This is my first diesel. I have only owned it a month. It is a '90 E350 with a 7.3 liter. It has always started and run great. Today I went to start it, let the glow plugs warm up and during this time I heard kind of a muffled pop. Then there was no power, no response from the ignition switch, no starter, no power windows,lights, locks, nothing!!! I know there is a fusible link. Does it control **everything**? I bought a "Haynes" manual. No help. A friend and I worked trying to figure out what had power and what didn't for about 2 hours looking for this mystery fusible link and obviously never found it. This excercise has made more much more familiar with the vehicle and has left me with some questions.

1. Does the fusible link control everything?
2. Where is it?
3. What is the thing mounted on the right fenderwell in front of the battery that looks like an amplifier (has cooling fins)? This thing has 3 posts to connect wires. The only one that has power is the bottom one.
4. What is the thing mounted in front of the right side battery that is round with three connectors? The post on top has power. The wire on the post beneath it goes to the starter. There is a small red wire on the third post.
5. What is the thing in front of the left battery. It looks like some kind of solenoid. It also has thre posts. The one to the left side of the vehicle has power. The one facing rearward has a small white wire. The post on the right has a heavy guage red wire that goes to the amplifier looking thing.

I really appreciate the help. I know this must be something simple and really do not want to have to get it towed to a mechanic. I also do not yet even know a diesel mechanic. I'm in Roswell Georgia. Any suggestions?

 

I'd first check for a loose connection at the batteries. You might have both of them checked too. I'd guess one is dead and the good one just lost it's connection.

 

the thing with the fins could be a battery isolater
the next one could be for the glo plugs
and the next one might be the start solinoid
if you could post pic i am sure these guys here cuold get you going in no time
i myself havent figuered out how to put pics on yet
good luck

 

More work and research today. The thing with the fins IS the isolator. It hink it is working properly. I'm pretty sure the thing next to it is the starting relay.
I'm still not too sure about the thing on the left side but I can tell you that it has something to do with the auxillary battery. It is fed by a wire from the battery isolator (not hot) but has another wire that is currently hot feeding it as well.
Still confused! I will try to get some pics and figure out hwo to post them.
Thanks.

 

By the way - all the batteries are good, charged and well connected.

 

sbbamafan,
Item 4 sounds like the starter solenoid. You should have several wires on the post that goes to the battery. This is one of the power distribution points on my F model.
Things are bound to be located in different places on your E model, but they should be similar.

Item 5 sounds like an additional solenoid to control item 3, or 3 is controling 5.
Is this like a passenger van or a cargo van?

Do you have a very large wire connecting the positive posts of both batteries together?
I would remove both batteries and have them load tested, the small pop sound may have been a battery cell exploding.
I would also clean all the connections to the batteries and any other connections where bunches of power wires connect. Also clean the ground wire connections.

butch a 250 d,
Your first step to posting pictures is to set up your gallery.
That is where you upload the pictures to so you can post them.
Once you get them there the rest is easy.
The pictures have to be under a certian pixel size (640x480 I think) and 320,000 byte size to upload them.
They must also be JPG/JPEG, GIF, or PNG format to upload.

 

Dave - thanks - I'll give you a bit more info. I have verified that #4 is the starter relay. I don't know if there is another strarter solenoid or if they are one in the same. I have verified that the 'amplifier looking thing' is a battery isolator. The vehicle is a 'cutaway' E350 chassis. The body is an RV. #5 has something to do with the auxillary battery. It is fed by one of the wires (not hot) from the isolator.

Yes - there is a large wire connecting the + from the left to the right +. There is another wire that feeds the starter relay and the isolator (I'll assume for the time being that one doesn't really matter). All the wires that come off the same post on the starter relay are also hot beyond the fusible links. Problem is after that.

I guess it is possible the noise was a cell exploding. The connections 'appear' good and my test light is very bright. Batteries seem charged. I had a thought that maybe it is something like the ignition switch. Could this be the case? Like I said, I have no radio lights- nothing! Thanks again

 

The actual ignition switch is located down on the side of the steering column under the dash on my F model. I would guess it is in the same place for your E model.

I have also seen a E350 chassis that had a third battery located down on the frame to power accessories. You may have to look this thing over very carefully to figure out what you have.

 

I now have photos - can someone tell me how to post them please.

 

Both batteries are well charged and grounded.

 

Set up your photo gallery.
That is where you upload the pictures to so you can post them.
Max picture size is 320,000 bytes
There is a max pixel size of 640 x 480 or something like that, I can not remember for sure.
Must be in JPG/JPEG, GIF, PNG format to upload.

Did you load test them?
I have seen lots of batteries that showed a good charge when testing with a multimeter, as soon as a load hit them they dropped to 6 or 7 volts and nothing else happened.
Also you must disconnect the ground connections from the batteries to isolate them from each other. That way you are only testing one battery at a time, and one good battery is not covering for a bad one.
I told someone else that a while back, when he removed the ground wires it turned out both of his batteries were bad. When he tested them together they showed good.

Another thing for you to look at is the ground strap that goes from the engine to the frame, the one that goes from the engine to the body, and the one from the body to the frame.
If you can not find them, I would add each one that you can not find. You can not have to many ground straps.

Look at the size of the positive battery cable, it takes a lot of juice to crank a diesel motor over. A battery that drops to 10 volts under a load is marginal, I would replace it in my truck. You could put that same battery in a car and drive for a long time on it, but it is no good for a diesel.

I just re read your post on the isolater, where is that auxiliary battery located, if you have the two batteries under the hood tied together then the isolated battery is somewhere else. The isolated battery is probably the culprit that is running the accessories.

The 12 passenger van I was looking at had a third battery located inside the frame just in front of the rear axle on the passenger side. That is what powered all the accessories on the vehicle. I also saw an ambulance on an E chassis that had the same setup. When you get under the vehicle you are looking for a box a little bigger than a battery that protects the battery. You can not see the battery, just the box with a couple of wires running into it. If you find this box when you go to open it the battery will drop out, be prepared to catch it. The wires were not long enough to set the battery on the ground either. Took two people to remove and replace the battery cables.

 

ALL THREE BATTERIES ARE APPROXIMATELY ONE YEAR OLD.

No I did not load test the batteries. I will try to do that. If I don't get to it tomorrow, I will not get to try until next week as I am going out of town. I will also look for the grounding straps.

I also figured out what the thing is that is mounted in front of the left battery. It is a battery switch made by Tekonsha (model #7000). I found their website (tekonsha.com). From what the product description says, this seems to serve the same purpose as the isolator (Sure Power 120 amp).

FYI - the auxillary battery is a very large 1312 cca deep cyclemarine battery located in a storage bin behind and below the driver's seat. This bin is either made to hold a battery and provide some storage or it can contain a small Onan generator. Mine happens to contain some extra containers of antifreeze and fuel treatment. As for the condition of the auxillary battery, it has been fine in the past. Right now I can't check it as I am in the middle of an interior renovation and have removed all items that were being powered by that system.

 

Any more thoughts on the ignition switch theory? It controls everything that is not working with one possible exception, the headlights. I had an old t-bird and the ignition switch went out and caused all kind of strange things because the ignition switch and the light switch are somehow connected. I wish I could find a wiring diagram. Anybody have one?

 

If you haven't found any other problems, maybe it is an ignition switch. Go under the dash, on top of the column and see if you can find power at the switch at more than one place. If you only find it on one wire at all the different positions, that's probably it.