No Click From Glow Plugs

['94IDITurbo7.3]

Yesterday i thought i would check to make sure all my plugs were good. well i had one bad. i replaced it witha brand new beru ZD9. this morning i went to start it and i get the WTS light for the normal 15 sec but then i got no clicking noise and no flickering of the volt gauge on the dash. it did the same thing tonight when i started it up to come home from school.

Everything was working just fine before i replaced that plug. i don't see how swapping out a bad plug with a good one would change the fact that it does not cycle the plugs.


I know they are actually turning on when the WTS light is on b/c the truck starts way to good on a cold start to not have the gp's glowing.

Ideas?

Thanks

 

[snaponprofile]

That is a afterglow. It only should happen sometimes, if its not cold it wont do it. Mine only does that in the winter.

FYI: 15 seconds is a little long.

 

['94IDITurbo7.3]

Mine does the afterglow weather it is 90* out or 10* out. it was 40* It was the first start of the day this morning so the engine was not up to opp temp.

i thought they were supposed to allways do the afterglow no matter what outside temp to help clear up start up smoke?

the 15 sec is an estimate. tomorrow i will clock it with stopwatch.

 

[90idi4x4]

I just didn't plugs Saturday and mine doesn't click at all but it did when there was bad plugs. Also when its warm the wts light isn't on as long when its cold. Idk if its normal cause I haven't had glowplugs since I bought it over a year ago but it starts so much better now

 

[90idi4x4]

Just did my plugs***

 

[snaponprofile]

Mine does the afterglow weather it is 90* out or 10* out. it was 40* It was the first start of the day this morning so the engine was not up to opp temp.

i thought they were supposed to allways do the afterglow no matter what outside temp to help clear up start up smoke?

the 15 sec is an estimate. tomorrow i will clock it with stopwatch.

Should be more like 8 seconds.

 

['94IDITurbo7.3]

timed the glow plugs today and they stayed on for 14 sec. i started it up and it started just fine. this time though i did get a couple flickers from the volt gauge.

 

[snaponprofile]

Thats odd. Mine won't heat that long unless its 10* out.

 

['94IDITurbo7.3]

mine have always stayed on that long when ever i had 8 good plugs in.

 

['94IDITurbo7.3]

well it is still doing it.

It seems as though the controller is just leaving the glow plugs on and not cycling them like it should.

all i can think of is controller went south.

do i just put the two DVOM probes onto the two big terminals on the relay to test to see if they are coming on and then cycling? i would like to make sure of what is going on b/c we all know how accurate the factory gauges are.

 

['94IDITurbo7.3]

bump

 

[snaponprofile]

Have a read here.

http://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/906604-glow-plugs-87-thru-94-new-style-system.html

 

['94IDITurbo7.3]

thanks for the link snapon. i will try the test procedure that was outlined in the thread.


This is from the diesel owners guide supplement that comes with the truck,

"The system consists of eight glow plugs, electronic solid state controler, glow plug lamp, and a wiring harness which incorperates eight fusible wires located adjacent to the glow plug terminal. The system is activated when the ignition switch is in the ON position and engine coolant temprature is below approximately 165*F".

The part that i bolded has me thinking. ever since i got the truck the plugs would always run/cycle the same amt of time whether it was the first start of the day on a 10* morning or it had been running and was started on a 80* day. this seemed odd to me. why would the cylinders need heat when the engine had just been running and was plenty warm?

Also ever since i got my truck the factory coolant temp gauge has never gotten higher than the N on normal. i know how accurate those gauges are, but my thinking is since the glows rely on a coolant temp reading to determine whether or not they need to be activated and the fact that my factory temp sensor seems to be not functioning properly then mabey the glow plug controler is thinking that the coolant temp is always "cold", thus turning on the glows everytime the key is turned.

the moral of this post is thinking that the bad temp gauge is confusing the glow controler and mabey the glow controler has taken a dump or it is just really confused right now and thinks that it is like -20* outside or something.

 

[Black dawg]

the coolant temp sensor is not connected to the gp controller.
My plugs will stay on 15sec at 30deg with no afterclicking.

 

['94IDITurbo7.3]

then how does the glow plug controller sense coolant temp?