Truck didnt want to start

[Cincinnati Guy]

Went to the mall which was about a 40 mile trip to the one we wanted to go to(Well I mean Amber). Was in there about two hours then came out tried starting the truck it would crank over but wouldn't start, so it starts cranking slow. Well I wait a few minutes try again still just cranks over. I go out pop the hood look for something wrong dont see anything. All this without my GP light coming on, Guess it isn't cooled off enough to turn them on. Well after a few minutes maybe 5 I try again and the GP light comes on and starts up fine but had a big **** of smoke that came out. Anyone got ideas on whats wrong or what will be going out on my truck soon? I plan on new GP's before the cold part of winter. This is the first time it has ever not wanted to start. Thanks for the help fellers!

 

[6 Nebraska IDIs]

Sounds to me like the controller gave up the ghost to me. Count your blessings if it did, and didnt fail in the ON position.

 

[Diesel JD]

Sean has a lot of experience with these trucks so I'd listen to him. I know this, on a 6.9 if the GP light doesn't come on that means that you don't have juice to the glow plugs or the lamp is burnt out. I'd take it as an opportunity to upgrade to a push button glow plug system or a solid state system. I'd advocate checking the glow plugs instead of outright replacement unless you know you have a high number of bad ones or a substandard brand like Autolites or Champions. But that's just my opinion.

 

[6 Nebraska IDIs]

Thanks for the compliment JD!
I just wanted to add Ryan that the smoke you saw when it started was all the unburned fuel that had loaded up in the cylinders when it was too cold to fire. You should see the cloud that rolls out of my brown truck when it starts, I almost called the fire dept the first time it did that. lol My problem is that my injectors leak off and dribble fuel into the cylinders over night and then that creates air in the injection system and then it could be a real PITA to get it started.

There is another member here that needs to know how to convert a 6.9 system to the manual push button system and I cant find the article on it, I know its here somewhere. Could someone in the know, post it here.

 

[Diesel JD]

Its on Zigg's website, very simple on the 6.9 system. I just went solid state because my truck sometimes gets worked on by other people and my brother is allowed to borrow it. I just didn't want to have to keep worrying if someone would leave those plugs on too long.

 

[Cincinnati Guy]

Thanks for the info guys, I really would rather keep it where the GP's come on with the key. Whats all involved with switching over to solid state?

 

[Andylad13]

you can have both! have the key turn everything on, and sometimes if it thinks the engine is hot enough and doesnt turn them on, or fails and wont turn them on, you can still manually activate them to be on your way.

 

[Cincinnati Guy]

Ok thanks and how would I do that? Also whats the advantage of having it be solid state?

 

[Cincinnati Guy]

We took out the front two glow plugs and then hooked them back up to the plug and turned on the ignition there getting juice to the GP's but the tips are not getting hot, or even red. That means there bad right? We took a test light hooked it to the ground and then turned on the ignition and there is juice going but that's about it. The tips looked clean on the GP's but I guess that dont mean anything right?

 

[Andylad13]

We took out the front two glow plugs and then hooked them back up to the plug and turned on the ignition there getting juice to the GP's but the tips are not getting hot, or even red. That means there bad right? We took a test light hooked it to the ground and then turned on the ignition and there is juice going but that's about it.

thats definatly not good!

check all your plugs!

 

[Cincinnati Guy]

When I pulled out the Gps' dont they need to have a ground for them to actually get hot and red? Because when there in the motor there grounded to where they bolt in but not when I have them out of the motor. Whats the proper way to check these?

Here is what was done today. I used a test light and checked all the GP plugs and all work except the far back on the passenger side, it was all corroded, I cleaned it all up and it finally worked.

I took out the front two GP to visually inspect them along with the one on the far passenger side.

I checked all the GP's with a multimeter, I was told to check the OHMS I put the meter on 2000k and had someone turn on the key and all 8 of them were checked one by one and all 8 of them had 1 OHMS.

Ill be replacing my GP controller and GP's at my next check.

A question came up about the Controller, does it work of the antifreeze or just the block temperature? So we know if we got to drain the antifreeze again.

The truck did the same thing again like it did in the original post where the GP wouldnt come on, but we tried a few times then it came on.

 

[FordGuy100]

I think you are supposed to test your glowplugs without them getting current. When they are cold.

 

[Andylad13]

A question came up about the Controller, does it work of the antifreeze or just the block temperature? So we know if we got to drain the antifreeze again.

well i have a 7.3 and im not sure if the 6.9 one is the same or not, but my controller measures resistance in the wires from the plugs, the hotter they get, the more resistance she sees until it sees the amount she wants, then turns them off.

 

[6 Nebraska IDIs]

The 6.9 controller screws into and plugs off a water jacket passage, if you remove the controller you need to put a plug in its place.

 

[sle2115]

The 6.9 controller screws into and plugs off a water jacket passage, if you remove the controller you need to put a plug in its place.

Except for the 87 which is the solid state. I know his sig shows an 85, but just in case! I may have missed the spade/bullet style terminals as well. Spade, controller in water jacket, bullet is solid state, but of course, those could have been changed as well!