HI,

I did something wrong.

Im new to the forum, and to diesels in general, been browsing around different posts, and have confused myself and my vehicle. So, I bought a used 90 7.3 idi f250 a month back. The truck would start and die upon startup after sitting overnight. I gathered that it was air in the lines, so I replaced return lines, o-rings and plastic return covers on the top of the injectors. I also found some bad champion glow plugs, and replaced them all with motorcraft, as per the sites suggestion. I also replaced the fuel filter. So at this point I'm trying to get it to run, and bleed the system. I didnt want to burn up my new glow plugs, what I read has skeered me to believing it doesnt take much to ruin them. So I tried to turn off the glow plug system and turn the motor over with a couple of hard fuel lines cracked. I turned the key and pop. Now I got nothing.

Okay, so I was following this advice " by disconnecting the relay ignition wire, run a jumper from any positive battery source to the cold start solenoid " and crank the engine. I thought I would disconnect one of two red wire on the GP relay(small nut on upper right), and that was the aforementioned "relay ignition wire", and connect a jumper wire to the cold start solenoid.

I turned the key and pop, now I got nothing, fuses to check? I think the wire I disconnected may have fallen and touched the wavy metal(proper name?) in the lower right of the GP relay.

Thanks for reading.

 

Welcome to FTE. I don't understand why you would need to jump anything to the cold start solenoid. Anyway, one of the best investments (Little over $50.00) would be to put an electric fuel pump between your existing pump and the filter. That way you can simply run the EP to prime the system. Saves the starter and batteries. I use mine as a primer only. When I haven't run in a while, I turn the EP on as soon as Im enter the cab. Leave it on while I crank and shut it off as soon as it starts. I'd check all the fuses and fusible links.

 

Cool, thank you for the welcome, and the electronic primer suggestion, I will look into that.

Can someone clear up. I have both a starter relay(i & s) and a Glow Plug relay(behind the air intake). Is that stock? In my readings of the GlowPlug sticky thread, I'm confused by what seems to be conflicting identifiers/explanations from different author's posts.

I checked my fuse box, no visual sign of blown fuses.

 

Did you fill the fuel filter up with diesel? If not you will have one helluva time trying to start it. If the ff is filled with fuel, reconnect everything back that is glow plug related. There is no reason to disconnect that, ive never done that and my gps are fine. Next, crack all injector lines and crank in 20 second intervals untill diesel is coming out of the lines. Then tighten lines and start engine.

 

Starter relay belongs on the pass. side of the engine compartment. If the po jerryrigged your wiring, you have bigger problems.

 

Just a quick edit to save the starter!
Its possible the PO rigged a push button for the glow plugs. You'll have to check how things are wired. A picture of what you have there might help us figure it out.

A lot of people love to throw electric lift pumps on instead of the mechanical one, a lot of other people say its not worth it. Theres been a lot of discussion on the topic here, so read up and form your opinion. They definitely will help after working on the fuel system, but the mechanical one should be just fine.

Fuses are under the dash, I don't know when they added the second fuse box under the hood, but I don't think you'll have that one. Instead, there are a bunch of fusible links (wires that act like fuses) that feed off of the battery post on the starter relay. The starter relay should be on the passenger side fender, right next to the battery.

 

okay, thanks. I'll get a picture up soon of what I've got to work with.

 

Ooops, forgot that special detail. Truth is, i never had to crank much longer than 20 seconds.

 

Where is the pop coming from? Might be a good idea to clean your terminals and try again.

 

IT could be your starter itself, mine would make that sound and the starter was good to go when I bout it, soon it was taking longer, then turning slower then the night before I left for Annual Training it didnt work at all.

 

thanks again fellas, charged the batteries over night and rechecked connections, got power and had a friend to help with cranking while I bled the system. Got life again,

Thanks more for the welcome, and repsonse, i feel supported.

 

We do what we can, we gotta have someone to replace us when we kick the bucket .

 

control unit power terminal.