Manual glow plug question

[86dieselburb]

Ok i'm on a quest to get my 86 diesel burb to be less awnry on cold morning start-ups. I have 2 brand new batteries, new gear reduction starter and just installed new glow plugs that I got at SSDieselsupply.com. Still a pain to start. I just finished replacing the glow plug connectors with new spade connectors in the hopes that maybe the old loose connectors weren't making good contact. Still no good.

My next plan is to by-pass the glow plug controller. I cant seem to find that "blue" wire My controller is on the back driver side of the motor. It has a flat 4 wire connector. 2 pink wires, 1 black and 1 yellow wire comming out of it. Also have one big red wire which I assume is the power and two orange wires which I also assume is the power wires for the glow plugs. No blue wire though.

The blue wire is the ground correct? I have a blue wire that is grounded to the intake on the passenger side. It appears to go into that big wire loom that runs along the back firewall. Is this the wire I m looking for? Figured i'd ask before I got testy and started really tearing into it. From the posts i've read it doesn't sound like something one needs to go ripping through the whole electrical system to get working.

Thanks for any help you can give.

Oh on a side note; Walt at SSDiesleSupply.com is a good guy. When I was putting in the new glow plugs I broke one of the connectors off. I emailed Walt and asked him if it was possible to purchase just one glow plug instead of having to buy a set. Walt sent me out a new glow plug, no charge. Can't say enough about Walt SSDieselSupply.com. Good place to deal with.

 

[dieselponyexpress]

86dieselburb
There should be a ground wire on the controller with continuity to both the engine and chassis. IIRC it's the black wire.

Don't forget to check the temperature switch screwed in the intake manifold.


Good luck,
Walter

 

[kennyw]

I got my glow plugs from Walt as well... They have been working very well for me... On the manual glow plugs though, do you want just an intermitent manual or fully manual? I hooked mine up as a fully manual setup after converting from gas and just ran the ground wire off of the relay to a switch. Then when I push the switch it grounds the relay and engages it.

 

[86dieselburb]

Ok well I went to Manny, Moe and Jack's and purchased a Haynes diesel engine manual.

I'm looking to make it full manual. Sounds simple enough now that I know which wire....lol. Black wire to momentary switch and ground other side of switch.

Kenny and Walter thank you for your input, much appreciated.


Thanks,

Craig

 

[Mastiff]

I see a lot of posts here about manual glow plug control. Why is it better? I've had my first diesel for about a week only, but the auto controller seems fine to me. If it was manual then I'd have to pulse the glow plugs while the engine warmed up?

 

[86dieselburb]

I too am a first time diesel owner. My controller seems to be working as its supposed to. But it's a bit testy to start on cold mornings.

Alot of people prefer the manual set up because it lets you control the amount of time the glow plugs are on. The controller doesn't stay on long enough to get a good pre-heat. The manual set up, along with self limiting glow plugs, let you keep the glow plugs on longer which seems to help the hard starting.

I'm not sure about the cycling during warm-up. I noticed mine runs fine after it starts. Dont notice any difference while it cycles.

Thats my limited take on it. I'm just looking to get better cold starting out off my beast.

 

[kennyw]

I went with manual glow plugs because I converted my '79 K20 from gas to diesel and it was a lot simplier to wire it up that way (two wires going into the cab total).

 

[dieselponyexpress]

For the newer, non-swelling AC 60G plugs, the controller shuts off to quick.
They need a few seconds more of glow duration.

So you can either convert to a manual system or modifie your controller with a resistor to lengten glow time.

There are new "quick heat" glow plugs as well. They're on ebay from time to time.


Walter