mechanical diesel engine shutdown timer wiring

Thankfully, even if your solenoid is weak, you can still almost always start the truck by turning the key on, walking around underneath the hood, and then manually moving the governor lever back towards the firewall of the truck.

So our solenoid was bad, but fortunately, we weren’t dead in the water. Gully’s first step was to take off the intake horn because it makes it easier to gain access to the shutoff.

Our buddy Rex Gully helped us out with the solenoid install so we could take some photos. There’s even a more advanced version, with a fusible link and 70-amp relay. Larry makes all sorts of electrical parts for diesels, including a shutoff solenoid kit. Our new shutoff solenoid and brackets (in case anything was missing) came from LarryB. This allows the engine to start, but also to stop because cutting off the fuel is how virtually all diesels are stopped from running. The shutoff solenoid activates a governor lever that allows fuel to flow into the pump. Our ‘95 project truck, dubbed the Green Monster, already had its solenoid replaced somewhere down the line, but it still failed yet again (probably because it was a Chinese-made knockoff version). While the pumps themselves are extremely reliable and hardly ever fail, the shutoff solenoid that is mounted to the pump fails often. One of the more common problems on virtually all ‘94-’98 Dodges, as well as some generators and tractors, revolves around the P7100 injection pump. Still, it was hit-and-miss on working, so it needed replacing. We could tell by the blue wiring cover that our factory shutoff solenoid had already been replaced at some point. We’ll explain how this can happen, what you can do about it, and what solenoid can do for you. Geez…aren’t 12-valves supposed to be reliable!? As it turns out, it was no big deal, but a non-starting truck can definitely give you that sinking feeling. So there we were hundreds of miles from home, pulling a trailer, with a truck that wouldn’t start.

Mechanical diesel engine shutdown timer wiring