My 89 f250 7.3 starts hard, I have to hit it 2 or 3 times, even in 90 deg weather. Tonight I check all 8 glowplugs 2 ways. I pulled each one out and held on a battery until it started to glow orange at the tip (about 4 seconds). I had some spare plugs and out of the 11 plugs, I put 8 good ones (working at the 4 second mark) in. I checked each wire to make sure each plug was firing, one at a time (with my 7year old daughter rolling the key back and forth). The truck still starts hard and the controller only holds the WTS light for 4 or 5 seconds. No random or weird clicking going on. Now, I am running 3 Champion GP's and 5 stock plugs. I have not read much good about champion or autolite plugs and will probly be changing out the champions soon, but for now, they fire alright. Keep in mind, once the truck is running, it runs great, its just plain hard to start.

What would cause the controller not to fire the plugs for more than 4 or 5 seconds, regardless of the temp (no change when engine is cold or hot) ? I also pulled a return hose off tonite and noticed that it is cracking. I will be replacing those tomorrow. Any ideas ?

 

Check the batteries. Does it crank fast? Does it start hard every time you try to start it, or only when it has set for a little bit?

As for the glow plugs, get all the non Motorcraft/Beru glow plugs out of it while you can. The other brands tend to swell the tips and not come out in one piece. A broken tip may require removal of the head to get it out. That is not a fun job. Autozone has motorcraft/ beru plugs for 9.99 ea.

 

I only have 1 battery in it, it may not crank as fast as it should, could be part of the problem. I will be installing the 2nd battery and cables today. I also am changing the fuel filter. I have heard that a pin-hole in this can cause air to enter the system. Please stop me if I am wrong, the filter cost over $40.00. I was told that I may have air in the system. When I hit the bleeder on the filter housing, it always has air in it for the first little bit, then fuel will come out.

As far as starting, the first start is the hardest, 2 or 3 times before it takes off, then its a smokey roar followed by the beautiful rattle of a diesel. If its already been run, It will start right up on the first try.

Today, I will be doing the following: Changing the return line hoses. Removing non-beru gp's. Installing 2nd battery and cables, changing the fuel filter.

 

I have had several problems with pin holes causing fuel to bleed back to the tank and it always has air at the bleeder. but on mine it would always start right off, run about 5 seconds then quit then I would have to crank for several cycles to get it to restart.
Its hard to pin point these problems unfortunatly sometimes you have to keep changing parts till you hit the right one. Still cheaper than a new car payment. Good luck

 

only having onw battery to turn over the 7.3 could be a big part of your problem. These motors have a lot of compression and it takes alot of juice to get them running. I would definately do the battery job first!!!

 

went to Advance Auto (chain store) today and the young kid at the counter was not much help. I went for several things, including a TPS for my 99 F150 and battery cables or at least cable ends for studed truck batteries. Got 5' of 1/4" fuel hose and 20 hose clamps, the kid had no idea about what I was talking about for truck parts. I told him I was looking for glowplugs for my 89 F250. He brought up the screen on the computer and proceeded to ask me what engine, 302, 351, 460 or 7.3 diesel ? After I found out they only carried autolite plugs, I paid for my hose, clamps and TPS. Got home and changed my TPS on my gasser, only to find out the parts store gave me a defective sensor. Par for the course for them. Monday I will go to the REAL auto parts store and order glowplugs and a TPS.

 

Beru ZD 9 glow plugs are what you want.
One battery is not enough to start your engine, the glow plugs will draw to much juice to have enough left to start the engine. The voltage drop on one battery is probably why they are cycling funny.

When you do the return lines you also need 16 O rings that go in the injector bleed off caps, if you replace the lines the caps will start leaking. Best to do it all at once. Learned that the hard way, replaced the lines and within two days had four caps leaking. Replaced the O rings in four caps, and two days later the other four were leaking. There are two O rings per cap.

NAPA is the only store that had clamps big enough to go on the battery cables on my truck, and they did not have the clamp for the right side battery which has a 2/0 wire from the drivers side battery and a 3/0 wire from the right battery to the starter.

 

installed 2nd battery and changed the return lines only (I was not able to get orings around here) and the plugs still only cycle for maybe 4 seconds, but the truck started within 15 or 20 rolls. This is quite an improvement over previous attempts of 2 or 3 tries. Once the truck was ran for a few miles and set off for an hour, the glowplugs only came on for a second, then went out. Again, the truck started on the first try, but after 15 or 20 rolls (I am guessing) Perhaps more than 15-20 rolls, 5 to 10 secconds of constant rolling.

 

Go to Autozone for the Beru/Motorcraft GPs or order them online $9 each, get the right kit for the return lines from.......
http://www.mwfi.com/ford_73.htm

http://www.dieselpage.com/dlk.htm

Fuel filters from IH are much cheaper.. ask for FG1281