New guy with a couple questions

[swervyjoe]

Hey Guys,

I've been lurking for a bit while I looked/saved for an IDI. I just got a '84 F250 extended cab on the first. I don't know how many miles are on the body, but I was told the engine was rebuilt less than 40K miles ago. The pickup seems to have sat off and on for the last 3 years. Anywho, last weekend I changed the glow plugs from Autolites to Motorcraft and attemped to fix the minor leak at the return lines which leads to the questions I have.

1st: I got the return line kit from rock auto. I followed the directions on the various right ups that I found on here, but went from a 2 caps weeping a little to one good leak and one cap dumping diesel. I fixed the cap that was dumping diesel and in the process, got 2 more caps leaking. Now I'm wondering if the rock auto kit is junk or if o-rings are smarter than me. I have viton rings coming from McMaster this week.

2nd: I put a multi meter on the batteries earlier today while the engine was at high idle and got 14.2V on the passenger battery and 13V on the driver side battery. Would that be caused by a bad ground on the driver side? This is my first diesel and first pickup with 2 batteries, so i'm not sure how it all works yet.

3rd: While replacing the glow plugs, I found that the harness connector wasnt on 3 of the plugs, and most of the plastic connectors are in rough shape. Does anyone have a source for terminals? Theyre still the early spade type.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and for any answers yall have.

Later,
Joe

 

[GOOSE]

Welcome to oilburners. I had some issues installing a return line kit before. Many recommend using vasoline to help settle things in place, I have had good luck using plain old grease. A deep well socket about 5/8 in size can help to push the return line caps onto the injectors, you should hear a little pop as they seat into place and they should do so without too much effort.

Take the cables off of the batteries, charge them and test them separately. Each one should be 12.5 volts after a complete charge. A load test would also pinpoint a bad battery relatively quickly. It is a good idea to go over all of your cables and grounds as this is cheap to do and good maintenance.

I have the round bullet type terminals on my '91 and am not afraid to use the common crimp on style connector. If I am not mistaking, these are easy to find in the spade fashon as well. Good luck with your rig and keep us posted.

 

[icanfixall]

Welcome to the forum. Good thing you replaced the glow plugs to motorcraft.. The autolites are a terrible plug for these engines. The burn out quickly and swell causeing a tuff time getting them out. Some even have to remove the heads after useing the autolites to get out the broken pieces... About the battery diffeances. Could be a bad connection or a cell thats going bad. Look at the year dates on each battery.. See if the low battery is older. We mostly recommend replacing both batteris at the same time. What happens when you add a good battery to a bad battery set is the good one drops to the charge level like the bad one. Think of two batteries connected like two cans of water connected with a hose. If onn can is lower than the other it will suck water from the full one. Same thing with a battery set. The bad one will pull down the good one ti its level... Ebay has some glow plug harnes up for bids thru Utechcenter... Its the Uhauls company selling off their inventory. The plastic pieces are no big deal. There just there to keep anything from grounding the plug but... What is going to touch an exposed conducter... Not a darn thing. So really no worries there.

 

[riotwarrior]

Hi Joe,

Welcome to Oil Burners the best place for help and info on these truck bar none.

Sounds like you've been checking things out and have some idea from postings what to do.

Could be a poorly made kit with improper clearances causing your return line grief, or a nick on an o ring or in the cap.

I'd suggest checking in with Typ4 for a qualitiy kit, and O rings and Olives at an affordable price.

Ya sounds to me like a battery cable is maybe creating some resistance. Remove all terminals clean well and replace and do same with grounds to block, then Recheck

and lastly the spade terminals with missing insulation....can you take some heat shrink tubing and then just use that to cover the female portion maybe a couple of layers.....make it good n insulated...

Again welcome to OB and peek around those tech/FAQ's and the hall of shame and get an idea on things and how to's..

Al

 

[swervyjoe]

I used grease on the o-rings. They slid on very easily, but only about half of them did the pop. They all appear to be sitting the same. I may see how many of the old ones I can reuse and go back to those until payday.

The batteries are matched from Sept '08 (hopefully its '08 and not '98) so I'll be replacing them soon. I'll most likely replace the cables at the same time to be safe.

Thanks for the tip on the ebay uhaul stuff. I'll check out the terminals again, but it looked like the plastic housing clipped the connector to the glow plug spade.

 

[Wyreth]

The major problem with the return line kits. Is that there is no such thing as a "Quality" return cap. Even the Dapco caps Russ is using still have casting flaws and flash inside them.

As far as re-using the caps. That's perfectly ok. HOWEVER! did you check the inside of the caps for blemishes or sharp edges from casting flash? EVERY kit has them, and if you don't check for it, and sand them down. It will slice up your new o-rings every time you install it. When you find a sharp bit, just touch it with some fine sand paper until it's smooth.

Also take care with the lengths of the hoses linking the return caps. They cannot be too long, or they will push the cap off center and cause a leak.

A tip I learned on this board, and has worked amazingly well. Install your return caps like normal. Then before you screw on the injector line, take one of the old o-rings and place it on top of the cap. The injector line will tighten against it and seat the cap very firmly and keep it from leaking.


Also stay tuned, as I am currently prototyping replacement glowplug connectors with caps. =P

 

[icanfixall]

The flash posted about above is very true. I clean this out of every cap I replace. I found using an exacto knife works best for me. The bottom edge of the cap has a small lip that I cut or scrape off. I do this looking up into the cap so nothing falls into the new cap. Then I spray them clean with brake clean. Even the return line hose barbs get cleaned off.

 

[riotwarrior]

....Also stay tuned, as I am currently prototyping replacement glowplug connectors with caps. =P

Do tell....huuuuuuuh? As Tim the Tool man would say!

 

[Wyreth]

Do tell....huuuuuuuh? As Tim the Tool man would say!

http://www.oilburners.net/forums/sh...glow-plug-boot&p=706866&viewfull=1#post706866

This weekend turned out to be alot more work than I had planned, so I'm a little behind on it. However I plan on finishing the blanks and casting the mold for the boots tomorrow. Then comes the fun part; where I get to do things like torch them.

 

[swervyjoe]

Just a quick update, two of the leaks stopped on thier own, and the last one stopped when i put an old o-ring on top of the cap. I'll get another kit to keep around if they start leaking again.

The driver side battery was just a bad connection at the positive terminal.

Thanks for all the tips and suggestions.

 

[icanfixall]

Your very welcome for the help. We try all the time to keep the money in your pockets instead of the dealers. Ever go in there asking for help and actually get it... Nope.. I didn't think so... We give it often and freely here to anyone that asks. Reading the Hall of Shame is a good place to know where not to spend money too. It always saddens me to learn someone just came to the forum AFTER they bought some crap that is not working correctly. It happens but we don't like it thats for sure... Thats the reason for the HoS forum....