Glow plug troubles

[Jay Krout]

I was hoping to work on this problem over the weekend but I been busy workin with the rig and dont have much time to work on it, 7 12 and 14 hour days strait to day was the first I been home in time for supper.

So I guess Ill just keep it plugged in overnight til I can figure it out.

Like my dad used to say you work with it you make money...work on it you spend money...any way you look at it if it got boobs or a motor its gonna cost you money eventually.

Thank you for the fathers day wishes Bart

Popeye

 

[Big Bart]

As they say make hay while the sun shines. Your blessed to have work when many still do not. So I think you are right to focus on work while it’s there.

No rush on our end so let us know when you get to it.

 

[Jay Krout]

It aint easy, I aint what I used to be either, there was a time when if it needed worked on and no matter what the weather or what time of day or night it was, I would get after it. Today was 103 F, and I was beat to **** wore out and got swamp bottom on my butt. 50 some years of doin this work takes it toll on you.

They just told me this afternoon there is no work saturday, sunday or monday, I forgot all about 4th of July so it might happen this weekend

 

[Big Bart]

Jay all of us over 50 are suffering from O-L-D! I hear you, I used to be able to do 10 hours of yard work and not be tired. Now at 8 I start hitting the wall.

 

[Jay Krout]

I guess this will happen tomorow, the nieghbor brought me a small hoe bucket to rebuild on friday after I got home from work, I should be able to finish it up in the morning, been workin on this bucket since early yesterday morning. Some folks you just cant say no to, this guy and his wife helped my daughter out in a big way when her husband was killed in the mines. So tomorow i will look this thing over.

But yeah I am blessed to have lots of work and I appreciate it a lot

 

[Jay Krout]

I tested the wires from the battery to the controller, the battery has 12.7 volts, and at the controller i have 12.6 volts on each wire, from the big post on the starter relay its the same. I couldnt get an ohms reading from anywhere, maybe I didnt hook it up the right spot.

I checked the ohms on the wires goin to each glow plug, they all come up .4 ohms bein hooked up on the wires (they are connected on this harness with one eye), and on the ends of each wire. I checked it when they were hooked up to the post on the relay as well and had .4 ohm there too.

Maybe I have the wires to the posts mixxed up???? I tried switchin up the wires on the relay posts it didnt make a difference, thinkin maybe I mixed em up when I put the new relay and controller on. so I put em back the way they were



I seriously thinkin of using a case of grenades I found somewhere a long time ago

 

[Jay Krout]

I opened up the harness, I cant see any burnt busted or loose wires from the big ugly plug on the wheel well to the relay or from the relay to both sides of the motor for the glow plugs.

I have a wiring diagram form an old ford mechanic he gave me, maybe I will just run all new wires and connectors on the glow plugs, and new wires from the big ugly plug to the relay or maybe just go back to my original idea and bypass the controller, this is the 2nd controller I put on since January, ford replaced the one on their dime that i put on in January with the new one I put on a few weeks ago. I cant imagine this many of them are bad from the factory, and noone knows if the one I put on in January is bad either, they just said ok here is another one at no charge.

 

[Big Bart]

Jay,

To test the ohms on the glow plug wire harnesses (left and right side.) you need to take both/all ends off. So unplug all the glow plugs and then that harness from the glow plug relay. (Repeat for other side of engine.)

So all you are testing is the big end that hooks to the relay and from that end to each individual glow plug connector. You are looking for variations between each glow plug connector. Also look for any burnt wire or coroded connectors.

Then just recheck - from a good engine ground to the top of each glow plug. Just confirm nothing has changed since you last did so.

But if you are handy, making new glow plug wiring harnesses likely will improve things.

What you have been chasing is not your glow plugs won’t turn on, rather will not stay on. Which generally is a problem with resistance of the system.(Dead glow plugs, burnt wiring, coroded wiring, etc.) This happens when the overall ohm reading the controller gets is not in spec and it does not like it. So it starts to warm the glow plugs and 1-3 seconds later it shuts off.

So in theory -

1) If your glow plugs are new and working.
2) Your glow plug wiring harnesses are good and working.
3) Your glow plug relay is getting good power and proper signals.
4) Your glow plug relay is good.

Your glow plugs should work.

Bi-passing thus does not fix your issues, it just masks them.

 

[Jay Krout]

Ok I will check it all again, the glow plugs were all unplugged and the the harness disconnected at the relay, only thing was both the wires to the left and right side of the engine are connected together with one eye. I dont know if that would make a difference. I did the same check with it hooked up to the relay and got the same results... .4ohms at each plug connector. This is what I did on Monday

Im guessing the reason I couldnt do a resistance check on the supply side (the battery side) was that I didnt disconnect the wire from the starter relay, so I will do that as well, I did have 12.7 volts from the batery to the starter relay and 12.6 from the starter relay to the end of the supply wire at the glow plug relay.

