Dead in the water, well out of the water.

[simonsnork]

Hello all,
Looking for some help. We just finished a few great days Fusoing aound Death Valley. Today I forded a water crossing that was way deeper and longer than I thought. I'll post photos when I can if it helps. The water was up over my headlights to give you an idea.
Any way, I made it accross then stopped to have dinner and let things drain. A hour or so later we headed off and ten miles later on the highway the engine lost power. I think I may have pulled some water. All my breathers we under water for a minute or so. Now it just acts like I have no fuel.
Any good leads where to start to solve this problem.
Thanks again to everyone for the help.

Simon

 

[gait]

just off the top of my head.

what model Fuso?

I'd start with inspecting the air filter? If its wet dry it out. Check the state of the rubber plug bottom centre of air filter housing, its designed to let water out, but not in. Depends on model, there may be a second plug in the duct after the air filter.

But be careful if trying to start without air filter in place. There's an engine emergency stop (white with read marks on handle) somewhere near the steering column.

Next place to check is the water separator in the fuel line, hung off the side of the chassis near the fuel tank. If there's much water in there clean out rest of fuel system. Remove and check the fuel filter on top of engine. May have to bleed injectors.

And lots of questions .... does it attempt to fire, is there any smoke (black or white or grey) out of exhaust.

Also keep an open mind. It may or may not be directly associated with the river crossing. 10 miles is a long way.

Is the engine warning light on? Do you know how to check for any diagnostic codes?

 

[Aussie Iron]

Like Gait says to many unknowns to give all the answers. Model of Canter is important as to whether it is computer related or not. My guess will be water in the fuel tank through the breather and now filter system, that would possibly be a 10 mile run.

Dan.

 

[gait]

from other posts I suspect simonsnork may have an FG639

 

[simonsnork]

Hey guys,

Sorry for the delayed response I got off the road and once I figured out the issue, I drove as fast as I could to get to a job I was doing. And for those of you who drive 639s you know that's not fast. This is my first pause to respond. Thank you for chiming in. Yes, I have a 98 FG639.
As you have probably figured out by now, I got everything going.
First I will confess to my total and very embarrassing stupidity. Then I would like to follow up with your suggestions for futher knowledge. Feel free to laugh as hard as you want and to poke fun as you feel appropriate.
Gait, you get the gold star for your comment " It may or may not be directly associated with the river crossing. 10 miles is a long way. "
The water separate/ pre filter was very murky so I drained the contaminated fuel from that. Once that was empty I tried to reprime the pre filter but just couldn't get it to fill. We got my buddy to tow us off the highway and dug a little deeper into filters sorry intakes and electronics to no avail. My wife mentioned that we had tow insurance. So we called those folks and afew hours later we were loaded on a flat bed and hurtling down the road at a speed the fuso had never seen nor even imajined.
We camped at the mechanics (the blessing of a home on wheels). It too till about 10:00 before the mechanic could look at it. He walked around shined his light here and there doing nothing I hadn't done. That is till he got to the fuel tank. He opened the fill cap and actually looked in. "It's empty" he said in his deep Spanish accent. "What? It can't be the fuel guage is still on half!" I replied with distain. Not believing he could be so unobservant to miss half a tank of diesel I peered into the little hole. And what awaited me was a lot of nothing. It was empty. Ego shattered into small pieces all I could do was laugh. The sending unit must have taken a jolt somewhere in Nevada and decided to stay put from then on. Thoroughly embarrassed I stepped back to watch the simple task of siphoning some gas out of another truck and repriming mine. The mechanic turned to me and then asked me to go inside. My so Tara and I spent the next half hour watching 80s MTV and consoling myself.
The morals of this story.

1. Always start with the simple stuff! I can't believe I never looked in the tank.
2. I will always be willing to take a hit to my ego for an easy fix, rather than look the master and face a true disaster.

