fuel pump problem ford 555b backhoe

hello all, have read a lot of posts but still having problems. My 1987 ford backhoe has sat a couple of years, had to replace starter motor, in turn removing fuel filter housing, and now it turns over fine but is not getting any fuel to injectors. The pump bleed is putting out fuel but nothing beyond that. Have tried pressurizing fuel tank, tank is full. I think it is maybe my metering valve stuck shut? how do I get to it on pump? or any other suggestions. My fuel shutoff cable is correct, I have pushed and pulled it out several times but still no fuel to injectors. About every couple of seconds it spits just a tiny bit of fuel out of injectors but next to nothing. Please help......

Sounds like you have tried opening an injector line. Those machines are a real pain to get primed.

Crack open the injector lines and crank it. Once you get a little fuel spray out of them tighten them up and try again. If it tries to fire a time or two and quit, open one at a time and see what it does, if you haven't tried that.

tried opening injectors one at a time, and all at a time, next to no fuel? any ideas on how to check metering valve?

Open all three injector lines at the injectors. Then get a big can of ether and put the blow to her. Crank it until it will run on ether and keep giving it sufficient blasts to keep it running while someone else stomps on the throttle... see if the valve will free. Otherwise... probably best to remove the pump. You need to remove the top cover of the pump to get at the metering valve. When you do that you want to note carefully where the springs are connected on the center tombstone and levers. Also be carefull of the shutoff bar along the top of the pump. The metering valve is in the center of the pump and will lift out... clean it carefully and see what happens. Technically you don't need to remove the pump from the engine to do this... so if you don't remove it... get the area around the pump well cleaned off so you don't get more dirt in the pump....

Rod

thanks, will try this.

Gentlemen,...I'm having the same problem as Strong-arm. I used my early 80s 555(b?) about 2 weeks ago,...only for about 10 minutes. I shut it down,..tried to restart it the next morning and nothing. Turns over,... at times sounds like she wants to start but won't. I've charged up new battery, bled the fuel lines, filter, injector pump, cracked the lines at the injectors,.... same issue as Strongarm,..... some fuel but seems week. Have tried using a heat gun to heat just before air intake (at manifold),... no luck. Ether won't get it to fire either. I'm left thinking that it's either a compression issue (odd though that not one of the 3 cylinders would fire?) OR,.... perhaps it's the metering valve. Mine has the manual cable to shut it down and that seems to be the last thing I did when it was last running. I've read that there are 2 types pumps,... in-line and rotary. I believe that mine is rotary as each of the 3 lines come off at different clock positions towards the front of pump (closest to fuel filter housing).

My next step was going to be to try a magnetic block heater, redo my battery cables (although I've not checked resistance it seems like it's time), replace air intake thermostat heater (inop) and give it another go. I'm here in middle TN,... today is Jan 9th and temps have been highs in the low 50s.

When I read strongarm's post,... I thought it might be better to consider approaching the metering valve. Any additional advice you gentlemen can offer will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks for your time,
-KFD

The screen in the bottom of the fuel tank is probably plugged. Disconnect the fuel line and use air compressor and blow back into the tank. Make sure to take fuel cap off. Reconnect and bleed and I bet it will start. Good luck

Thank you for the input. I have tried that. Free flowing fuel without air through filter,. into pump and out of pump relief. I'm thinking that the metering valve may be the culprit since that was the last thing moved/engaged when the tractor was shut down last (and was working fine). Anyone with similar experience who found that a stuck closed metering valve was the issue???