Not your average glow plug thread

[03wr250f]

As usual I have the clicking coming from my relay. It started 2 weeks ago. I came home from a long drive and the next morning at the end of the cycle I heard a couple clicks and she fired right up. didn't to it again for a week. Then it steadily got more often until I got tired of having to work her to start.
I tested all my glow plugs with a light and they light up great. I went a step further and ohmed them all out
readings being like so

2-1.7 1-2.0 ohms
4-1.3 3-2.1
6-1.3 5-2.1
8-1.4 7-2.3

I notice there is a lot of variance in them, but I was looking at my wires and I am questioning if the glow plugs are even bad.
I bought the truck and the kid before me had swaped all of the connections to spade connections and 6.9 gps so he could run a manual system. I had a mechanic of mine switch it back to bullet style connectors. He simply crimped on blue bullet ends to the wires. That's all fine and dandy but I noticed the wire right next to the end has become white on some. The wire on those is bent due to me being an idiot and pushing down on the tops whenever I pulled them off and since I didn't have much to grab onto likethe factory ones it was the easiest way to push em down. Im thinking I may have broken a few wires of and am barely getting a connection. Is there any way I can test it, or anyone have any ideas as to where to go with this?
If need be I know where I can get another harness if you guys think that is the problem and if that would be easier, but it is 2 hours away.

 

[smolkin]

Sounds like wires may be the cause. As I understand it, the resistance of the gp banks is important to the controller, and bad connections will confuse it. Your controller may be acting up but the wires need to be ruled out first.
I and many others here have made gp harnesses. For mine it was about $50 in parts (used 10ga wire and lots of heat-shrink) that were readily available at the auto parts places. You can leave the old harness in the loom as long as you disconnect it, I just cut the gp ends off and pushed the old stuff back in the loom. The new harness (in new loom) was run next to the old and on that truck I didn't pass go and went directly to push button, as the controller had visibly melted.
Sometimes it's easier to replace than troubleshoot these old circuits.

 

[OLDBULL8]

I've got a new harness if you need one. PM me for price. Retail they are $150.

 

[Black dawg]

The generic bullet teminals usually need a little squeeze to make good connection on these plugs. How easily do yours pull off?

 

[03wr250f]

mine are pretty darn easy to pull off. thanks oldbull but I think I am going to end up going to get another one, my buddie is making a run to the town where I pull my parts from and I will just catch a ride with him and get one that way.
Do my resistances on my plugs seem way out of whack?
I was talking to another guy and he asked how long my plugs stayed on. well before it started acting up the wts light would stay on 10-12 sec and it fired up better than my Honda before. It typically ran them (im guessing never timed it) about 30 sec if I just turned the key on a colder morning and let it sit on. I thought the system was designed so you fired it after the wts light and then had a little afterglow to help it warm up faster. Is this completely off base or what. The other guy I was talking to said 10-12 sec they should be on max. I am really not sure could it be a bad controller staying on too long and causing the plugs to age faster.
I also have a voltage gauge in addition to factory so I can easily tell when glow plugs are on or off.

 

[subway]

I would not worry to much about the variation on the glow plug resistance. If they are bad they will basically have infinite resistance. It sounds like you found your problem with the connections. The controller is sensitive to resistance and a bad connection is the same as a bad glow plug to the controller. I also crimped on new bullet connections since the factory ones were toast. I have to snug them up sometimes if I am working on them to keep a good connection. Otherwise the glow plug system works as you described.