glow plug harness design?

[rhkcommander]

I think I have pictures of the harness I made. Still working good after a few years. If people liked it, I suppose I could make more. I made all the wires the same length, more so for versatility and ease of interchanging. If you are having problems starting, it isn't the length of the wires causing it. Bad crimps or dirty contact, dead plugs, or some other issue...

I would not trust electrical tape with the amount of heat cycling and all the other features of an engine compartment... Your proposed design is similar to factory, but I believe they did it that way because they used fusible links off of the main wire "logs". And they didn't tie them back into each other, whereas with yours you have increased redundancy - on the stock setup if you lose the wire far back enough you can lose all four plugs on one side of the engine.. But in the case where each plug gets a power wire, you would have great reliability - Losing a wire or two, you can still start up. Food for thought

 

[79jasper]

@Runningaford
But do you know how many amps the glowplugs draw?
http://www.oilburners.net/forums/showthread.php?t=67107
GP Testing #2

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[Runningaford]

@Runningaford
But do you know how many amps the glowplugs draw?
http://www.oilburners.net/forums/showthread.php?t=67107
GP Testing #2

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Okay, I edited this three times, and my thoughts are, I don't know. Looking at Mel's OP, the amperage per glow plug would start at 24 amps, and go to 16. I need to think through this some more.....

 

[rhkcommander]

Okay, I edited this three times, and my thoughts are, I don't know. Looking at Mel's OP, the amperage per glow plug would start at 24 amps, and go to 16. I need to think through this some more.....

Don't mind the boat stuff, this is for 12V DC systems, that is the important part

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When in doubt, go a size larger. Initial current is going to be higher, that is why you use it to size the wire - if the wire isn't sized correctly it will get HOT as a byproduct of resistance due to being too small for the load (this is bad).

I had more to say but I forgot now, gotta get up early for work

 

[whiteboyslo]

I think I still have two factory GP harnesses left, check the Market place. Just sold one to IDIoit, hope he likes it.

IH PN is 1807648C94 made in the USA, cheap for only $150, that's IH price,not mine.

Positive on that PN? I just found (and bought) a NOS part on eBay using that PN, but some googling is telling me that the PN you gave won't work for our trucks. See here: http://international4700parts.com/products/?view=product&product_id=9

Hopefully I didn't just waste $$$ on this. Not blaming you if I did, though.

Mike

 

[riotwarrior]

My 10 pack of terminals came in today

Grote brand
84-2433
0.157" dia connector

 

[riotwarrior]

Finished up the gp harness with the new heat shrink bullets which are awesome.

Redid a whole bunch of stuff with gp harness and the main connector as well.

After several hours of alow painstaking work. I put key in ign switch, turned it and WTS light lit up for bout 10 seconds then turned key to start and varoom...lit off just like it should.

I am going to look at whats involved with making a setup like mine and I will take pics to show ya all.

 

[03wr250f]

cant wait and looking forward to doing the same I have two harnesses sitting and I would love to have one as a spare for who knows what, but I would like to make the other like you did yours and also set up like a turbo truck for when I turbo mine. Basically I want to get it right all in one shot!

 

[Greg5OH]

I can bet the house that it is not a bad crimp, drity contact or a dead plus, I have triple checked everything on the harness.
I am thinking 2 things:
1) I dont have the resistor spring in my setup, just stock style relay, passes through a 150 amp fuse, then to my octopus harness. So either the relay isnt able to pass all the current though it
or
2) electricity will always take the path of least resistance, aka the shortest wires. So I am almost willing to bet the rear most/longest leads are getting very little current in comparison to the front ones.

I think I have pictures of the harness I made. Still working good after a few years. If people liked it, I suppose I could make more. I made all the wires the same length, more so for versatility and ease of interchanging. If you are having problems starting, it isn't the length of the wires causing it. Bad crimps or dirty contact, dead plugs, or some other issue...

 

[OLDBULL8]

2) electricity will always take the path of least resistance, aka the shortest wires. So I am almost willing to bet the rear most/longest leads are getting very little current in comparison to the front ones.

Now, how can I state this in laymen terms that can be understood.
Your confusing voltage verses current.
You have 8 leads going to the glow plugs, each GP receives the same amount of voltage (12VDC) no matter how long the leads are. Each lead, if measured with a current meter may have a slight difference in current reading due to the difference in each GP resistance, the wire resistance is moot because of the short length. The main conductor on each side feeding each lead carries the current adding up all 4 glow plugs. Adding up both sides current, the main wire from the battery feeding both sides carries the most current. Any resistance (connections, relay contacts, zig zag, Glow plugs ) can cause a voltage drop, any resistance at any point that causes a voltage drop effects the overall voltage drop in the whole system.

Actually tried to post this 2 hrs ago, no internet, bad thunder storms.

 

[Greg5OH]

so in your opinion, what could be causing the cold start issue? Fueling is good. Like i said, started happening with the new harness. had old berus, swapped em for those dual coil diesel rx ones which were garbage, then back to brand new berus, same deal.

Think the fender solenoid could be a culprit? The thing sometimes makes a nasty high pitched squeal when I turn it on, more obious when cold outside...

 

[laserjock]

Are you still using the connector for the engine harness or did you go around that? How did you connect that octopus thing together? I'd be more inclined to think you have a bad connection somewhere in the system than to think the actual wiring concept is wrong. Like OLDBULL said, as short as the wires are, the resistance on them will be small compared to the glowplugs.

If you really want to know if your harness is good, make a jumper and put a shunt and an ammeter in line with them one at a time and see what you get for a current. They should all be about the same I would think.

 

[Greg5OH]

a shunt? I am really, really impoverished with electrical things. I do have an ammeter though.

No stock engien harness, there is no stock ford wiring left on this truck.
My setup is, manual switch to glow plug relay (stock style), 4 awg supply, 4 awg out, to 150 amp fuse, to two 6 awg wires, to each end which are the 4 10 awg individual glow plug leads attached to, by means of a large butt connector. Everything marine grade shrink wrapped.

 

[laserjock]

I mentioned a shunt because most DIY type ammeters only go to about 10 amps and that ain't going to cut it even to a single gp. I would be suspect of the large butt connector maybe. It may ohm out just fine with no load on it but when you load it if its only catching a couple strands or something strange you may have a resistance problem. If you want to rule it out, I think you could check the voltage at each plug while they are glowing. If you have a high resistance wire, the voltage will be low at the plug.

Bill does that make sense? I'm not an electrician but I play one on TV sometimes.

Butt connectors are generally not the best thing ever especially large ones because its hard to get a good crimp and keep everybody together. I'm guilty of using them too because they are so darn convenient.

 

[79jasper]

The shunt is the z strip thing on the factory setup, iirc.

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