Alright a few questions as I'm no mechanic and got stuck (long story!) finishing my engine swap (putting it back together after the shop took it out and decided they were done with it!). First is, my batteries have gone bad is there a way you can hook these trucks up without batteries to try and start? Second, when i try to crank it over with the key there is nothing . But when i bridge the relay with a screw driver it will crank a little. Is this the starter? The wait to start light doesn't come on either? Any other tips? I changed fuel and oil filters. Dropped the tank and cleaned it. Added fresh fuel to the tank and fuel bowl. When i swapped the engines i swapped the wiring harness from my blown one to the newer engine but not the pcm. Also tried a little squirt of starting fluid to see if it would fire and it did for a second. How bad is that (not sure glow plugs are working)? Thanks in advance!

 

Stay away from the starting fluid. What year is the new harness and what year is the old PCM? Are you sure you got everything plugged back in properly? No WTS light means part of the PCM circuit is dead so it won't start. Have you verified you don't have any blown fuses? You're going to need the batteries eventually. Any reason you don't get them now? Got a charger you can at least put them on?

 

Please don't use starting fluid. It hurts my soul just to read about it. It won't fix your problem.

 

I agree, get the batteries sooner than later. If you're jumping the relay seems the starter is ok, maybe relay or all wiring is not connected/conn. properly. The How to's at the top of forum are great to read ( and re-read) as well I know i.e. hard start/glow plugs etc.. Second, what kinda shop pulls an engine and walks away from it? Was it my cousin?

 

After having done my engine swap/ conversion, I noticed alot of ground wires in these harnesses. Make sure they are all connected.

 

Ok I'm going to check the fuse box and PCM. If the wait to start light is not coming on does that mean my gp's are coming on? I'm all nervous now about giving it some starting fluid! Definitely not doing that again! Also if the glow plugs aren't on would you still have a chance of the starting fluid damaging the engine. I would replace the batteries but it was a gamble on this engine. The guy sold it to me with no guarantee it would start. So I don't want to dump a bunch of money into something that won't end up running.

 

If the "Wait to Start" light doesn't come on, that points to Fuse #22 as the problem.

 

I dunno, if no WTS light; are glow plugs working? Using a test light, you can probe both sides of Glow plug relay-GPR- and tell. If you don't have one handy, you could tell by touching both sides and tell by warmth. But these guys are right, the ether is scary stuff. Still think my cousins involved.

 

If the WTS light isn't coming on then your injectors will not fire. That means even if you use starting fluid, the truck will die when the fluid runs out. You've got to fix the issue that's causing the no WTS.

 

Checked the fuse and it is fine. Still no wait to start light. Does that mean I need to swap the pcm's also? Or am I overlooking something else?

 

There are some other aspects that could be considered as well as not having WTS,both batteries charged up is important,a good starter is important,the starter uses between 1600-2000 amps when cranking.A good beginning point for sure,when there are so many possibilities.Also neutral safety switch could be invloved here,as wel as a bad starter relay.A few parts that collectively could be several issues to resolve.There are a few threads with the engine wire schematic's on here for reference.Hope this offers some insight,and with the wealth of knowledge on this site,certain to have your truck functional soon.

 

Try swapping the relays around in the power distribution box under the hood. There is one relay for the PCM, anothe rone from the IDM and a couple others for A/C and the Horn. Swap the PCM and IDM relays with the other two and give it a try. The relays are all the same so don't worry about mixing them up.

 

I'm wondering, did all systems work before the shop pulled the original engine? I guess there was certain problems lead to pulling it?

 

Everything worked before it was pulled except there was no compression. I'll mess around with the relays and probably switch the PCM to.

 

Just want to thank everyone for there input and advice! Put two new batteries in today and switched the #22 fuse and the truck fired up! Still a lot of work to do (someone jacked my radiator!) but I'll be glad to have it back in commission again!