<!-- icon and title -->Looking for some suggestions. Electric issues aren't anything I've ever had to troubleshoot before, so I don't know much of where to start. The vehicle is an 89 Ford E350, 7.3l IDI, former ambulance. This thing has wires, everywhere. Has two deep cycle batteries. I use it pretty much only for hauling the race car and a few home depot trips a year.

It has a cut off switch, which "should" be cutting power to everything, with the exception of the brake controller, which is wired directly to the batteries. It's a Uhaul brake controller, which I assume should have no draw unless the trailer is connected.

Here's the story:For whatever reason, the air horn stopped working this spring. Likely when I pulled the batteries to charge them after winter, I bumped/disconnected something. Last Tuesday, I started it up, moved it to my drive to work on. Pulled the power from the batteries and removed one of the batteries to gain access to the horn and relay. When disconnecting the positive terminal, my wrench made contact with the truck body, there was a spark.

To fix the horn, I found the relay had an empty terminal on it. Found a loose wire with a spade bit on it near the relay. Plugged it in, put battery back in, connected all the terminals, turned on master power, and the horn worked. Weak, but the compressor ran. Decided to scale down from two trumpets to one. Sound was stronger and it was dark, so packed it up for the night. Started up the truck and moved back to the street.

Next morning (10 hours later), go to start, and you can only hear the starter clicking, it can't even turn the engine over. Enough power to run lights (and the horn).

Next day, pull out the battery charger and charge both batteries (takes about 6 hours for each). The charger reported both batteries at around 13 volts. After charging, truck started fine. I turned on the idle controller and let it run for 20 minutes.

My neighbor brought over his meter, and we found that there's a small transient leak, .06 to .1 volts, with the kill switch off. AFAIK there's nothing that should be drawing power, no clock and the radio is out of the truck. I also pulled the ground on the brake controller with no change. The trailer wiring, though, is the 7-pin RV, which to my understanding, uses it's own lead and ground rather than relying on the trailer ball to ground. Could be the source of the leak. Either way, though, it's unlikely such a small leak, would drain two deep cycle batteries in 10 hours.

Since the truck had been running, I figured it'd be fine. Two days later, again the truck wouldn't start. It did have a little more juice, as the starter was attempting to do something besides click.

I haven't looked at it since.

Here's my thoughts. Both batteries are possibly shot. Either I shorted them out with disconnecting them, or they just wore out. Their age is unknown, and last fall I left the power on (with the CB turned on) for about a month. There was still enough power to run lights when I found it, but with it being winter, the batteries just sat in the truck. I charged them in the spring, and haven't had much issues.

Or, the alternator is shot and it's not really charging the batteries, which aren't very strong.

Other things to note: Starting since I've owned it (July 2007) has been "interesting." It usually takes two heat cycles on the glow plugs to get enough heat to get things going. During the heat cycle, the glow plugs will heat for 5 seconds, then click on and off about 5 times. Often I need to use starting fluid, as it seems that the fuel just doesn't catch.

Also, in June, the engine temp gauge stopped working.

And finally, the idle controller doesn't always kick on when I push the button. When it does this, it usually takes a couple of pushes to get it on.

 

sounds like you need to get the batteries tested,and also need some new glow plugs.

 

shmeek,
Welcome to FTE and the IDI diesel forum.

My first step would be have the batteries load tested to see if they are capable of storing enough power to start the engine.
When you have them tested, they should be tested one at a time.
There is no tester on the market that can test more than one battery at a time and pinpoint a weak one.

An alternator test at the same time would be a great idea.

Short glow cycles on the new style controller are an indication of one or more bad glow plugs.

 

Thank you guys! Going to recondition and then recharge the batteries. Then do an alternator test. Following that, will do a battery test.

Regarding the glow cycle, does the '89 have the "new style controller." Another forum was suggesting replacing the relay. If it's the plugs, I know that the plugs themselves aren't too expensive (roughly $8/each), but the labor, on a van, am I looking at a lot of time?

 

Your glowplug relay sounds like it is working to me. You described exactly how its should cycle. i would just change the glowplugs. I would sugest getting the motorcraft buru glowplugs. O-rilies carries them. The tips of the glowplugs are less likely to come off of these than other brands.

I think it is also a battery issue. If possible, see if someone has a load tester. First hook it up and see what your voltage is running. Optimum should be be 13.8-14.8 volts. Then with the vehicle off and each battery charged and disconnected attach the load tester to one and load test it.
I usually load down 300 amps for 15 seconds. When you load it down, your looking for the voltage drop of the batteries. 9.6v is the absolute lowest. Infact at work i change them when they drop to 10v on a fully charged battery. Then after the 15 second load, you need to see what your voltage is 15 seconds after the load is removed. You want it like no more than .4-.5 volts lower than your starting voltage, which is still a big drop. EX 12.9 charged goes down to 12.6 after load.

These numbers isn't exact and pulled number out of the air but A charged good battery at work looks like this

12.9 volts before Load Test
11.0 volts during 300 amp test for 15 seconds
12.7 volts recovery after 15 of load removed

A charged bad battery will look somewhat like this
12.9 volts before load
09.2 volts during 300 amp load for 15 seconds. Too Low
12.1 volts recovery 15 seconds after load removed. Not enough recovery.

I use 300 amps on all batteries. Your supposed to use I think half of the cold cranking amps but at 300 amps I can tell if its bad or not from doing it everyday. My bad loader clamps don't like much over 300 amps, they get really hot and smoke. If you can do Half the cca or Per instructions, do so. Good Luck

 

i have a 89 old uhaul 350 7.3, the glow plug cycle is fast it seems like to me too. i have a 93 f250 4x4, 7.3 and the glow plug cycle is much longer. the 93 f250 has 370.000 miles on it and always starts after the first glowplug cycle, now the f350 7.3 has only 177.ooo miles on it and it takes 2 glow plug cycles to start most times.