fixed electrical issues now no start please help?

[slideordie]

hi im obviously new here and ive been reading through alot of the posts and articles and its helped me out so much this far and thank you very much!

Im sure you read the title so down to business.....

i brought the truck home tonight that i just bought. its a 86' f350 thats been converted over to a 7.3. It started and ran fine for me with no problems at all. i drove it for a long period of time and it would shut off and start right back off or even on short bursts. but my problem is that it wont start now. what i did after its last start was replace a fault light switch because the parking lights werent working and now do. i also fixed a ground wire on the glow plug relay thats part of negative terminal on the battery. the controller was working before but after i fixed this it seems to work correctly. this has the old 6.9 glow plug controller on it still. it seems to function correctly now. i can turn the key and the light comes on for about 5-10 seconds then goes off but i can crank and it wont start ive tried several times with no luck thus far. please any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[FordGuy100]

Hello and welcome to the best darned website for these old IDI's. You should fill out your signature, and your location if you want, so you can see if theres anybody around you on this site that is willing to help you out.

Now on to your question. I pretty sure that our IP's have a fuel shut off silonoid (or however the crap you spell that), and it takes current to either close it or open it or both. My bet is that somehow that wire that goes from the ignition to the siloniod got screwed up when you were messing around with wires back in the dash. Someone with some actual knowledge will chime in and help you out . Remember that was just a guess, I could be wrong.

 

[FordGuy100]

Oh, I guess I should ask how fast it turn over. These motors need to turn over fairly fast to build up some heat in the combustion chambers to fire off. When your turning it over is it turning over fast enough so that you cant the rpms its doing. I think on average an IDI with good batteries and cables should turn over at about 300rpm's.

 

[4x4TruckinGirl]

does it crank and then just stop and do nothing or does it just crank until you let off? if it just quits and does nothing theres probably something still electrically wrong, if it just cranks until you let off Id guess maybe theres a fuel issue of some sort.... and like fordguy said i'm no expert either over here....

 

[slideordie]

it turns over great and with plenty of speed. and it keeps turning over till i stop it from turning over.

 

[4x4TruckinGirl]

Well my unprofessional opinion would lead me to believe you have a fuel issue..... check for leaks and air getting in the system somewhere, maybe a leaking injector or something? hope this helps somewhat..........

 

[Fordsandguns]

Hello and welcome to the best darned website for these old IDI's. You should fill out your signature, and your location if you want, so you can see if theres anybody around you on this site that is willing to help you out.

Now on to your question. I pretty sure that our IP's have a fuel shut off silonoid (or however the crap you spell that), and it takes current to either close it or open it or both. My bet is that somehow that wire that goes from the ignition to the siloniod got screwed up when you were messing around with wires back in the dash. Someone with some actual knowledge will chime in and help you out . Remember that was just a guess, I could be wrong.

This sounds like a good place to start. It does sound like you're not getting fuel, and no juice to the solenoid would definitely do it. And like Fordguy said, I'm definitely not an expert, and someone with more experience will probably chime in.

 

[slideordie]

oh its getting fuel and the selonoid is working i checked all that. but i got er running! i guess really the glow plugs dont work becuase i had to give it a lil shot of ether and she fired right up in one rev. but thanks everyone i just gotta figure out why my glow plugs arent working and how to put a momentary switch in cause this had the 6.9 controller and i really dont want to have to converter it over to the 7.3 inless ihave to.

 

[Exekiel69]

If it is a 7.3 does it have the 7.3l filter head? If so there is a shrader valve that You can press while someone cranks the engine and see if there is any fuel coming out, if yes then You have to check if the solenoid is working so connect a wire from the positive battery side to it and it should click, if not then there is Your problem. If You don't have fuel it could be an air leak or empty tank or broken fuel pick up or bad lift pump .....

Start with the simple and see if there is any fuel coming through the shrader valve while cranking.

 

[Exekiel69]

ops, You beat Me to it. Well now We need someone with knowledge on the 6.9l glow plug system, You can always switch to the 7.3 system.

 

[FordGuy100]

Or you could switch it over to a push button style glow plug system.

 

[Michael Fowler]

I am a big fan of 12 volt glow plugs and a push button switch. That has been my system for, maybe 5 years with no problems.

 

[RLDSL]

Sounds like you need to check the glow plugs and replace the bad ones ( probably all) with the Beru/motorcraft plugs. Don't use ether on the thing if any of the plugs are working , not good. If you have to resort to ether, disconnect the glow plugs.

--------Robert

 

[slideordie]

if someone could tell me how to do a switch that would be awesome! the plugs were just replaced not too long ago

 

[tonkadoctor]

Here are 2 articles from the IDI tech section

http://www.oilburners.net/brian/idi/FordGPretrocombo.htm

http://www.oilburners.net/articles/glowplugbypass.htm