I noticed over the last week or two that sometimes the relay would not click when I turned the key on. At first I was able to click the key on and off a few times and it would work, until a few days ago, that quit working.

I put another known good relay setup on it, and the same issue.

With the key on I can ground the post with the white wire and it clicks on....

What is the issue here that I'm missing?

 

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/9...le-system.html

My 93 and 91 never "click" ...?

 

To aid in your confusion....

When I bought my truck a couple months ago, the relay clicked. The clicks were VERY loud (even from in the cab), and caused the lights to dim and the Voltmeter to twitch with every click. There would be about a dozen clicks and the 'Wait to Start' light would never come on. The truck was a BIOTCH to start in the cold, often requiring a session or two of 10-15 second cranking and/or a couple cycles of the glow plugs.

After I replaced all the glow plugs, that changed. No more clicks, but I do get a very light buzz/whine from time to time and that's only audible from outside with the hood open. The 'Wait to Start' light now comes on for 5-10 seconds, and the truck starts within a second of cranking even first thing in the morning when the truck is completely cold.

Mike

 

Yes they do. Right when you turn the key on, and right when the GP's quit their cycle. The metallic click is the relay itself physically closing.

multiple clicks is what the relay will do when the controller is searching for the GP's. This generally happens when you have bad GP's. The whine is the voltage you are hearing passing through the relay.

after fiddling with it further, and confirming I have everything hooked up right, my best guess is that I got unlucky and have two bad controllers.

 

Oh. I misunderstood what 'clicks' you were looking for.

Mike

 

run through this to help ya find out why your not getting after glow;
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...low-plugs.html


you should have the following on a cold engine;
turn the key forward,and the volt meter will drop,you'll hear the click of the relay.
once the main cycle is complete (depending on the temp.roughly 10-12 seconds) you start it right up promptly.the volt meter will go back up (the large 200 amp draw is over) followed by several (about 4-6) "clicks" along with the volt meter swinging back and forth with the clicks.like mentioned if your headlights are on,it will of course bright/dim with the clicks too.
this is the after glow to help your cold engine stay running smoother which also reduces white start up smoke.

 

Not just afterglow....im getting no glow unless i physically ground my relay. Barness is brand new, fps are brand new, everything is hooked up how it should be

 

oh.well then you know your ground is faulty then.repair or run a devoted ground wire to the ground terminal and all is golden.
you could test resistance between your ground ring terminal and the negative post,but you already know ground is broken cus you jumped it already and made it work.

 

This is the portion I don't understand.

The "ground terminal" is the small post that the white wire attaches to on the solenoid. The controller ground is the black wire coming out of the controller.

Black wire is grounded and good. The way I get the solenoid to click is by grounding the post onto the body, all this verifies is that the solenoid works, and that the issue is in the controller side.

I usually would of already bought a new controller, it just seems odd that the old controller went out over a matter of a few days, and then this other controller (yes I got it used) isn't working either.

Maybe I can see if Dirtydiesel has a known good controller, or I can put this one onto one of his rigs to make sure thats the issue.

 

Mine did the same thing. The controller would turn on (watching voltage drop) and it would start after a few seconds, but it never clicked.

It ended up being a grounding problem.

Jason

 

I have no voltage drop.

The controller isn't closing the relay.

 

maybe since my ignition broke it just doesnt click anymore? i have to switch the glow plugs and switch for the starter...not to worried about it seems to be workin ok

i have 2 (7.3 style) layin around, you can try one out if you need

 

Is the controller grounding the white wire at the relay? If there is an intermittent ground at the black wire or return to the battery, it won't ground the relay through the controller. And it would explain why you've gone through a couple of them.

Jason

 

I thought you were running ether injection?