diesel ranger not starting without prime?

:Why do I need to prime my ranger to start when cold or when it sits is it a pressure regulator and where is it located 2.2 perkins

Are the Glow Plugs working?
Is there power to the glow plugs

Diesels work by compressing the fuel which causes it to ignite, this compression heats up the fuel to the point it ignites.
On a cold engine the compression alone often can not ignite the fuel, especially as the engine gets older and compression goes down, so glow plugs are used to preheat the cylinders, this also allows cold weather starts.

How are you "priming" the engine?

priming

Just a small shot of quick start and she fires up instantly

The glow plugs need to be working.

Ether, starting fluid, ignites quite easily, so you get 1,200degs of heat in the cylinder instantly.


You might also check the fuel pressure, if it is too low the diesel fuel can't vaporize properly so needs a higher temp to ignite on it's own.

Low compression? My twin nieces had a diesel Rabbit, toward the end the easiest way to get it started was a shot of starter fluid.

As a guy that has owned several 4,5,and 6 cylinder diesels... You have glow plug problems. Relay, timer, fuse or bad plugs. Get out the VOM and start checking.

How many miles on the old girl? Double check glow plug operation first, obviously, but when diesels start losing compression, they become almost impossible to start by themselves, but will run fine once started on ether. If your glow plugs are working, try a compression test. If you're well below spec, it's time for an overhaul.

What would you overhaul on an engine with low compression?

New rings are what you want but once inside the bearings are always a good idea, and then of course the head(s), cleaned and machined

If you try to start it without the ether what happens? Putrid white smoke out the tailpipe? If so then you've got fuel but not enough heat. This could mean either your compression is low or you have retarded injection timing. The latter could indicate either your base timing OR your cold start advance isn't working properly. I agree with previous posters that I would be checking compression first to rule that out first. Good luck!

Start with the cheap easy stuff, search for info on the interweb on how to test the glow plugs/ hard start troubles. The diesel Ranger isnt very well known. Being 30 yrs old, it could be anything.

Please stop shooting ether to it. It will become ether-dependent even if you do fix the problem. It dries out the rings.

HMMM... I remember the neighbor's old D4 Cat now... Gasoline pony motor with a notch pulley for the rope starter... Start the pony motor and get it warmed up. Speed it up enough for the centrifugal clutch to pull in. Blast a shot of ether into the air filter and viola ...Running bulldozer. Don't forget to shut off pony motor. That was back in the 60s though.

I agree with Frank... Don't ether your motor it is not good for it. On another note... The Mazda/Perkins diesel in the old Rangers should have plenty of compression until sometime after 500.000 miles.

Take your multimeter and set it to ohms. I am not sure but I will guess that you can disconnect the harness that feeds the glow plugs fairly easily. Then you can test the glow plug to ground and should read less than 1 ohm. On my 5 cylinder Mercedes it will start fine with one GP burned out, complain about starting with 2 burned out, eventually spin up with 3 out, and not start at all if 4 of them are out. Glow plugs are the most common reason for small diesels not to start. If all your plugs are good (I doubt that they are after 30 years) then check to see if when you turn the key on you get 12 volts feeding them. If not.... Relay could be bad, a fuse could be down, or something in the timer could be out to lunch.

On the Toyota LandCruiser I owned in Jamaica the timer went to lunch so I wired a push button switch to kick on the relay. Push the button for 10 seconds and crank the engine.

If you need replacement glow plugs only use Bosch or NGK. Preferably BOSCH and make certain you get the 11.8 volt plugs. The 11.2s burn out in under a year.

This pic is for the Mercedes engine in my Musso but it gives you an idea of where to check.

The man who owned the land across street, had a Cat D4 with a cable operated Traxcavator. Starting the 'dozer was a 10 minute ritual. Charlie would put a pint of gas into the V twin pony motor and wrap the rope around the flywheel. I got the job of pulling the rope. The pony always started on the first pull. After the pony warmed up, Charlie would engage the the gear and the pony cranked the diesel. We would watch the oil pressure gauge until it was showing good pressure, Then Charlie would spray ether into the intake. Starting a Cat was a lot of fun when I was in grade school.

How do I know if the glow plugs are good or bad or how do I test them