Walkaround Vid w/ Voltage Question

[RANOVRU]

This was a cold start this morning. Notice the volt gauge after the WTS light goes off. It jumps back and forth and there is a clicking sound. This is a random occurance & thus far hasnt ever affected starting. Fwiw I just put two new batts in a week ago, but it was doing the jumping/clicking before then too.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIDJsmDScEI

 

[Blind Driver2]

Your glowplugs are cycling.

Btw, you need fuel.

 

[IDIDieselJohn]

The volt gauge jumping and the clicking is normal.


If you don't hear clicking, that's when you have problems. lol

 

[RANOVRU]

Ok well maybe I just havent noticed it before now. Usually I start the truck as soon as the light goes off.

It should be pretty obvious by now that Im still pretty new to the diesel world, so bare with me; whats the cycling for? How long will it do that? And is it not good to leave the key in that position for extended time?


/*******

 

[Compu Doc]

Ok well maybe I just havent noticed it before now. Usually I start the truck as soon as the light goes off.

It should be pretty obvious by now that Im still pretty new to the diesel world, so bare with me; whats the cycling for? How long will it do that? And is it not good to leave the key in that position for extended time?


/*******

That is the classic symptom of one to a few bad glow plugs. Your truck starts fine now because it is not winter. Keeping the key on for an extended period of time will not hurt because the glow plugs will not cycle again after they complete their cycle unless the key is turned back off and to the on position again.

The glow plug light or wait to start light should be on usually for about 10 seconds depending on temperature outside and how warm the engine is.

Once the bad glow plugs are replaced the clicking will stop and the light will stay on longer as it should.

 

[RANOVRU]

That is the classic symptom of one to a few bad glow plugs. Your truck starts fine now because it is not winter. Keeping the key on for an extended period of time will not hurt because the glow plugs will not cycle again after they complete their cycle unless the key is turned back off and to the on position again.

The glow plug light or wait to start light should be on usually for about 10 seconds depending on temperature outside and how warm the engine is.

Once the bad glow plugs are replaced the clicking will stop and the light will stay on longer as it should.

Ok so now thats NOT normal?? Lol!

So which is it?? I was born without a internet sarcasm detector so I dont know if my chain is being yanked or if there really is question about whether or not it normal....

 

[Compu Doc]

When I first bought my truck 10 years ago the GP relay was Clicking. I thought it was normal. It wasn't. I had 3 bad GP's so I changed all 8. That was in the winter I noticed it would not start without the block heater being plugged in. Summer time it was fine starting on 3 bad GP's. The GP's were changed in the winter and that night I did not plug the truck in. The next morning it started in +5 degree weather.

Check your glow plugs. Since your new to diesels always use Motorcraft/Beru glow plugs. It's not that bad of a job but you need to be careful. My recommendation is to have someone from here check them for you and replace them if their is someone here that is near you or that your willing to drive to. This way you will get first hand experience on how to check and replace them.

I am saying this because if you break a tip off the cylinder head will have to be removed in order to get the broken piece out and that is not something that you want to do if it can be avoided.

If you were to take the truck to a mechanic and they break a tip off they might try to force the tip out. That is something you don't want them to do but they might not even tell you about it and you will find out the hard way later.

If this is something you want to tackle on your own do a search here for glow plugs and you will come up with a lot of posts. I know in a few I listed the way to test them and the way to remove them carefully.

 

[RANOVRU]

Am I correct in thinking that the GPs are just an aid in starting?

I thought the block heaters were pretty much mandatory on all diesels in extreme cold? It rarely gets below 20 here in the winter and when I got the truck we were still getting into the 40s-50s at night. Never took more than 2 or 3 turns to get it going. Now its 60s-70s at night and I have new batts so it fires the first time every time.

 

[GOOSE]

This is not out of the ordinary. The glow plugs will cycle after startup when cold. This is to prevent excessive smoke during warmup. Your relay is more than what it seems, its a solid state controller. It is connected to the coolant sensors. The 'wait to start' light will only come on during the inital warm up. After that, the GP controller uses the coolant sensors to determine its cycling to prevent the smoke that would apparantly appear if its cold and the cycling wasn't going on.

If you are getting about 15 seconds of wait to start time and your engine lights right off, the glow plugs are probably just fine. A trouble light or ohm meter across each gp to ground is a quick check to see if they are good or not. A burnt gp will not complete the circuit to ground so you will not light the trouble light and/or get a very high ohm reading. Good luck, sounds like your truck is functioning normally.

Just so you know, this system was designed to start without the block heater down to -14 deg F and I can personally attest to it working well when close to 0 deg F. The block heater is useful and will greatly aid in starting, plus you will get heat faster on those cold mornings. Put it on a timer, it only needs about an hour or two to do its job. It's a thousand watts and will chew into your electric bill if on all night, every night.

 

[Compu Doc]

Block heaters are an aid in starting GP's are almost mandatory. A diesel will start in cold weather without a block heater plugged in. Having the block heater plugged in makes it easier and quieter. Plugged in long enough you will also get heat right away.

 

[icanfixall]

These diesels are just like any other diesel. They make very hot compressed air in the cylinders during cranking and then the fuel is injected. The heat ignites the fuel. So the faster you can crank an engine the faster it starts because the air is hotter. Air thats compressed makes plenty of heat. A slow cranking engine will be hard to start. The glow plug AID in starting a cold engine. When the lite is on for around 8 seconds then its out we try to start the engine. If it fires up the solid state glow plug controllers in the 7.3 engines will after glow several times. Sometimes you see this on the volt gauge and you hear it clicking. This is how a glow system function properly. I can't say for sure your system is functioning properly because I can't see or hear it plus. I don't see you posting how long the lite is on. Do you know what glow plugs are in the engine. If not buy a set of Motorcraft ZD9 plugs if you have a 7.3 engine. Nothing else works very long in these engines. Thats a proven fact. Removing and installing a set is another issue that we really don't need to discuss just yet.

 

[Simmonscoating]

nice truck you need gp's trust me so easy to do. first you should read the thread all newbies start here. and than go to the tech page to find how to check your gp's all you need is a test light.

 

[RANOVRU]

Just for clarification, the WTS light has never stayed on more than 5 or 6 sec and thats when I first got the truck and the temps were a little lower at night. Now its usually on for 2-3 secs. Is 10-15sec really normal??

In the vid I posted the light goes off just before you see/hear the cycling, so maybe a couple of seconds.

Ill search for some threads on checking the GPs...

 

[GOOSE]

5-6 seconds is rather short. 1 or 2 plugs are probably bad. It does sound like the controller is working properly though. Use a trouble light or ohm meter like I mentioned and test them.