So, the 7.3 thread reminded me of something that happened while I was active duty, and one of the jackasses I encountered.
We had an '89 International truck with the 7.3 come in, water truck, had a decent sized pony motor on the back to power the pump. The motor wouldn't start and this thing had to be towed in. I recognized it from it being in one of the previous stalls, so I wander over to that mechanic (one of our civilians) and ask him what was up with it when he had it, what he did, and what he thought about it.
Clown said he didn't want to discuss it at all with me. He was over the truck and he was done with it, was glad I had it.
So I talked to the shop supervisor, and a couple of the other civilians that had been hearing him bitch about the stupid thing, and got a run down of what had been done to it; then I got to work. Clown-man was sure that it was a clogged fuel issue (base was using an early version of bio-diesel which algaed up real good) so I changed the filters, drained the tank, and setup the fuel line cleaning machine. Let it run for pretty much the entire day, worked on some other stuff and just kept going over and resetting the timer. Checked the injection lines and the pump and both looked good, so I filled them with the cleaner fluid and left them.
Next morning I disconnected the fuel cleaner, poured new fuel in, purged the lines and went to town. Wouldn't start. Asked the Clown again what he did and he gave me a small list, one of which was cleaning the fuel return line fitting, and that's when I remembered something. I had seen him take a punch and drive it through that same fitting when he had the fitting on the bench. I asked him if he remembered doing that and he said "yeah, I wanted to clean the screen in that fitting, but I couldn't get anything through it. I drove the punch through and got a bunch of sand out of it"
And that was issue #1. The DB2 Injection Pump doesn't have a screen on that fitting. It has a check valve with a little glass ball in it. The check valve keeps (if I remember correctly) 3.5PSI inside the housing of the injection pump, and shut off of the fuel is accomplished by a solenoid opening the check valve. No internal pressure, the injection pump can't drive fuel to the injectors. So I relayed the issue to the shop HMFIC to see if he wanted to order parts or try and pull something from a vehicle in our auction-lot. None of the auction trucks have the same pump, so I end up having to go to the bombing range's vehicle graveyard and scrounge a fitting off of a HMMWV that has the same pump, then get back and install it.
Now I have a shudder as it tries to start and white smoke. Knowing that usually means unburnt fuel, I talk it over with a couple of the graybeards and decide to do a compression check. I pull a glow plug and it was basically just the threads, the rest was gone. I immediately pull all of them on that side and they're either ballooned or gone. Switching gears I grab the three spare plugs that we have in the shop and install them and one of the best bad ones. I turn the key and realize that I don't even have a glow plug indicator on the dash. So I pull off the glow plug relay controller to inspect and possibly bench test and the silicone potting material on the bottom of it had half blown out from something frying.
Went into the office to have the TSgt order a new relay controller, 8 glow plugs, and a few other items and I promptly start getting E36 M3 on by Clown-man. "Its Florida! Glow plugs are for cold weather! That is never going to work, you're just wasting time and money with this, what the hell did they teach you in Hueneme?" and so on and so on. Did this right in front of my direct supervisor, his supervisor, and the shop HMFIC.
Next day the parts come in and I spend the morning re-bleeding the injection lines, installing plugs, and other stuff. Its right at break time and Clown-man, my supervisor's supervisor, and the shop HMFIC are walking past the truck as I'm ready to start it for the very first time after having everything done to it that I wanted to do. Clown-man starts to mock me on his way to the break room as I'm turning the key.
Locking eyes with him, "Hey Clown-man, what were you saying about glow plugs the other day" I say, in order to give him and the others pause and wait for the glow-plugs to fully cycle. As he is working on some sort of withering remark I fully turn the key and that beautiful beast cranked up immediately.
Watching him deflate, having the other two tell him that he owed me an apology, it was better than my first kiss.