No fuel from high pressure pump

[pierresmith]

I recently removed the engine from my 2011 Transit Connect 1.8tdci to carry out some maintenance work. Wet belt and timing belt needed doing, and I took the opportunity to change every gasket and seal on the whole engine, so it was taken apart back to cylinder block and head and then re-assembled after being thoroughly cleaned up.
I put the engine back in and connected everything back up, but now have a crank no start situation.
I cracked open a couple of injector lines and don’t seem to have a fuel supply. Obviously there will be some air in the system as everything has been apart, looking for any advice as to next steps/what to check/bleeding sequence etc???
When I had put everything back together I disconnected the fuel return line from the top of the fuel pump, and using a vacuum pump I pumped it until I had a clear flow of diesel so I know I have a full fuel line from filter to pump, and diesel in the pump itself.
What’s the easiest way to establish if the pump is working or has failed? I know it was working when I took everything apart, it seems unlikely it would have failed whilst on the bench, but not impossible I guess!
The fuel pump has two electrical connectors – the one on the back of the pressure regulator has two pins, one has a voltage of 5V and one has a voltage of 12V with the ignition on.
The other electrical connector on the front side of the pump has two pins, one has a voltage of 5V with the ignition on and the other is a ground – does anyone know if these voltages are correct??
I’m not entirely sure how the high pressure pump works, there’s no pump in the tank to the best of my knowledge so I assume the high pressure pump must draw the fuel from the tank somehow as well as feeding it under pressure to the injectors. Is that drawing up of the fuel done mechanically when the pump is running, or should I be hearing some sort of “priming” when I turn the key (before cranking)? I can hear a whining noise from the EGR valve I think but nothing from the fuel pump.
I cracked open the fuel line which comes out of the fuel pump and heads towards the spider, but this seems dry – I have no fuel either with ignition on or cranking coming out.
I took the fuel return line back off the connector on top of the pump and turned the key, nothing happened with ignition on, but fuel sprayed everywhere when I cranked the engine over.
Any thoughts/advice guys would be really appreciated, it’s not the easiest of jobs to remove the fuel pump so I’m hoping I don’t have to....it was tricky enough with the engine on the bench!
Cheers.

[metalworker0]

You are going to have to plug in the diagnostic stuff to find out whats going on.
Well you have to read the codes in such a situation ..

You must have plug in diagnostic scanner
They recommend "Forscan" which is free software that you download to a laptop..you buy the interface cable
join the forscan forum ..again free, to get the software
https://forscan.org/forum/

all the best...mark

[Boghopper]

I have just had my fuel lines disconnected; none of them are auto-shut, by-the-way. As soon as you release any of them diesel syphons out everywhere. Anyway, it took me half an hour to get my van to start and I had to refill the fuel filter five times! The fuel pump has qa internal pump to draw from the tank, and to quote Ford

"Within the fuel pump there is an integral fuel transfer pump which draws the fuel from the fuel tank to the fuel pump."

Only the petrol engines have a fuel pump in the actual tank.

Take your filter off, turn it upside down and fill it to the brim, with diesel, via the drain. Keep the three caps on the outlets, obviously. As mentioned, it took me five attempts before the van eventually fired up.

[pierresmith]

Hi - thanks for that, I'll try the fuel filter trick!! I'm hopeful that my issue is just too much air in the system, everything has been disconnected with the engine being out and being virtually re-built, I need to think logically and systematically purge it a step at a time. Thanks for the confirmation that the fuel pump does indeed draw from the tank.