Old school injector testing beats the laptop every time

My biggest pet peeve with new diesel techs is they never learn how to bleed a fuel system manually. I had a helper last summer who was stuck on a 2002 Duramax that ran out of diesel. He ordered a lift pump and was about to install it because the scan tool showed low fuel pressure. I walked over, cracked the bleed screw on the filter housing, pumped the primer hand pump about 30 times, and it fired right up. Cost him nothing but 15 minutes of learning. The difference between him and me is I've had to do that on the side of the road with a dirty shirt as a rag. It's not in the repair manual but it's a basic skill. Any other older guys finding that hands-on stuff is getting lost on the new generation, or am I just being grumpy?

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daniel14020d ago

Man, you just described my whole career and then some. I remember being that young guy with the scan tool, convinced the computer knew everything, and my old boss made me hand prime a 7.3 for an hour in the rain because he said the laptop can't feel air in the lines. He was right and I hated it. The thing is, the new guys aren't dumb, they just never got shown. I've had kids look at me like I grew a second head when I crack a line and bump the starter to bleed it. That hand pump trick on the Duramax filter housing should be day one stuff but nobody teaches it anymore. You're not grumpy, you're watching a skill die because the schools teach scan tools instead of how fuel actually moves. I bet that helper never forgot that lesson though.

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