Recently purchased a 2001 7.3 with 185k miles, first Excursion and first diesel vehicle.

If I turn the ignition on and wait for the "Wait to Start" light to go out before cranking (usually about 5 seconds) the truck has a 50/50 chance of starting. On the times it doesn't start it acts like a dead battery when you turn the key. If this happens it can take multi tries before you can hear the starter crank the motor.

If I turn the ignition on and crank immediately, the truck starts every time.

Any ideas what could be causing that? Is it bad to cold crank the truck every time?

Thanks for any input.

 

Pull your batteries out of the truck, let them cold soak over night and have them load tested. They may not be able to stand up to the demand of the glow plugs.

OR you could disconnect the GPCM, Wait to start, then see if it does it. If it acts up, the glow plugs are more than likely sucking too much juice.

 

99.999% of the time it acts like it has a dead battery it's because the batteries are dead. Not to sounds like a peckerhead but that's usually just how it is.