Truck is off the drugs!

[The Warden]

Scott, just PM'ed you

 

[sle2115]

You should have an email!

 

[sle2115]

My controller was in fact bad when I bought my system. I was told over and over the controllers don't fail! Mine had failed and if you watch Ebay, a bunch of them sure get sold on there and for pretty good money. Usually in the $80 - $100 range and I would guess that they do in fact fail more than might be thought. I would guess their failure might be caused by continual use with bad glow plugs, but can't prove that for sure. I should probably buy one and shelf it for future replacement, just in case!

 

[Hoss6.9]

SS GP retro.

Warden,

You've got to remember though - you're retroin' a SS system in here though. I think that will change how the SS system works. I don't know that the 6.9 with the SS sytem from the factory wouldn't have been wired a litlle different than what our retros have to be!???????? My system wouldn't function correctly until I hooked up the temp. sensor! ven now though - If I start it and drive 3-5 miles or so and shut it down. If I come back out in a short time to go again - The SS system will not activate the GP's. I have a manual switch hooked up so that I can cycle them for about 5-6 seconds and off we go again! I think my retro has done wonderfully for the 1 1/2 + yrs. it's been on my truck.... It has made a new truck out of an old one. I think it's possible to teach an old dog NEW tricks! I guess as far as I'm concerned - I'm not terribly worried about what Ford says "Just cause my system works though". If I were in your shoes - I would want to see all of the info. available to me to figure out all of my options! I wouldn't mind seeing the ford stuff too. To see if I need to rethink some things. I am happy with mine though too! I'm glad to see your lucky enough to have someone offer up there info. too! Gotta love that George Carlin line at the end there Scott!

Hoss....

 

[dsblack]

I beleive that it is related to the fuses in the lines, Or even the gauge of wire? When the controller measures resistance it is of the temp of the GP not the coolant. I knw that 3 bad GP's will cause the system to not operate, and it sounds like just one will affect it also. I would be really sceptical of a bad feedback reading to the controller, causing ti to operate correctly for what it is seeing, but not for what the real conditons are.

 

[The Warden]

I beleive that it is related to the fuses in the lines, Or even the gauge of wire?

I think I slightly over-gauged the wire, if anything. IIRC, the factory setup is a single 10 gauge wire on each bank, with a pigtail wire going to each plug. According to a wire gauging diagram, if the plug is pulling 20 amps (which is actually over the 16 amps that Ford said it pulls, according to DieselDon) and the wire is 10 feet long, I should use 12 gauge wire...and I don't think any of the wires are more than 7 feet long. So, while I'm not completely closed to the possibility of the wires being an issue, I would be very surprised if that were the case.

The fuses, OTOH...that's something to think about. I might need to shell out the $$ for a better ohmmeter (the readings on the ancient GB meter I have are inconsistent at best) to test the exact resistance across the fuse, though...

BTW, Scott, got the E-mail...going to have to look at things in more depth, but this'll help quite a bit. Thank you again!!

 

[The Warden]

Also, if the fuses are the culprit and need to be abandoned, how should I protect the lines? Should I go with fusible links (which are IIRC the factory way), or just give up on protecting the circuits to the plugs, or what?

 

[sle2115]

They don't protect them from the factory between the controller and the glow plug.

 

[sle2115]

I wouldn't mind seeing the ford stuff too. To see if I need to rethink some things. I am happy with mine though too! I'm glad to see your lucky enough to have someone offer up there info. too! Gotta love that George Carlin line at the end there Scott!

Hoss....

Hoss you are welcome to a copy as well, just pm me an email address and I will get it right out to you. And for George Carlin, he is a very intellectual man as well as witty. I am not in agreement with everything he says, but did like this line. Kind of reminds me of the 1 in 4 people have psychological problems, look at your three closest friends, if they seem ok...you may be the one!!!

 

[The Warden]

They don't protect them from the factory between the controller and the glow plug.

Oh, okay...well, then, I guess I'll bypass the fuses and see if the controller acts any better. If it does, bye-bye fuses...

 

[The Warden]

BTW, I played a little with the connector at the controller for the WTS light just now. It looks like it completes a ground...so, if I want the WTS light to act like it does with a 7.3l (which I do ), I need to re-wire the light in the dash so that it has 12 volts going through it. As the GP system stands at the moment (with the fuses still in place), the test light flickered on for a split second before going off.

I don't have anything to replace the fuses with (to make a solid and resistance-free connection), so I think I'm just going to summarily eliminate the fuses from the system. I just have to figure out how to do it cleanly...I want to take a piece of 4 gauge cable off of the controller (so there aren't so many $#@% eyes on the stud that it makes putting the top nut on almost impossible), but I have to figure out how to spilt that 8 ways for each plug wire without it being too hokey. I also want to be able to disconnect each of the 8 wires from the 4 gauge cable, so I can check the plugs without jumping on top of the engine

{added on edit} I think I have an idea...take a look at this. Anyone have any thoughts? I'm looking at the "Power Post Plus" with a 3/8" terminal (p/n 540666 on the website)...I could put the main wire going from the controller on the center 3/8" stud, and put eye terminals on each GP and put them on the 8 smaller terminals ringing around the stud. Do you think there might be an issue with resistance and whatnot?

Thank you again!!

 

[sle2115]

I don't think there would be a resistance issue as long as the connection stayed clean. Also, you are right as my earlier post said about the wait to start wire on the controller. It is the ground side for your dash light. So you could put 12 v to your light and then run the other side to this terminal which will make ground as the gp's are cycled.

 

[The Warden]

Also, you are right as my earlier post said about the wait to start wire on the controller.

Oops; I guess I didn't read that the first time...thanks again!

 

[The Warden]

*sigh*

Well, I just re-did the wires...bypassed the fuses and whatnot. If anything, the plugs are cycling faster now than they were before...I think they're only staying on for 3 or 4 seconds now (didn't actually time it, though).

Any ideas? I'm guessing that either I got a bad controller after all, or the system is so sensitive to wire resistance that I'm completely hosed and either need to get a factory harness or abandon the setup altogether and go back to a push button (and, with my track record, I really don't want to go that route)...considering how much $$ I've poured into this already, I'm not a happy camper...

 

[towcat]

*sigh*

Well, I just re-did the wires...bypassed the fuses and whatnot. If anything, the plugs are cycling faster now than they were before...I think they're only staying on for 3 or 4 seconds now (didn't actually time it, though).

Any ideas? I'm guessing that either I got a bad controller after all, or the system is so sensitive to wire resistance that I'm completely hosed and either need to get a factory harness or abandon the setup altogether and go back to a push button (and, with my track record, I really don't want to go that route)...considering how much $$ I've poured into this already, I'm not a happy camper...

you want the same greasy harness the gpc came with?
btw... the gpc was working fine. the motor died a death of hydrolock from blown head gaskets.