Ok all that said let's get back to water crossing. There was no water in the air filter thanks to the snorkel. Is there a way to service my breathers or are there better after market breathers for the fuso diffs transmission transfer case, and fuel tank? The rear cross member seems to be the breather vent for the rear diff. If I were to stop on water, how much of a risk is there taking water in then down the tube to the diff?
We do not plan to wander about fording deep water regularly, but I would like to better prepare as our wanderings get more remote.
I do not see the emergency fuel shut off near the steering column. Is that on the 639 it just newer fusos?
And I promise to post a picture once I get things off my camera.
Thanks again for the help.
Simon

 

[C p weinberger]

You learn the most from failures, success only reaffirms you knew how to do it in the first place.
We all make mistakes, a wry smile and a soft chuckle with ( momentary) humble demeanor makes it all ok
The ones where it all worked out in the end make for a nice memory, it’s the “ I forgot to tighten my Lugnuts and my wheel came off and then I hit… “ that you need to sweat ?

 

[gait]

nice when the solution is simple ........ and someone (who I can never find) once mentioned something like "isn't it nice how much can be achieved when it doesn't matter who does what".

 

[SkiFreak]

If I were to stop on water, how much of a risk is there taking water in then down the tube to the diff?

If the breathers are working properly (not blocked), and the outlets are not submerged in water, there should be minimal chance of water bypassing the diff seals (assuming the seals are in good order).
Common practice is to extend the height of the breather outlets. On an FG there are 4 breathers: one on each diff. one on the gearbox and another on the transfer case.
Not that I intend on converting my truck into a boat, but I raised the breather outlets on my truck to about 1.5 metres off the ground.

BTW... My view is not to sweat that kind of stuff, because we all screw up at some point in time.

 

[Aussie Iron]

Also a breather on the top of the fuel tank which should be extended.

Dan.

 

[kerry]

Glad it was a simple fix. Any chance the failed fuel gauge was a result of the water crossing? I've been on this forum for about 10 years and I can't recall another post about a failed fuel gauge on here. Was the cause of the failure ever determined? What did you do to fix the gauge?

 

[gait]

I spent a year or more (on and off) trying to track an error in one fuel gauge. Reading was more to do with phases of the moon than what was in the tank. Eventually replaced the connecting plug near the sender.

One thing I do is record fuel consumption. Little book in the cab to record litres and odometer (and date etc). Into a spreadsheet. Useful to know when something changes.

There was a time when the litres/100km was increasing, trending upwards. Both tanks. Checked all the obvious. All was resolved when a couple of lads noticed fluid dripping from under engine. The rubber bung on the end of the return line from injectors had cracked. Only obvious when engine running. Leak had slowly been getting worse until bung failed completely. Easy fix - bit of fuel pipe with a drill bit blocking the end.

Best ever Canter fuel consumption at 12 litres/100km. Across desert for about 1000 km at 10 km/hr - with broken spring. Very relaxing.

 

[simonsnork]

As promised, here is a picture of the Fuso fording. I added a picture of it out of the water to give perspective. As you can see my dog thought nothing of it but I look a little concerned. I think the gauge gave up the ghost way before the water crossing. Like 150 miles prior to.
We do keep a log of the milage and fuel consumption, which is all we have to go off of right now.
I have looked around, but will wait till sunnier days to really tear into it. So, no I have not figured it out yet. Plus, I am going to put larger tanks on replacing the stock tank. At that point I'll be way deeper into the sending and gauge.

Thanks for the help again.

 

[gait]

I think I would be concerned too ....... I dislike water

 

[Aussie Iron]

That's not a bad depth of water, but when it reaches the tray height and looks like it will get into the Camper then I start to worry.

Dan

 

[simonsnork]

Aussie Iron, you are braver than me. The water was a bit deeper on the other end but the photos don't really show it. So I used the one with a little bow wave. When I got out the dash was lit up like a Christmas tree. Every alarm light I had was illuminated. They went out after a few minutes of running on dry land. Out off curiosity, does this happen to everyone at this depth?