My apologies...Im just losing patience with this thing, usually Im pretty good at figuring stuff out but this has me stumped and they got me workin like a one arm paper hanger out there, came home for supper last night, saw this message you sent and went back out there to work on the shovel came home at midnight and goin back out today to work on it, shoulkd have it done til saturday and we will put the bucket back on the shovel then they can dig coal with it again.

Thank you for your time fellas, I really appreciate all the help.

Popeye

 

[TNBrett]

Have you checked the glow plugs for continuity recently? Let’s try checking from the terminal on each glow plug to the intake, as well as from each glow plug terminal to the negative post on the battery.

 

[Jay Krout]

This weekend Im gonna do all these checks all over again, I checked that out maybe 2 weeks ago and it was all good

 

[Big Bart]

I tested the wires from the battery to the controller, the battery has 12.7 volts, and at the controller i have 12.6 volts on each wire, from the big post on the starter relay its the same. I couldnt get an ohms reading from anywhere, maybe I didnt hook it up the right spot.

I checked the ohms on the wires goin to each glow plug, they all come up .4 ohms bein hooked up on the wires (they are connected on this harness with one eye), and on the ends of each wire. I checked it when they were hooked up to the post on the relay as well and had .4 ohm there too.

Maybe I have the wires to the posts mixxed up???? I tried switchin up the wires on the relay posts it didnt make a difference, thinkin maybe I mixed em up when I put the new relay and controller on. so I put em back the way they were



I seriously thinkin of using a case of grenades I found somewhere a long time ago

Jay,


Found these two video's for you to watch. Sounds like your wiring harness is in good shape since there was no variance to any glow plug connector end.

Some thoughs are

1) Make sure the black wire off the glow plug module is well grounded. (Not hanging loose. Or has oil or corrosion where it is connected to the block.
2) Make sure all the connections on the glow plug relay are in the correct place. (That you did not by mistake mis-connect anything.)
3) Check your power when the glow plugs first go on, to make sure the power does not drop bellow 9v. (Weak or uncharged batteries.) Often compenents in a vehicle do not work when getting less than 9v.
4) Confirm the the wait to start light in the truck does come on briefly, as you stated earlier.
5) Watch these videos.
6) I still wonder if there is too much dielectric grease on the connectors and perhaps that is causing a little bit of resistance. I would not think a little would matter, but if there is a lot perhaps it is causing a gap between the glow plug and connector in the wiring harness causing a weak connection. So tests fine till put on, then it does not make a complete connection.

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Sounds like your wiring harness tested the same across all glow plug ends. So sounds like it is working. Also sounds like you are getting good power to the glow plug relay.

Let us know what you find out.

Regards,

Bradd

 

[Jay Krout]

Ok I checked it all out all over again. Same thing, the test light lights up at each plug from the battery to the plug, and from the ground screw from the controller to each plug, and this time I got .3 ohms on each one except one it was .4. I got 12.9 volts in each battery and 12.6 to the 2 wires on the power side of the controller and 12.7 from the battery to each glow plug wire. From the wire on the starter relay I got 12. .6 to the power side of the relay for the plugs, and .2 ohms from the wire there to the relay for the plugs, and 12.1 volts from the ignition terminal to the ground on the controller. I got .2 ohms from the neg post on each battery to the ground from the controller.

Before I did all this checking and head scratchin and cussing after I took a head first fall into the engine when my kneecap slid over inside my knee whilke kneeling on the radiator support (old man with 7 knee operations shouldnt be doin this stuff, but i do) I took evry stinkin terminal off and shined em all up nice and pretty.

I found another controller earlier this week, its not new but the old mechanic who has been tryin to help me from his house, (old boy in a wheelchair got diabetic gangrene in his legs and they took em off up above his knees) told me it worked a few years ago, so maybe this afternoon i will put it on and see what happens.

I watched the videos and as far as I can tell mine is hooked up just like the one in the first video.

All I know is Im gettin very frustrated here and not havin much luck and even less amounts of fun tryin to figure it out

 

[Jay Krout]

I just put the controller and relay on the old lad gave me to try, same results, and pretty much the same set of numbers came up doin the checks on it and it still dont work.

Early this morning before I started all the checking and whatnot I cleaned all that dielectric grease out of the terminals so that wasnt it either.

Maybe I will make or buy a new harness if I can find one. Makin it aint to difficult, I did this one and it worked for 2 or 3 years, just a bunch of runnin I got to do to get the stuff for it, and the hours Im workin right now I got to leave early to get there. I think it was NAPA in Minersville PA I got the stuff Im not sure anymore

 

[chillman88]

Just a thought. Last time mine gave me issues I was getting full voltage but they still short cycled. Ended up being a bad connection from the battery to the relay on mine.

Try just for kicks with jumper cables, one from battery + to the big inlet terminal on the relay and from battery - to anywhere on the engine block.

You could try a 4ga battery wire if you don't have cables small enough to not short out on something else back there.

Might not help but if your feed wire is causing the problem this should show it.