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Cummins 190 Difficult To Start

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04-23-2001, 10:28 PM
HankWadley
Cummins 190 Difficult To Start
Just in case yours is a little hard to start...
I recently came up with a cure for a problem which had bothered me for a while. My 190 used to start almost instantly but began giving me trouble in that I'd have to crank for maybe 10 secs after sitting overnight, 30 secs after sitting a week, and so on. Put on a new lift pump - no improvement. Cummins & Spartan had no other ideas. Replaced lift pump again with electric pump - same thing, except now the fuel pump ran instead of hard engine cranking.
Several months later I did an oil/filter change myself instead of taking to the truck shop I had been using. Voila! No more problems! What was the cause? The fuel/water separator cannister was a bit loose; not real loose - just enough to let the slightest bit of air in which allowed the fuel to start working its way back toward the tank, I suppose. When I replaced the filter I tightened it as specified and have never had the problem again.