[wyojess]

My 97 psd, has been having trouble starting , so I brought it to my mechanic, I told him that if I plug my truck in at night it starts great, the air temp at night being @ 40 degrees, If I dont plug the truck in, I need to crank it for @ 7 or 8 seconds then it starts rough and blows some white smoke... this was two weeks ago. So my mechanic pulls the valve covers, one glowplug is out and some wires to other glowplugs are backburned from the heat of the glowplug. I have the glowplug replaced and have the wires repaired, he also checks the glowplug relay and checks out fine as well. So the truck runs pretty good on startup for about a week but then starts acting up again. My question is, I thought maybe it was the batteries, Checked them and they were motorcraft, but thought there is no way they are original, they would be 8 yrs old,but the truck only has 63k on the odometer, there is also a gauge on top and both show green. Being new to diesels , it does seem like the truck cranks a little slow but that is someting that is difficult to to tell, being a newbie to diesels. Could there be some intermitent problem with the glowplug relay. The truck runs great when its warm, tons of power etc so it dosent seem like its a fuel problem. The glowplugs seems to be energizing as I see the voltage drop on the gauge, for the first minute or so. Just wondering if anyone has any ideas, as to things I can check, or what to ask the mechanic. thanks

 

[julyer]

your batteries could be original...mine are still in my truck. sounds like you need to replace the gpr. you can pick one up at napa for less than $20 i believe the part # is still gpr 109.

 

[wyojess]

Is this something a rookie can do my mechanical experience is basic ie changing the oil and anything I can easily unattach and reattach, any help appreciated thanks

 

[tallfarmboy]

Also, I would take your truck to a parts house and have them load test the batteries ,SEPERATELY to see if you have a bad battery...That might be your problem.
BTW, I just pulled the factory batteries out of my truck with 190,000 miles last winter.

Good luck,
TFB

 

[wyojess]

thanks for the advice a quick trip to napa seems to be in order have them check the batteries and get a gpr, do you think its a good idea to get a cd rom repair manual for my truck, I used to always get a chilton or other type of repair book but diesels seem like a whole diffrent matter, any experience with the cd rom and is it worth it?

 

[tallfarmboy]

Folks have had pretty good luck with the CD's from Ebay...You might want to check them out, but you can usually find them on Ebay for less than $10.

Good luck,

TFB

 

[Believer45]

<font color="blue">CLICK HERE</font> to go to an excellent how to article on the glow plug system by Carpentractor. The information is specific to the 94-97 trucks but the principles are the same. 99 and up use only one connector on each side of the engine instead of two and adds a second relay on top of the engine by the glow plug relay for the intake air heater.

<font color="blue">LINK TO ARCHIVED THREAD</font> I started when I did mine. The link in the thread for Carpentractor’s article does not work any more (Carpentractor moved the article) and the part number for the AutoZone / Motorcraft glow plugs has changed.

Hope these help out - Carpentractor's article helped me a lot.

I have both saved in MS Word if you would like them in that format. Shoot me an eMail at [email protected] with GLOW PLUG RELAY in the subject line and let me know what eMail address you would like it sent to and I will reply with the attachments.

Dave / Believer45

 

[wyojess]

thanks for the excellent link definitly going to change out the gpr although the article dosent tell you where it is on the motor suppose I can just back track from the glowplugs, thanks again what a great site this is cant believe the help people are willing to give...

 

[Sparkydm]

I pulled my factory batteries out 2 months ago and they weren't the
problem. The starter had taken a dive. Since the batteries were
the originals, I just left the new ones in. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif