The injection pump just needs 12 volt to work. so just fingd the 12 volt source to like the coil, and use it. The glow plugs can be wired through the relay and operated manually that way, it would be even easier if you have the motor part of the glow plug harness.

 

While it will run that way, you need to make sure the cold start advance and temperature switch is integrated.Do not just run 12V to the fuel pump solenoid.The cold start advance bumps ingection timing about 2 degrees which helps starting and warm up.Once the motor has some heat built up it drops back to regular timing.

 

The cold start doesn't work on my 86, and it fires fine, warms up fine might sound a shade rough for a minute or so is all.

 

What year is the 6.9 you are installing?

86 and older used the old style system with spade connectors on the glow plugs.
87 used the new style controller mounted on the intake and bullet style glow plug connectors.

Wiring changes completely to go manual between the two systems.

 

well it came off a prison bus from the 80's, it came with the box looking relay in the back of the intake, do i need to wire up the cold advance??

 

Wiring the cold start timing advance and fast idle is not hard.
Neither is manual glow plugs, or the system you have is really rather dependable if you choose to leave it automatic.

Wire from the key switch from on.
When it gets to the engine, it splits into three wires.

Wire one goes to the glow plug relay/controller and attaches to the small terminal with a red wire from the controller under the relay on it, labeled ignition switch in this picture.



Two 8 AWG wires run from the battery terminal directly to the battery positive terminal.
Ground wire from the controller must go to a good ground, usually under one of the mounting bolts.
Glow plugs are hooked to two 10 AWG wires, one for each cylinder bank and to the glow plug terminal labeled in the picture.

With that wiring, the glow plugs will operate automatically.

The second wire from the ignition switch wire split goes to the engine coolant temp switch, located below the alternator in this picture and attaches to one terminal on the switch.



The other terminal of that switch gets a wire that runs to both the timing advance solenoid and fast idle solenoid on the IP, terminals are labeled in this picture.



The third wire from the ignition switch runs to the fuel shut off solenoid on the IP.

So when the key is in the ON postion, power is supplied to the fuel shut off solenoid, the ignition terminal of the glow plug relay/controller and the engine temp switch on one terminal at all times.

The engine temp switch turn the fast idle and timing advance off when coolant temp reaches 112 degrees.


Now back to the glow plug relay/controller picture.

If you want to convert the glow plug system to manual, remove the white wire from the relay.
Attach a wire to that terminal and run it inside the cab to a momentary switch and attach to one terminal of the switch.
On the other terminal attach a wire and run it to a good electrical ground.
Done with the conversion, now operation.

Turn the key to ON, push the momentary switch for up to 10 seconds, release the momentary switch and start the engine.

Power is supplied to the relay coil by the ignition switch when the key is ON.
The momentary switch completes the circuit to ground and closes the relay.

And it is very important the switch be a spring loaded momentary switch, that prevents the glow plugs being left on or accidently turned on and burning the glow plugs up.

Also I do recommend if you use crimp on connectors, solder the wire to the connector, then use shrink wrap to insulate the solder connection.

If you are wiring the engine from scratch, run the wires in bundles and use flex loom to protect them from heat and vibration.

Any questions, feel free to ask.

PS, if it had the controller/relay for the glow plugs on the back of the intake, the motor is an 87 if it is a 6.9.
Best of the bunch because it also should have 7.3 style rockers.

 

Thanks!!! that helps alot. i thought it was hard to wire it up, so for the cold start and fast idle solenoid one wire from the relay goes to one terminal of the tempeture sender and the other goes to both cold start and fast idle??

 

The ignition switch run wire, nornally would go to the coil on a gasser.

On the 87 6.9 diesel it goes to three places.

1. Fuel shut off solenoid
2. Engine temperature switch
3. The ignition terminal of the glow plug relay.

After the temperature switch the same wire goes to both the timing advance solenoid and the cold start fast idle solenoid.
If you look at the IP picture above, specifically the cold fast idle solenoid, you can see two wires in the connector.
One in from the temp switch, the other out to the timing advance solenoid.


The IDI diesel is a very simple engine once you grasp the differences from a gasoline engine.
If I was parked on a hill and the truck would roll, since I have a manual transmission I could actually start my engine with a 9 volt battery for a power source.

You only need enough electricity to open the fuel shut off solenoid if you can get the engine turning over fast enough and long enough.

Glow plugs, timing advance, fast idle solenoid are not required for the engine to run.
But they make it much easier on the starter and batteries when you start the engine in the summer.
Winter time with the glow temps, glow plugs make it possible to start at sub zero temps.
That would be very hard to do just turning the engine over since the cylinder temps have to exceed 500 degrees before the fuel will ignite, and you only have one compression stroke to go from the ambient temp to 500+ degrees.

 

ok now i get it, but the fuel shut off switch has two wires too, wheres the second wire go to?? GROUND???

 

In the stock harness it goes over to power the temp switch.

I don't know why they ran it that way.

 

on the 6.9 i have it has two temp switches, where do they go to??? two temp gauges??? and also need to know how to wire up the alternator please

 

On the 86 diesel there is a diesel warning panel in the dash.
Wait to start light
Water in fuel light
Engine overheat light

Where the panel is located, bottom right side of the steering wheel, they might as well left them out.
The wheel spoke is directly between your eyes and the panel if you are over 6 feet tall while driving.

I have that info, as soon as I find the link for alternator wiring which has a nice picture.

 

Thanks!!! I bought a starter for my Allison at545 its a gear reduction but it has a positive post and a negative and a small post, how would i wire that??

 

I also have a inline fuel heater wondering if i just wire it straight to the ignition wire on the relay???

 

Got a picture of the starter?
Or a parts number from somewhere?

As for the fuel heater, unless you are in a really cold location I would not worry about it.

We get sub zero where I am, fuel heater has been unhooked several years, probably more like 10 years.