Hi all,

I have an '88 7.3 IDI. Lately the glow plugs have been cycling intermittently, or not at all. Yesterday I had to start the truck on ether.
Today I went trouble shooting and found the lead from the double yellow wires was loose. When I attempted to tighten the nut, the 'stud' (with copper on the underside) broke right out of the unit.

My question is this: I have been reading posts about installing switches to override the controller. Can I run wires from the double yellow to another wire (maybe fused or switched ?) to avoid replacing this unit? It looks expensive and is a pain to get at.

Also, in many of the posts about installing a manual overide, there is talk of removing a purple wire. My truck does not have a purple wire. What 'landmark' can I use to find the right wire?

Thanks for all help.

Royzell in BC

 

That is the relay portion of the controller. The wires have a lot of amps drawn through them to use a switch at that point.
I am not sure if you can buy just the relay or not for that style of controller.
The entire unit is close to 200 dollars from Ford though till you pay sales tax and all.

The purple wire is on the old style system that was on the 6.9 engine pre 87.

The double yellow wires come from the battery and connect to one large terminal on the relay.
There are as I remember two tan wires on the other large terminal that go to the plugs.
You need a relay to install there something like a starter solenoid.
The two sets of big wires would go on the large terminals on the starter solenoid.
The solenoid mounting bracket must also be grounded.
The trigger wire on the solenoid would go to the push button terminal 1 you installed on your dash which would also be hooked up to a power supply like the fuse panel on terminal 2.

I know that someone will tell you to go buy the controller and all that, but I like my manual push button so well that I have a brand new controller in my garage that has never been installed. I actually have a 6.9 glow plug relay that I am using to heat my glow plugs using the push button.

 

Yes,you can buy the relay seperate,and they are not expensive.Just remove it from the controller and take it to the parts store to match it up.In fact they should have a listing for it.Its prolly around $25.

 

Check out this place.....cut and past to explorer page.
http://www.shopdiesel.com/index.cfm/action/shop_by_subcat/category_id/174.htm

 

Thanks guys,

I've found the part locally for about $28.00
Ford wanted to sell me the whole controller unit for $337

I should be up and running tomorrow.