glow plugs.. is this normal?

[crewchief219]

So I've changed the whole glow system once and the controller 3 times, went through 2 cheap controllers before I bought a motorcraft controller. That's all a long story, but anyway, since I installed the motorcraft controller the wait to start light comes on and stays on for a good amount of time (8-10 secs) but the controller doesn't click off for another 3-5 secs after the wait to start light goes out. The volt meter on the dash shows the same thing, that the glow plugs are still energized 3-5 secs after the wait to start light goes out. It starts like crap if I only wait for the light to go out but starts great when I start it after watching the voltmeter go back to normal. Is this normal? Its at least really consistent so I haven't been very worried I'll hurt anything but I don't want to pull heads for broken or blown up glow plug tips either. See any risk there?

To explain the replacement of the system, I've replaced the controller, the harness (International), glow plugs (Motorcraft), and ran a fused 4 guage power wire to the controller since the old power wires were old and couldn't handle all of the new parts apparently. The power wires smoked themselves in the harness by the power steering pump. I ran a new power wire and that seems to have fixed that.

 

[lindstromjd]

Perfectly normal. The light isn't tied into the controller; it's just on a timer. Lots of guys wait until they hear the controller kick off rather than paying any attention to the light at all.

 

[icanfixall]

Sounds normal. You might try opening up the main engine wire harness plug found on the passenger side of the engie fender well. The 2 yellow wires are the power to the controller and they can't send enough power to the controller if they get corroded. The amps heat up the plastic plug so much it causes a fire. Mine melted once during startup and I thought I had burned up my starter. Poped open the hood and didn't see any issues til I touched the hot plug. Then I saw the melted end of it. If the melting isn't bad just cut out the 2 yellow wires and run a new 6 gauge wire directly to the controller from the hot side of the fender mounted solenoid. Caution because this is hot all the time. Grounding any wires and theres going to be sparks and maybe a fire.

 

[OLDBULL8]

If/when it gets cold, the Controller will continue an ON/OFF cycle up to 2 minutes, even with the engine running, don't hurt the Beru ZD9 GP's at all.

 

[crewchief219]

Good to hear it all sounds normal. Hopefully my work there is done for a while. Yeah, those two yellow wires already smoked on me. I didn't know what to think when that happened. Man was I stumped.. When I finally figured it out I ran a 4 gauge wire with a fuse hooked up to the starter relay post. Everythings been good since then. Thank for thr replies!

 

[Wicked97]

If you want the wts light to work with the relay attach it to the terminal where the big wavy resistor attaches to the relay.

 

[crewchief219]

Ahh, good idea. If or when someone borrows the truck it'd be nice not to have to explain listening for a click and watching the voltmeter. I may hook it up that way.

 

[Wicked97]

Hold that thought. I misread your sig thinking you had a 82. I'm not sure how that works on a 92. On the 86 down trucks with the 7.3 controller it works perfect.