this morning was the last straw. I burnt my battery out starting the truck in around 5 degree weather and the glow plug unit wasnt making it any better. Does anyone have a diagram or info on a manual glow plug controller?

 

Have you upgraded your GP controller to the newer 7.3l GP controller. I understand that the controller on the 83' to 86' trucks were prone to failure.

I got the newer controller on my 91' and 93' and they seem to work fine. Never had a problem other than the burnt plugs.

Search this forum, there is lots of information on either controller available including the problems with the early GP controllers.


Seb....

 

If you view Dave Sponaugle's gallery, there is a diagram of a maunal and a 7.3 type controller. Mine are manual GP's. They work perfectly.

 

you need a push button switch 20 feet of 10 gauge wire a ford starter solenoid and a heave wire to go from the battery to the solenoid and solenoid to the glow plug wires connector. mount the push button under the dash and run a hot wire from the drivers side battery to the button then from the other terminal on the button run a wire to the solenoid that you mounted on the passenger side fender for a swith wire. then run a 4 or 6 gauge wire from the passenger side battery to one of the large posts on the solenoid. take the nut of the post on the factory glow plug control with the brown wires going to it and run another heavy wire from that post to the other post on your new solenoid and you will have manual control on the glow plugs

 

Old style glow plug relay.



Look out on the inner fender at the glow plug relay.
Two big wires, two little wires.
One of the little wires is purple usually closer to the engine.
Remove the purple wire.
Attach a 14 AWG wire to that terminal and run it inside the cab to a push button switch and attach to one terminal.
Attach a wire to the other terminal and run it to a power source, a switched one (only hot when the key is in the run position) is better but not absolutely required.

Done.

Operation,
Turn key to ON.
Push button for 10 seconds.
Start the engine.

When extreme cold is encountered, I have also pushed the button while cranking to keep the engine firing, sometimes you have to give it a couple seconds once or twice after the engine is running to keep it from stalling in the first 30 seconds or so.

Cranked mine up at -5 this morning.

 

i wasnt expecting it to be so straigt foward, i think i may have to do that!

 

What should the switch be rated-12v im assuming?

 

Since you are just using the switch to energize the relay, the switch can be rated at 12V and minimal amps

 

What is the cranking speed like on your truck? I can tell you, if these trucks don't spin fast enough, THEY WILL NOT START. Have you checked the glow plugs? The controller depends on all 8 GP's to be good in order to feel out the proper resistance.
The stock plug system takes a pretty bad wrap, even though it's prolly NOT the cause of most starting problems.

 

The early glow plug system don't care if you have no good glow plugs, it will still turn on.
And singe the early system has 6 pages of diagnostics to trouble shoot it versus 1/2 page for the later style system which does care if you have bad glow plug.

I think the early system has the rap it deserves.
It is the ideal system as long as it is working, but a true nightmare when it goes bad.

My recomendation for the 83 thru 86 glow plug system is when it is bad, convert to manual or upgrade to the new system.

Since the new system will cost around 400 dollars in parts, most go manual.
8 - ZD 9 glow plugs
engine wiring harness - which will not plug into the chassis harness
glow plug controller/relay

 

I chose the 3rd option. Replace the original controller with another stock one for $60-$80 from eBay. Install a $5 pusbutton switch inline in the wire from the controller to the relay so that the controller can only energize the plugs if your finger is on the pushbutton. That way if the controller ever fails it can't burn up the plugs by energizing them when it shouldn't. Install a new set of MotorCraft Beru plugs from Autozone for $80.

Total cost $145-$165 and you have what Dave calls the "ideal system" working again - with an additional fail-safe built in...

 

I have a 92 F450 with the 7.3 engine. I had trouble getting it to start in the summer, so I went totaly manual.
I run a aditional wire from terminal block at the battery, to a relay and then to the output terminal of the controller.
It has been starting with a little trouble untill yesterday. I had a engine heater pluged in and run the glow plugs several times waited, hooked up jumper cables. It spun the engine over fast but would not start.
Went to Autozone today, 77 dollars later and I got the good German made plugs ZD-9 . Now it Starts, After 15 seconds the { wait to start lite } starts blinking ,two to three revulations and vrooommm.
The { wait to start lite } has never come on since I got the truck....I tested the glow plugs and half of them were open .
Moral of story ,must have good complete set of glow plugs for system to work properly.

 

I agree, good plugs are vital to have engine starting success!! I work 3rd shift at a machine shop, and at nights its been down to single digits. When I get off work, its 6am and cold as crap. Each night I think "Goodness I hope my truck starts" LOL, but low and behold, 10 seconds on the GP button, and a few cranks and she roars to life. All the way home I turn off my radio and listen to that IDI symphony under the hood, that cackling diesel sound is music to my ears.

 

i have read the wiring description a million times...can someone try to explain it again? i'm just not getting it. i thought the whole point was to bypass the controller completely and run only the solenoid from a push button...am i missing something? if ur wiring into the controller isn't it just a typical set up that needs the button pushed also...as cheaper jeeper has described? is it possible to just run the push button directly to a relay and from the relay to the glow plug connection? thanks

 

What you have to understand is there are two completely different glow plug systems used in the IDI trucks.
86 and earlier trucks used the old style system.
87 and newer trucks used the new style system.

What year is yours?