Miller 2010 Big 40 w/ Cat diesel cranks but won't start

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I bought this machine back in 2014, I believe. It has approximately 2900 hours now. It has given me very good service. Yesterday I was welding, and it died, just as if I had shut it down. I tried starting it, and it tried, but never fully started. I took the fuel filters off, and found them to look nasty. I had replaced them probably less than a year ago. Put new filters on, and tried cranking it. I didn't think at that point about opening the bleed screws to bleed the air out. I let the prime pump build up pressure, and then tried starting it. It never fired. Today I worked on it some more. I opened all the points where I could bleed air from, but no go. I checked the solenoid that operates the rack in the pump, and it is working. However, it seemed like the rack itself, that is moved by the solenoid, was rather hard to move. I took the pump off, and sprayed lube in wherever I could, and got it to where it moved under its own weight. Put everything back together, but no fire. The engine just cranks, but doesn't run. I then decided to bleed the lines at the injectors. I cracked the nuts open a little, and cranked the engine a number of times. I re-tightened the line nuts, and tried to start it. This time, some exhaust started to come from the muffler, and it actually tried to start, and tried to run, but never got up to full starting rpms. I thought maybe there was still some air in the lines, so cracked open the line nuts and went through a number of crank cycles again. Some fuel will spurt out around the lines, but it always has some air bubbles. And it doesn't try to fire. I almost think that just before it tried to start this afternoon, that when the fuel spurted out that it was clear, without bubbles.    Any suggestions of things to try? I did replace both fuel filters, air filter, and oil filter today just to make sure a filter wasn't the problem.    And, of course, I was supposed to go out on a job today. But anyway, thanks in advance for reading and considering this.
Reply:Pull the injector fuel lines off each injector and crank it over while looking for fuel/bubbles at the injector inlets.  If bubbles present you've got one of more stuck nozzle needles allowing cylinder compression into the fuel system that will kill it and prevent it from starting.MM200 w/Spoolmatic 1Syncrowave 180SDBobcat 225G Plus - LP/NGMUTT Suitcase WirefeederWC-1S/Spoolmatic 1HF-251D-1PakMaster 100XL '68 Red Face Code #6633 projectStar Jet 21-110

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Reply:Sounds reasonable. Is the solution to pull the injector out and try to free up the needle? Or does that automatically mean a trip to a injector shop. I'm about an hour or more away from one. Thanks for your response.One question though, I do have the lines cracked open at the injectors, and there are bubbles around three of them. Could that still be air in the lines from replacing the filters and not bleeding the air out at the screw on the pump? Sent from my E6810 using http://tiny.cc/Forums_reader
Reply:sure, run it till the bubbles qui9t.www.urkafarms.com
Reply:Also, if there's crud in the fuel, check the tank. Probably time to clean it out, and if there's a little filter on the fuel line in the tank, that can let fuel through with low demand, but suck the crud up and block as soon as the real suction starts...I had a tank on a swather once that had a BB of soldering lead rolling around in it that had broke loose from it's manufacture. Every once in a while it would roll over the fuel outlet and block it off. That was a fun one to track down...Last edited by whtbaron; 17 Hours Ago at 10:50 AM.The harder you fall, the higher you bounce...250 amp Miller DialArc AC/DC StickF-225 amp Forney AC Stick230 amp Sears AC StickLincoln 180C MIGVictor Medalist 350 O/ACut 50 PlasmaLes