Three days on an air leak I could have found in an hour

Chasing a no-start on an old Freightliner FL70, turned out to be a hairline crack in the fuel return line right where it clips to the frame rail. I pulled the injectors, checked the pump timing twice, all that, and it was just a $14 piece of line letting air in only when it got warm. Finally figured it out on day three when I clamped the line with a pair of vice grips and the truck fired right up. What really got me is how many hours I burned before I even thought to look at the return side. Anyone else had a simple fix hide behind a classic symptom like that, or am I just getting slower at this?

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1 Comment

gavin_reed19d ago

How many times did you walk past that return line while you were digging into the injectors? I've been there with a bad O-ring on a coolant sensor that only acted up when the engine got hot, took me two weekends and a new thermostat before I figured it out. The cheap parts always seem to hide the best, and the vice grips trick is a classic move, good call on that. You're not getting slower, this stuff just likes to play games with your head.