Hey y'all,
I am new to this forum, and I am also a new owner of an 85 Ford F250 4x4 with the 6.9 IDI. I drove the truck home the night I bought it and ir ran awesome other than the 4 speed manual forcing my engine to rev at 2300 RPM at 100km/hr...anyway, I got her home.
The next day I went to start it, and she just kept turning over and no fire. I kept trying to the glow plugs (which has been by passed by previous owner with a switch, not the relay) and no luck. I popped the hood to find two spades on two glow plugs on drivers side had snapped off?? How the hell does that happen? Do they get so hot they just fall off?
Anyway, my first glow plug replacement went well, but the second one not so much...here's my issue

The threaded part of the glow plug came out and separated from the electrode, but the electrode is still stuck in the glow plug port. I've tried using vice grips to pull it out, but when I pull the electrode up and out it slams against the underneath of the head. What the heck?? How do I get this sucker out with out having to take my head off??
Do I throw some oil down there and try to crank it over in Hope's the compression will blow it out?

Thoughts, tips, advice are very welcome!
Thank you folks!

 

If you can get vice scrips on it, I would use a combination lubricant while turning and gently applying upward pressure to remove the tip. I had two swollen GPS that weren't motorcraft brand and that is how I got mine out. Recently, I checked my new GPS and many of them were stiff to come out due to carbon buildup at the tips- I previously never cleaned tho holes into the swirl chamber. To clean the holes, I used a flat blade, Klein, electricians screwdriver to clean the carbon from the holes- worked great and no risk, for me, of the blade breaking in the chamber. The GPS now went in and out very easily after this process.

 

[QUOTE;Do I throw some oil down there and try to crank it over in Hope's the compression will blow it out?[/QUOTE]
Cranking it over has worked successfully more than once. But you want to put an old blanket or whatever over the plug. If you're successful it will fly out with a LOT of force.

 

Excellent these are great tips. I did try to use vice grips and slowly turn it out, I also did light tapping on the vice grips while it was pinched onto the electrode to maybe help with the ease up release. However I didnt add any lubricant....i have WD40, that should work just fine eh?

I had the initial thought of clamping onto the electrode to pull it out while a buddy turns the truck over for a second but I guess there would be so much force it would shoot out like a bullet. Not a good idea to be around that lol.

I'll spray a bit of wd40 on it and turn it over on my days off and see what happens. Thanks again fellas

 

I would recommend soaking the area with Seafoam instead of WD. Seaform works wonders on carbon. I had a stuck injector and nothing seems to break up the carbon. But Seafoam was the thing that did the trick. HTH