No Power to Glow plugs on left bank?

[IDIDieselJohn]

On my '85 E350 6.9

Just got done doing the head gaskets on it as you might have seen, everything is back on like it was, and now I have 0 power to all 4 glow plugs on the drivers side???


I checked power from the wires on the controller, all but 1 has power, an orange one has no power. But my glow plugs are fully manual if that makes a difference....



Anyone have an idea what can be the problem? I did some research but didn't quite find an answer to this one. Could it be the controller it self? The wiring all looks good...

 

[Smokey73]

check the fusible links. I might be wrong, but it think there's one for each side

 

[rhkcommander]

Each wire is a fusible link...

There are two thick fat wires from the relay that were brown on mine but also can be orange i think. Fat Yellow wires are input and fat brown/orange are output from relay. They are spliced together by a ring terminal. If one output is damaged or has a bad connection you'll lose a whole bank. One wire controls four on a side. smaller fusible links are tee'd off from the two primary outputs.

If you lost a whole bank then i would bet the output either broke a wire off, or it fell out of the ring terminal. Input side doesnt matter, if something was wrong there you would get power to all(with limited current) or none. it IS the harness.

I just got done making myself a new harness...

*added pictures*Let me go snap some pictures for you, to clear that up if needed​

In the pictures are two of the common failure points for the harness, that would take out power to the whole bank (1,3,5,7 or 2,4,6,8). Two heavy gauge brownish wires tie in together with a ring terminal at the "relay output". Yours may not have the ribbon. It can fail at the ring terminal, or at the point where the wires for each glowplug meet the fat wire as seen in the other picture.

There is electrical tape holding the wires together and sensors, IP, and other wires together in a bundle. Easiest way to get the harness out is to pop the glowplug caps off, and take a knife, pull the closest connector up out of the wire loom and cut the tape, work your way to second gp connection and keep cutting.

 

[IDIDieselJohn]

Awesome, big thanks for the pics!!!!


Ok so I know right now, that first pic, that connector is fine, I already checked that one, it sits on the back of the engine, near the controller. But I'm going to check that ring connector tomorrow at the relay.


Interesting setup you did your self on your relay output, why'd you do 4 wires out like that?


If my harness is ***** now, I'll have to ask you how you did yours so I can make my self one to.

As I do wanna upgrade to the later 12V system, but not right now, as I have 8 new glow plugs to wear out first....

 

[rhkcommander]

Good eyes

I replaced the whole harness because a connector fell right off. The rest were corroded or just bare metal so i made my own. I made one for a friend a while back too that worked perfectly. I thought about doing two rings instead but didnt have any quality ones that would fit four wires at once so i did pairs.

Eventually i plan on toying around with heavy duty diodes and making an in-cab glow plug diagnostic system...

 

[IDIDieselJohn]

Well at work today during a slow moment, I went outside to play around with my wiring, I wiggled and played with all the wires starting from the selenoid, to grounds, and to taped up packs where all the wires meet up, and now everything is fine, working great again!

 

[rhkcommander]

Glad to hear! If i were you id look the ring terminal connection over and make sure its not fraying. Maybe check the spot where the wires meet up too.

My .02$ - Make sure its fine before the weather turns full blown crappy and wind up stuck somewhere.. Keep a can of ether if you have good enough compression to start off of it.

 

[IDIDieselJohn]

The van is going to be stored for winter very soon anyways, so no big worries. I did have to Ether start it twice, used no glow plugs at all, I just gave it a snort at the air breather infront of the rad, went in, cranked, and fired off no problem.