I just bought an 88 F350. I haven't had a lot of chance to do any good diagnosis on it yet, but it does not like to start. It doesn't seem to matter if it is cold or if I just shut it off a minute before after running for an hour. Once it fires up, it is a great running pickup, but getting that to happen is quite a chore. Here's the back story on the truck. It had been sitting for 5 years when I bought it. The people I bought it from only bought it for the flatbed that was on it. I then heard about it through the grape vine and bought it for $300. I had to. It was a 1 ton dually 4x4 with a manual and an ATS turbo kit already installed. I gave it a little shot of ether and it fired right up and ran great. I have had to shoot it with ether every time to get it to run. When I am jumping it, it sure seems like the glow plugs are firing off, since when I turn the ignition on it nearly kills the vehicle jumping me. I haven't looked any farther into the glow plug system. I am going to be starting with buying some new batteries for it, as I have only one in it at the moment, and it is only a 650 cca battery. Could it be as simple as just not having enough juice to crank it over and run the glow plugs at the same time? I am very new to diesels, and have generally owned small four cylinders that can start (literally) off of a lawn mower battery. I also know the air filter is very dirty and needs replaced. I am sure that is not helping the situation at all either. I guess any help you can give me that would point me in the right direction would be fantastic!

 

start with the glowplugs. does the "wait to start" light come on? if so, if it stays on less then 8 seconds you have 1 or more bad glow plugs. the quicker it goes off, the more bad ones you have. start there. thats usually the cause. unless they are really tight engines they wont start easily or at all without them. if the light doesnt go on, your glow plug controller maybe bad. do you see the voltage drop nearly to 0 when you turn the key on, and hear it click heavily a few times in a row before you crank? if not, then it could just be the solenoid on the glowplug controller.

 

Yeah, you need a matched pair of batteries, minimum of 850CCA each. That should give you the extra juice she needs to spin fast during cranking and fire on her own with no ether help.

 

I agree. These trucks are not going to start with one battery. The 21-1 compression alone is going tax 1 good battery let alone fire up the glow plugs.

 

x3 on the batteries... A freshely charged/conditioned 900+ CCA battery barely does it. Glow plugs are essential at most any outside temp as well... follow oreo's sugg. Once the WTS light goes out, they should only glow intermittently as well (you'll hear the ticking of the solenoid)

Jumping/Booster Packs/Chargers with "Engine Start" mode all suffer the same problem as the one battery... most systems can't deliver the amps. The only boost I got that actually worked was from a charger from our surface shop, and the damn thing was on wheels bigger than the corolla next to me.

 

hot dang!
you payed for 6 dually rims(thats @ the "semi rare" salvage yard price of 50$ each.) you even got stainless sims to boot!
the cab and chassis/D60/4wd Zf-5/T-case/turbo/engine/trans and the rest of the truck was free!!!!
you lucky son of a gun lol.
great score on a 4wd dually cab and chassis!
gunna have to call this one,the best bargain iv read about here on FTE.
don't be afraid to shell out some $ for parts into this one.

once you get two good bats (850 cca min.1k cca preferred if you see temps below 32 degrees often.)
then check the glow plugs.
inspect the battery cables closely for corrosion.clean up all the contact points.block/starter connection/terminals.etc.etc. make them shine,and then grease good.
(most of which has already been said above.)

again,really nice score on a C&C.she looks incredibly solid too.

next it's on to building a flatbed? or,how is she gunna get used?

 

I just picked up a 12' flatbed for it for $200. The wheels on it are actually chrome wheels, not sims. Ok, so I am going to start with the batteries then. I'll be getting the biggest ones I can, since I live in Montana. When I started it yesterday it was 7* out. Not awesome.

 

Starting it the way you have been, (one battery and jumping) will kill the starter in short order. These things need all the juice you can give them, not only does it need good batteries but also near perfect cables and starter to spin the motor especially in cold climates.

 

Could be the manual lift pump. My truck had trouble starting until I replaced that.

 

x2 on the mec. fuel pump.

My 7.3 also had some troubles starting cold/warm before I changed the fuel pump.



But first, get 2 good 1000CCA batterys!




And at 300$ for that thing! I'm surprised your not behind bars right now!

 

Also, I forgot to add in, the wait to start light comes on when it's cold out for about 15-30 secondsish, depending on temp. From what I have heard, that sounds about right.

 

Heres a youtube vid on how to test them if you are unshure ,i live in Fl
so i cant really help you on that one .
YouTube - A bit on how to test your glow plugs

 

sounds like your gps are in fine shape then

 

If the truck runs for an hour, it should be warm. If the wait to start light comes on for 15 seconds or better, then they probably work. If the truck is hard to start while hot and the wait to start light doesn't indicate a problem with the glowplugs, they should be fine.

 

Once it is fully warmed up, the wait to start light only comes on for about three seconds. I figure this is probably fairly normal?