So I bought a GPR109 from NAPA, and the 12V ignition stud broke when I was twisting it (w/ my 1/4" drive ratchet.....I assume it was a defective part and not me over-torqueing it). I'm hopeful NAPA will replace it, but I'm also not dropping another $35 for a low quality relay if they won't.

What is the easiest bypass to give me manual control with a toggle switch?

Can I just put my old relay back in (was not getting 12V on the output stud, but jumpering it with the battery stud for 15 seconds worked) and run 2 jumper wires to a toggle switch, one on the 12V battery stud and one on the 12V output stud?

Is it this simple or am I underthinking it?

I'm in Austin, and there are only a handful of times that I'll need glowplugs to start the truck in any given year. So far I've had 2 hard starts, where I had to crank the engine for about 15 seconds 3x to get it to start. This is why I don't want to throw more money on a cheap part - I'd rather fix it with a manual override anyway to save battery and glow plug life.

Thanks,
Chris

 

you have to have a relay on there a togle switch won't work

 

you could put a toggle to control the GPR. although the stud may still be bad even jumping 12v to it. but it probabbly wouldn't matter if the 12v is hitting the wires to gplugs anyway. it would basically control that pole and what was hooked on it.. i would go ahead and get a toggle with a led light just incase it may get flipped by accident. or you could do a momentary switch..(hold down) so you have to hold it down for the 15-20 seconds and when you let off no more power to them

 

The current draw to the glow plugs is quite high. A typical toggle would melt quickly and the wiring required would have to be of a heavy guage. You really do need a working relay.

With a working relay, a remote/manual switch would be no problem at all.

 

OK, so I will have to suck it up and buy another working relay regardless of NAPA's return policy......

Once I get the new relay in, what would the wiring look like to have a toggle switch with an LED indicator so it won't get left ON accidentally?

The switches I've seen have 3 posts to be wired.....

What specifically would be the difference in wiring be for just a push-button switch, since it wouldn't need 12V to power the LED, right?

Thanks for the replies,
Chris

 

So NAPA gave me a refund, but didn't have any more GPR109's in stock so I'm deciding between the Stancor that everybody on here loves so much, and another cheap one since in Austin we barely need them, only every now and then for 3 months of the year. Has anybody gotten the Borg Warner GPR7 from O'reilly to work? The only results in a search are from somebody who said it didn't work, but there was no resolution to the thread. It's $28 plus tax - cheaper than the 109 from NAPA or the Stancor.

 

Do what I did and put in a pushbutton switch that controls the relay.
Hold on...... My truck is here today. I'll go take some pictures and upload.

 

Ok here is the picture of my setup.
I used the Intake Air Heater relay because I removed that heater element from the intake about three days after I brought the truck home and the relay was sitting there ready to be used and I was stuck in a campsite at 7000 feet with a truck that refused to start.

You can do the exact same setup with your glow plug relay as well.
What you need to do is to make a small jumper wire from the big post with the boot on it to the small post like I have in the picture. The red wire that goes from underneath the boot to the small post at the 7:00 o'clock position in the picture. That will supply power to the relay at all times even with the key switched off. The large post at the 4:00 o'clock position is the wiring that goes to the glow plugs.
the blue wire at the 2:00 o'clock position goes to a simple "momentary on" pushbutton switch that I mounted in the cab of the truck. Location is where ever you want to mount it. Mine is the pushbutton next to the steering column. You wire it from the post on the relay to one post on the switch, then from the other post on the switch go directly to ground.
That way you can directly control how long the glow plug relay is closed and the glow plugs are receiving power and heating up. You have to hold the button down, completing the circuit to ground which completes the control circuit for the glow plug relay.
I did this to increase glow plug life. You only really need them to get the engine going in the cold morning, but Ford has decided that they need to run those glow plugs for a lot longer than that and I don't want to have to replace glow plugs every other year.

 

Nice description of what you did. But how you have it wired, will the glow plugs only come on when you push the button? I would just like to have an override toggle switch. Is this possible?

 

Thanks Kwik, that is awesome. Would a LED be the same, with the adition of a wire to the switch to give it power to illuminate? If it's more complex than that, I'll definitely go the pushbutton route!

Also, when you run the wire from the switch to ground, what do you use for ground? Any metal surface or a specific spot?

Thanks, reps added!

-Chris

 

The glow plugs only come on when you push the button.
You can wire it the same way with a toggle switch, but let me offer my strong recommendation to only use a switch that you must hold on for it to be on. Again, you only really need the glow plugs to get the engine fired up in the morning. After that the engine runs on compression ignition.

Do you trust yourself to remember to turn it off EVERY time?

 

X2!! thats why i suggested a toggle w/led or just a momentary switch.

 

Also emphasize removing the original wires from the 7:00 and 2:00 positions and taping them up well as it looks like you did.

 

Yes, everything was fully insulated.
Nothing worse than fixing a fried wiring harness.

 

Fellows, do as Dan says. He knows his stuff.

An led to let you know the GPs are getting juice is easy. You could leave it to the PCM to fire the GP's and also put in a manual switch as well as a LED...but why would you wanna do that?

I would suggest that you do the AIH delete and then use that relay for the GP's...my $0.02.