It was starting really good at 27 ish degrees outside without plugging in and then about a week later it wouldnt start i tested the relay and it was no good so i replaced it. Then i tested the glow plugs and only 2 were good so i replaced them all except for 3. The 3 i left alone were the 2 ones that tested good because they are under turbo and i couldnt fit a tool in there and on the other side of motor which is the other one i left was because it was under the injection lines and i didnt want to disturb them. so right now that 1 is the only bad plug. Now yesterday and today the truck will not start cold at about 35 degrees out. I was desprate to have to be somewhere so i actually gave it a tiny squirt of starting fluid. Which i didnt wanna do but it started. I tested the plugs again and they are all good still except that 1 under injection lines. The plugs i used were autolites. They were the only ones available to me on the rush i was in. Does anyome have any idea what the problem could be? Id hate to plug it in when it used to start great at temps around 27 amd now its 33 35 ish. And obviously starting fluid is not good so i need to find my issue. Any help i can get would be appreciated. My truck is a 93 7.3 with factory turbo. I figured it is the autolites in it crapped out so I ordered the Motorcraft ones today. but what do u guys think? autolites have been in for exactly 2 weeks today. about 3 starts a day.

 

My truck came with Autolite plugs installed by PO just before I bought it. Hard start even at 90* so I replaced them with Motorcraft/Beru. No more issues.

 

that's what I'm hoping. I had to plug in tonight just so I kno it'd start tomoro morning at 30. that's odd your truck was hard at 90 degrees and stopped with motorcraft plug replacement. I say that cuz it shouldn't even really need to be glowed at that temp I feel. I don't really know tho.

 

It would start and run but required a few cycles on plugs and not all cylinders would fire at once. Lots of cranking.
The other old diesel in my Bobcat would not fire without gp's even at 100* if sat overnight. Don't use them during the day though.

 

so I'm gunna guess the autolites I put in are not heating enough after 2 weeks... I have a button to controlled them and do about 7 seconds and it would start but now I can do 10 wait 5 then 5 more and it won't go. That's in the morning tho after all night. They test good with a test light tho

 

its more so the fact that autolites literally suck... about week ago we had a sparkplug replacement at my work (i work @ jiffy lube a company ran by cheap a$$es thatbuy cheap parts and expect a big profit, long story short the car ran worse with the new pregapped autolites than it did with old SP's that had upwards of 150k, everytime i see some one n here use autolites they burn out on the first use, the first day they were installed, the 2nd week after being installed, dont forget they have a tendency to swell up, rarely ever do they actually last, so not trying to bash you or anything but just trying to save you from pulling your heads!

 

its more so the fact that autolites literally suck... about week ago we had a sparkplug replacement at my work (i work @ jiffy lube a company ran by cheap a$$es thatbuy cheap parts and expect a big profit, long story short the car ran worse with the new pregapped autolites than it did with old SP's that had upwards of 150k, everytime i see some one n here use autolites they burn out on the first use, the first day they were installed, the 2nd week after being installed, dont forget they have a tendency to swell up, rarely ever do they actually last, so not trying to bash you or anything but just trying to save you from pulling your heads!

 

Yeah...
With a manual system, if you need to cheap, I've had good luck with the Wellman ones.
Otherwise, the Beru ones are the best.

If you intend to keep a manual system, get the 6.9 style glow plugs. They take a couple seconds longer to heat up(especially with the load resistor on the 7.3 controller, and give you more 'leeway' with regards to overheating.
Of course, you'll never be able to use the controller with them this way - it's manual button only.

 

The way I hooked my manual system up is a wire off the ribbon of the relay controller to the button and from the button to power of battery and I put a fusible link in as well. someone on a different forum told me that's a terrible way and that I could literally burn my truck down. I understand there are other way to do it but I did it Cuz there is a wiring problem I couldn't find so this was my way out. so my question is 1: is my set up ok? 2: I'm putting Motorcraft plugs in today so after I'm done how long should I glow it on a cold start? I'm talking 30 degrees and colder

 

These are the 2 week old autolites i pylled out tonight. Hard to see but they all actually have swelling in spots. The reason theres only 5 is because i obly replaced this many to start with. Now i have 8 brand new motorcraft/beru plugs. Still have the button set up. I need to fix that soemhow. No idea how it is at starting now. Truck is still warm from before so starts up anyway without glowing.

 

What kind of wiring problem you can't find?

From what I understand you have power directly to plugs from battery?
Did you try to remove white wire from the controller and ground the terminal it was connected to instead? This is one safe way to do.
Be careful with your current setup. At least disconnect power from the controller (yellow-battery and red-ignition). In your setup you can have preheat with ignition off. Actually I have similar factory setup on my old Bobcat but there is a switch and relay. I don't have to turn the ignition on until I preheat (if needed) and my electric fuel pump is not running during preheat.

But I would really go over all wires first...

 

1 - Meh, I don't see any problem with it.
I'm assuming you are putting power to one of the small terminals on the relay, and the other is grounded. The large terminals are stock(one to power, one to GPs)

2 - Start with 5 seconds, and see what happens. If it doesn't start, wait 5 minutes for it to cool down and hold for 7 seconds, then try. Go progressively longer until it works reliably.

 

I think 10 sec would be absolutely safe at 30*. Last time I started mine at around 40* outside wts light was on for 12 sec.

 

[QUOTE=mattnj;16710884]I think 10 sec would be absolutely safe at 30*. Last time I started mine at around 40* outside wts light was on


Ok so the wires with the blue on them i took that off the post and capped it so it wont touch anything. The post circled in red i put my new wire which is pretty thick. Idk what gauge off top of my head I put that to the button and from the button to battery positive. And i also spliced in a fusible link in my new wire going to battery. And i unplugged my wait to stary cuz it never shut off. My original problem before i touched the truck at all was that the relay would click nonstop with no wts light. I tested the solenoid it was junk. I tested the gp's and only 3 were good. I replaced all but the 3 plugs with the autolites and replaced the solenoid. it did the same exact thing after all the work. so I tried to figure out the problem and I couldnt. so that's when I did the button. and then 2 weeks later which was this past Saturday the truck wouldn't start cold and the gp's tested good with test light but I'm assuming they weren't getting hot enough work tonight I replaced all I with motorcraft/beru.

 

Well... doing that, you are running the entire current of the glow plugs through your wire, not just the small amount needed to activate the relay.

This... isn't the best way of doing it - I'll bet you fried your fusible link due to all the current.
Remember, the glow plugs draw a /lot/ of current, all of which is going through your pushbutton.
That pushbutton is in no way rated for that current, and you'll probably melt the contacts and/or housing in short order. May also melt some of the wire insulation at an end if the connection isn't good enough(too much resistance).

Get a relay in there. If that one doesn't work, just get any relay about the same size with the same size terminals; it should work fine.
One like the starter solenoid/relay on the fender well will work just fine.