Electical Burning after hard start

[lkrasner]

I've been chasing a suspected air intrusion. After sitting overnight, the engine will turn over, stall quickly and be very hard to restart. Runs rough while the air finishes purging, then idles out and drives great..

The other day while cranking too much and not letting it cool , it shot out a plume of electric smelling smoke... I let it cool and all seemed OK. One wire on the starter solenoid looked a little charred, so maybe that was it. Interesting however is how the glow plugs started acting. Before, they would heat up, then I'd hear the relay repeatedly click. Now, it clicks once and stops. Should I be concerned with this?

 

[BrianX128]

If your starter was cranked a lot and didn't let cool, the solenoid will get hot and melt. One of your next starts, it will eventually fail one way or another. One way it just clicks and won't start, which is the more desirable way to fail.

The other is it fuses together and will not stop starting even with the engine on or the the truck off until the starter breaks or you get the battery cables off. Can be dangerous. Starter solenoid is one small wire to the fender relay to trigger the starter to connect straight to your batteries on a super large wire straight to the battery terminal on the passenger side battery.

I had this happen to my 7.3 in my profile picture, put the e-brake on in neutral and ran out with the truck off and the starter howling but I could not get my battery cables off by hand so I went in and put the truck in 2nd gear and thought I could break the starter and it pushed the not running truck up my steep driveway with the ebrake on. I put it in fourth and slowly let the clutch out to not ruin the teeth on my flywheel and the internals in the starter gave out. Scary as ****.

It happened again on my 7.3 with a garbage autozone starter, but cooler more experienced head prevailed that day and I was able to wiggle the battery terminals which I don't leave death clamped anymore off.

Amazing how now that I have working glow plugs / no air intrusion my healthy engine never has to spin enough to make the starter warm up to get to that point.

Honestly, I would not drive it until you get a new starter or minimally the solenoid and fix your glow plug system so you don't have long starts.

 

[Thewespaul]

Put a good quality check valve on rubber hose between the frame and stock lift pump, then make sure you have all your diesel leaks squared away. The relay clicking repeatedly means you’ve burnt out some glow plugs and the controller is short cycling. Replace the glow plugs with motorcraft only, and replace the solenoid before messing with it again.

 

[jim x 3]

If your starter was cranked a lot and you didn't let it cool, check the electrical connector in wiring between the right fender and right valve cover. That connector may have melted and is now affecting power to the glow plug controller.

regards,
Jim

 

[lkrasner]

If your starter was cranked a lot and didn't let cool, the solenoid will get hot and melt. One of your next starts, it will eventually fail one way or another. One way it just clicks and won't start, which is the more desirable way to fail.

The other is it fuses together and will not stop starting even with the engine on or the the truck off until the starter breaks or you get the battery cables off. Can be dangerous. Starter solenoid is one small wire to the fender relay to trigger the starter to connect straight to your batteries on a super large wire straight to the battery terminal on the passenger side battery.

I had this happen to my 7.3 in my profile picture, put the e-brake on in neutral and ran out with the truck off and the starter howling but I could not get my battery cables off by hand so I went in and put the truck in 2nd gear and thought I could break the starter and it pushed the not running truck up my steep driveway with the ebrake on. I put it in fourth and slowly let the clutch out to not ruin the teeth on my flywheel and the internals in the starter gave out. Scary as ****.

It happened again on my 7.3 with a garbage autozone starter, but cooler more experienced head prevailed that day and I was able to wiggle the battery terminals which I don't leave death clamped anymore off.

Amazing how now that I have working glow plugs / no air intrusion my healthy engine never has to spin enough to make the starter warm up to get to that point.

Honestly, I would not drive it until you get a new starter or minimally the solenoid and fix your glow plug system so you don't have long starts.

That sounds no fun at all. I've never had a starter solenoid fail that way, but I know it is certainly possible. They look cheap enough, so I will definitely replace that. My battery terminals are loose as hell and need replaced too, so I'll probably leave those and the solenoid while I fight this air leak, then replace the solenoid and any burnt wires once it is running right. Trying to get a fuel return line kit to start with, no one seems to have one local.

The glow plugs are all new, and as far as I know working right, unless I blew something doing this. I don't know what plugs were put in, they were done by the PO