been a while since i posted, but i have been busy with school and my truck has been running great.
anyway the last 2 days i have noticed that after driving for 15-20 min or so the gp light would come on and stay on. not wanting my gp's to burn out i pulled over and disconnected the ground for the gp controller started the truck back up and was on my way. now this morning it took me about 10 min of cranking to start up my truck (light comes on-wait-light goes out-try to start-fail-wait 2 min- rinse repeat) and after it warmed up real good the ligh came on and stayed on, i pulled over undid the ground. light still stayed on. so i just unplugged the 6 prong plug going into the controller, light goes out. so when i got off for lunch i put it all back together, light comes on and just stayes on. and the truck does not want to start. so i undid it all and cranked it for about 30 sec or so. fortunatly it was much warmer than this morning. also i dont think i heard the relay clicking on this afternoon or this morning.

 

If you still have the old style GP controller they where famous (or infamous) for doing that. In the time it took you to pull over and pop the hood I'll bet it burned out all your GPs. Check glow plugs and change over to solid state controller or manual switch. Don't reuse the controller that is in it now.

 

still should'nt i be able to hear the relay trying to turn them on still?

 

Depends on if the controller screwed up the relay or hurt the wiring, Its been know to do both.

 

run them manual then you wont have to pop the hood all the time.. thats what i did and havent lost a glow plug in 3 years since i switched

 

This is the relay mounted behind the passenger side battery.



With the ground wire attached, remove the purple wire that comes from the controller from the relay.
Jump power from the positive battery terminal to that terminal.
The relay should click.

To wire manual, find a power source in the fuse panel that is only hot when the key is on.
Run a wire from there to a push button switch and attach to one terminal.
Now attach a wire to the other terminal and run it to the glow plug relay and attach to the terminal the purple wire terminal.

Done deal with wiring.

To operate, turn key to on, push button for 10 seconds, start the engine.
Only use a momentary switch, one you have to hold to on.
And yes, test the glow plugs, they are probably fried.

Find the connector circled in red near the dip stick.


Inspect the end of the connector that has the large orange wires in it.
You are looking for signs it has been hot, melted or deformed plastic or discolored plastic.
Those are the wires that carry power to the glow plugs.
If the connector looks like it hass been hot, the juice is probably not going to the glow plugs.
Cut both wires as close to the connector as you can and splice them together, I soldered mine when I did it.
The splice has to be a good one, 200 amps to heat the glow plugs and it has to be insulated well after you are done.

 

ok so here's an update.
all the wireing conections are still just fine, not melted or anything. found one place that got me some glow plugs today. 1 of them was in the right baggie but was wrong part number and didnt even have the spade conector. shoud be able to get #8 tomorrow but 7 should start the truck in the morning.
of the plugs i pulled out they all came out easy, very burned but intact. tested them all and nothing. so something inside burne out before the element i could not get to the #4 gp (injector line in the way) i just got the one for #3 out but the spade busted off of the new one when i was putting it back in. so for right now i have 6 good plugs in. and tomorrow i get 2 more and have to pull some line.

 

Before you start the engine, you need to install a switch to kill the glow plug controller.

If not, you will be replacing glow plugs again this weekend.

 

the gp controller is completly disconected. going to add a switch but at least for tomorrow mornign i was just going to manually jump the relay