Will not start when cold!!!!!

[Agnem]

Take a voltage measurement at the #2 glow plug (you'll have to get creative to make contact). You should see around 6 volts when the glow cycle starts, and slowly rise towards battery voltage by 15 seconds. If it isn't doing that, you've got a bad contactor, wiring, or plugs.

Doesn't sound like you did that? You can't ohm out a wire with a load on it. I've ohmed out lots of starter solenoids that had zero ohms of resisitance, yet couldn't pass an amp through them.

 

[jhnlennon]

Ok, I just spent another two hrs investigating the glow plugs. All my glow plugs are good(according to the TEST LIGHT method). At number 2 glow plug when they are cycling the voltage drops down to 8 volts from 12.9 volts base voltage, which means I definately have draw on the batteries when the glow plugs are cycling and quite a bit of draw. When I checked for resistance on the individual glow plug wires I first checked for continuety through each wire and then checked for excessive resistance that would impede current flow through the wire. I gotta believe the plugs are working

 

[Agnem]

I would concur then. What color is your exhaust when you are cranking? If your not seeing blue/white smoke, then you have no fuel.

 

[jhnlennon]

Well I did a little more investigating today, I took out number 2 glow plug and grounded it to metal and hooked it up. It got super hot, so the plugs are definately working. Then I put a hair dryer on the injection pump to see if there was some anamoly with the pump being cold= no cold start. That did nothing. Then I got pissed and spayed some carb cleaner in the air cleaner, Bam she fired right up! So I am at the conclusion that either my starter isnt spinning the motor fast enough or I am not building enough compression to fire it off. I know when I did the comperssion test it took about 4 or 5 revolutions to build to about 400-425 psi(all cylinders were even) but that was when the motor was fairly warm. Does that sound about right? The starter is a reman from auto zone. It does seem to spin the motor fairly slow when its cold, but i imagine it would being that it is around 0 degrees here in wisconsin in the morning. My batteries are are fairly new from napa and they are 850 cca. If I plug it in it will fire up instantly. I tested all the battery cables for voltage drop(including the negatives) and the most I have is like .2 volts. If its cold NO GO!! It starting to **** me off. My dads cummins will fire off without even waiting for the grid heaters to cycle! This thing will not even attempt to start.

 

[Andylad13]

good luck man, its usually the plugs if it fires right up when plugged in. im out of suggestions.

 

[Agnem]

... What color is your exhaust when you are cranking? If your not seeing blue/white smoke, then you have no fuel.

 

[jhnlennon]

If I spray starting fluid into the air cleaner and it starts than I obviously have fuel, right?