Thanks guys for all the help and suggestions.
I checked into the shut off solenoid. I initially thought it was bad, because it didn't actuate when the key was on. So I pulled it and went to napa, they wanted $390. So I didn't get it. I went home again and started messing with the thing. It has three wires, red, white and black. I have come to learn that black is ground, red is the holding coil, white is the pulling coil. I thought it was just on or off, so before I pulled it, all I had checked was that it had power to the red wire (i didnt know which was which at the time). It did, but the thing didn't actuate, so I thought it was bad.
So, at home, I hooked it up to a battery with some test leads and all functions are working on it. Good thing I didn't buy a new one. I did find them on ebay for about $30, I don't know what napas deal is.
So I put it back in. The white wire is hooked onto the starting circuit, red to key "on" and black to ground. Initially I never checked to see if it would pull in on "start", just with key "on", which is only holding. So I reinstalled it and had the wife try to start engine, and the solenoid is working just fine.
So I now thought it must be something in the injector pump, I was a little discouraged, despite being closer to figuring it out.
I went ahead and changed both fuel filters and primed the system up to the injector pump.
At this time, I decided to crank the engine and see what happened, just for kicks, and it didn't start. Waited a bit, tried again, giving it throttle this time, and it fired.
Basically it is now running fine, starts fine, drives, I just don't know what the issue was, which is very disconcerting.
I am wondering if the filters were clogged, but I would think that it would still run, just not well or with much power. I am convinced there is and never was a problem with the shut off solenoid. I am at a loss.
The only other possibility I can think of is that I ran out of fuel. This coach is new to us, and I had yet to put any diesel into it. The gauge read a little over a 1/4 tank, which should be about thirty gallons, but I don't know for a fact that the gauge works. After it broke down, I put about 20 gallons more in from some cans, and the gauge now reads almost half. This leads me to believe the gauge is working. It does tick erratically, and seems a little glitchy, but I am thinking that I did not run out of fuel.
Thanks to every body who chipped in. At the least I now have a better understanding of how things are working.
