection system just NEEDS a good glow system for anything below 90 degrees. It's been my experience anyway.

Thx for all the tips guys. Here were I am now. I was suspicious of th batteries after charging them repeatedly. One was dead and gone never to be raised for service again the other marginal. So new batterie it was. Which I had batterie hold downs as th zip ties I have to use ar just a pain to tighten. Turns over great now and sounds very solid in that department.

As far as fuel goes it runs steady after starting so that removes the injection system in my mind at least. I was wondering about the lift pump so I cracked the bleed and cranked it very solid stream there as well.

Checked all GP's front to back drivers then passengers wire on front pos terminal and the respective GP spades yielded 6, 5, 3, 11.5.& 2.3, 4.3, <1.0, 12.3 volts respectively. I think new glow plugs are in order.

i looked on internet seems Wellman has a good solution so I may buy theirs and who knows all roads may lead back to them anyway. Somewhere in the $60.00 range for the set. Am I on track?

if so questions are. Wd40 em all or some sort of penetrating oil they look rather crusty? Some of the GP sales pitches are swollen tips. Is this something that happens frequently or is it mktg BS? If one of mine is am I fk'd or is there trick to that too? Other than removing the head! Socket size and depth? I'm sure I have some deep sockets but don't want to snap off the spade especially when reinstalling. Some of these look like their in a tight position especially #1 on pass side which is coming in at a strong 2.3V. Any tips before I start bustin knuckles?

I count about eight questions you were asked that are unanswered. We're trying to help.

I always just test my GP's with a test light, if it doesn't light..replace that one. I wouldn't buy Wellmans, they're known for swelling issues. I use AC60G's. They like a longer burn time, but I use a manual push button, so it's non-issue for me. On removing the GP's, I use a 1/4"ratchet with a deep socket. When I first got my M1009, it had older series GP's, AC-11 and AC-13. A bunch burned out and one was swollen. I borrowed an extraction tool from someone I knew, came right out. You could probably fabricate something that would so this. There might be a thread on here somewhere. I never had to use penetrating oil, but I do put a little never-seize on the threads when installing them.

Like he said, do NOT use swellmans. Read some of the threads on swollen plugs and you will understand. Use the AC60G's.

There are a lot more than eight questions but I'm not counting. Bottom line it's cranking but not firing. Plenty of fuel getting there as I bled the system and there is smoke out the tail (whitish). Batteries were dead six years old is not bad I guess but neither had any hope of maintaining required crank amps, so I replaced them.

When attempting start the wait light does come on and I have cycled 2x/3x thinking the heat might build and fire it up but no luck there as suggested by Mainsail
New fuel filter regulation style
new filter & fresh oil change
inspected the fuel lines and see no leakage but will be replacing any non-metal portions as soon as I can.
injector solenoid clicks when pink connector is disconnected then reconnected again during the bleed out
temp here has been in the 60's high 40's at night. When first got it it was colder than it is now and of course this summer was a hotty. Just started to cool down again.

As stated I read in other posts that a GP test would be to get the multimeter and connect the pos front battery terminal to one probe and clip the other ptobe to the GP spade. If you get 12.3V that GP is good to go. All but two GP's in mine registered <6V with three or four in the 3V range one not registering any volts.

So I think I've located the problem and was asking and received (thx Hasdrubal) on tips for removal as the TM is rather cursory and mentions sleeves (which I do not see)

when thats completed i'll report on the result.

Again thx thx for all the ideas and tips. It's relatively straight forward but being new to diesel as well as 30+ year old truck it is somewhat intimidating.

If it were mine I would remove all the glow plugs and bench test them. See up front if they get hot or NOT. Takes about 20 minutes start to finish. But that's me. Good Luck. I like to see things so I dig deeper then the average person.

Hopefully shes making good enough compression to light too.

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If one of the glow plugs break off, you can remove the fuel injector and recover pieces through that hole.

Gator57 said:

There are a lot more than eight questions but I'm not counting. Bottom line it's cranking but not firing.

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Then what was the point of posting? Wasting peoples time?

GL I'm out... btw, reglowing the plugs 2-3-4 times is a great way to swell them (if not self limiting and the stock plugs were not) and terrabad advice but... no point when questions are just ignored.

Not sure wtf "volts" your talking about either...

i have 8 AC60G's from AutoZone ready to go this weekend...fingers crossed

Did you pull the 8 out that you currently have and check/test them? I mean just putting glow plugs in does not always fix the issue. Have you checked for current at the plugs? You could put new glow plugs in and it still won't start. It may burn them up also. Just saying find out what is wrong before throwing money and new parts at it. Could be a simple fuse or wiring issue. Good Luck. Here to Help. Have a Great Day.

I did check current to gp they hardly registered any current. But your suggestions are good and will check further before point of mo return.

Pulled them out tested them and zero zip nada. Could pinch them with fingers and sensed no heat build at all. Conversely the new GP's glowed orange. (No finger pinch)

Some of them are tricky to remove but after the last one went in and reconnected the new batteries. It fired right up and ran strong during idle warm-up. Down the road it seems to have smoother engine performance and better acceleration as well.

Thx he for the support and excellent suggestions. All of which led me through its process of elimination to the GP's.