90' 7.3 IDI No start Supposed to move in a week HELP!

How's it going everybody-
Bought a 90' 7.3 IDI with about 110k on it about a month and a half ago. At first it ran fine, cold start only took a few seconds on the starter, and went down the road great. Drove it a couple hours each day. About a week ago I went to go to a buddies house and I had to lay on the starter twice for about 10 seconds and even gave it a little throttle to get it turned over. Upon arrival at his house, I shut the truck off, waited a few seconds, and it started right up. Worked on his truck for a couple hours, went to leave and sure enough it took the same 2 10 seconds tries to get it going again. Assuming it was a plug issue, I changed all 8 plugs with oem motorcrafts, and fixed an old bullet connector that cracked off in the process. Finished up this morning, went to crank it over, and I cant even get it to come alive. I'm supposed to be leaving for school in AZ in less than 2 weeks and need to get this thing going! Possibly thinking air in the lines or a bad glow plug relay/controller? Any help is appreciated.

1) confirm you have power going to the FSV with a test light. it is the connector closest to you at the top of the pump. have the ignition on when you test.
if it does test good, ie the light on the test light lights up, go to the next step.
2) loosen up the injection pump hard line at any one of eight injectors. attempt to start like you normally would. if there is no wetness at the nut after attempting to start the motor, your pump is at issue. it would be as simple as a bad fuel shutoff valve or something as extreme as a bad injection pump.
test out and report back.

towcat said:

1) confirm you have power going to the FSV with a test light. it is the connector closest to you at the top of the pump. have the ignition on when you test.
if it does test good, ie the light on the test light lights up, go to the next step.
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We'll call this a clarification, since I will never know enough to correct the Guru. When Calvin says it is the connector closest to you, you will be standing in front of the truck. That is to say, it is the forwardmost of the two connectors on top of the IP.

Ok, sorry it's taken a couple days to get back to you guys internet has been down. In the meantime, I went ahead and charged my batteries after failing to get it to turn over. I was able to get it running, but only after laying on the starter for about 4-5 seconds and giving it a little bit of gas. Runs fine when it gets up to temp and then cranks right back over at temperature. When i bought the truck a few months back it turned right over warm or cold. Should I still run the ip tests or does this seem to be a different pickup issue? thanks for the quick response!

My brother just bought an IDI and was having a similar issue, but I had indications of the problem. The glow plug relay looked brand new. I went ahead and replaced all the glowplugs like you did, and still had a problem the glow plug light would come on for only 5-8 seconds or so and then click. I went and looked at the relay again and saw that whomever changed it grounded it using the plastic housing of the relay. I took the wire to a metal bolt above the valve cover up by the fuel filter and the WTS light now stays on for the 20 sec or so and it fires right up. I also had an issue with air in the lines but if you shut the truck off and tried to restart it, it would not start without pumping the pedal, that was a faulty o ring. Maybe this will help, maybe it wont but thought id chime in anyways. You could try plugging it in too and if it starts easier then you know your not getting heat in the cylinders from the glowplugs.