Requesting technical assistance, am a divorced woman, with 83 f350 diesel dulley with flatbed. will not start, glow plugs never seem to warm up. in last year have replaced waterpump, and starter, all belts and hoses, and both batteries. recently it started not starting, warm up lite never goes out, just replaced all the glow plugs, ( one was actually broken) but that did not resolve problem. Any ideas, I am a novice mechanic,, but willing to try whatever i need to. Love my truck, and with 5 horses,, NEED my truck,, but can not afford to have it towed and repaired. I have done all the work done this year myself except the waterpump.(was not strong enough.LOL)
Truck was owned by my ex father in law,, so I am aware of all its history if any of that matters,, has 400,000 plus miles,, and until I got it three years ago had little maintenance. but is a great truck.. glow plugs were the original.
Any assistance or direction would help, as I intend to attempt to finish this repair myself...
thanks

 

Try plugging in the block heater for a couple of hours before starting.If its working you will hear a sound like a coffee perk coming from the lower pass side above the starter,it is a fairly audible sound.If it starts,the problem is in the glo plug system,if it dont then you will have to do a step by step trouble shooting.How familiar are you with such things as the injection pump and related parts?

 

I think, but I am not sure,, will have to look tonight, but I think that my ex removed the block heater when we moved to the south. LOL.. and I am hoping that the problem remains with the glo plug system,, I am not versed at all in the fuel system. So for the repairs have been pretty straight forward,,, nuts and bolts, no real troubleshooting needed..LOL .. but if someone can tell me step by step what to do, I can do it,,I will check the block heater tonight,

 

Ok,so your injection pump(ip)is located on the front top of the engine,it has 8 steel lines comming from it going to the injectors.There are 3 wires going to it.The wire on top closest to the front is the fuel shut off solenoid(fss).With the key in the run position,remove that wire and you should hear a click when you touch it on and off the tab that it was connected to.This will test the fss for operation,no clicky,no fuel.

 

ok, found the block heater,, he had not cut it off,, just pushed it up out of the way,, and after much coaxing she started,, ran ragged for a few minutes then settled down. So since I have new glo plugs,, what does that leave??the "wait to start" light never goes out, even after it is running, and it used to buzz when it was waiting,,, now there is no sound.

your help has been wonderful,,,,

 

Wait to start light(wts) not going off indicates a problem,possibly a short.The buzzer you were hearing prolly was the seat belt buzzer,i know on mine at certain outdoor temps the wts and the buzzer stop at the same time,coincedence thats all.im not sure if the 1983 gp system is the newer style or not,someone will be along soon i guess to let you know,so i wont advise on that in case your gp system is diff than mine.As for the starter,be carefull when cranking.Dont crank for more than 15-20 secs,and give it a good 5-8 mins to cool,they hate extended cranking and will fail real quick if you do.If youre wanting to use your truck,give it more time on the block heater,at least 2 hours before the 1st start of the day.It should smooth out real quick if the heater is on long enough,like 15-30secs.

 

but what else could be wrong in the glo plug system?? sometimes I am not where I can keep the truck plugged in. is there a switch or solonoid that turns the glo plugs on and off??

 

but what else could be wrong in the glo plug system?? sometimes I am not where I can keep the truck plugged in. is there a switch or solonoid that turns the glo plugs on and off??

 

Ok, so lets see,you say tha wait to start light never goes off,correct?
Also when you 1st turn the key on to start watch your volt guage,does it drop down when the gp,s are supposed to be on?
On the rear of the engine there is a sensor for the gp,s screwed into the top of the motor,right back by the fire wall.That is the temp sens that tells the gp,s whether they need to come on or not.The problem i am having is why is the wts light staying on.

Check your messages,i have sent you one.

 

Bump

Can Anyone help this person??

 

Yes, but please read the entire post before you start.
The problem at the bottom could be where you trouble is at.
Any questions you can repost here or email me. I try to check this every night, but sometimes I do not make it.

the 83 was the original glow plug system that had the 150 dollar controller in the back of the right head. (Passenger side) 50% of the time it will break when you try to remove it. Then it leaks coolant out. It also had a latching relay that used alternator voltage to run a timer that provided afterglow after the engine started to get rid of the white smoke. Great system when it works right, expensive to repair and a real pain when it quites working.

My suggestion is to bypass the glow plug controller and install a manual switch to the relay.
Saves you 150 dollars for the controller, and gives you absolute control over when and how long the glow plugs work.

Look behind the passenger side battery on the inner fender well for two large orange wires hooked to a round relay. That is the glow plug relay.

It has two big terminals, one to the front of the truck, one to the back.
It has two small terminals, one toward the engine, one toward the fender.
The black ground wire should be closest to the fender.
The purple wire from the controller should be the one closest to the engine.
Remove the purple wire.
It just lifts/slides up off the terminal without tools.
Now take a wire from the battery positive terminal and just touch that terminal.
You should hear a loud click of the relay closing.
If that happens here is a picture of the rest of what you need to do.

Copy this link into a new browser window, there is a problem with the link if you just click it here.

http://www.members.shaw.ca/k2pilot/G...%20diagram.jpg

I recommend a momentary switch for the above circuit, if you bump it with your leg it turns back off by itself instead of staying on and burning up your glow plugs.

Remember to not hold the momentary switch for more than 10 seconds on cold days, 5 or 6 should get you going on not so cold days.

Now you also need to follow the orange wires toward the motor, there is a connector that has all the wires to the engine going through it.(six or 7 wires total) It is prone to melting and the glow plug wires not making connection any more.

best repair is to cut it out and solder the wires together, taping each one well so it does not short out to the others. be careful and only cut one in and one out at a time, solder and tape them up before cutting the next pair. Color coding may not be the same on both sides of the plug, mine were not.