Electrical....again

89 Stroker · Jan 16, 2014

97 7.3 E350 style , having an issue when starting in the morning it feels like its only pulling from one battery , drive 3 miles and it sits all day (5:30 am - 4:30 pm , jump in it and it fires right up , usually in the morning i have to hit it with starter spray , i feel the batteries and one is hot the other is cold , both batteries are good and even tried the batteries out of the 6.0 that fires right up and it did the same thing...slow cranking with some white smoke , all the wiring from this thing is out of an E350 Van , question is where do both of the batteries connect at? or where would be a good place to start looking? would jumping a wire straight across fix it?

Bugman · Jan 16, 2014

Your batteries should be connected together from the drivers side to the passenger side to the starter and solenoid on the fender. Take a digital volt ohm meter and check the voltage on the positive post of the drivers side battery and then check it on the battery clamp on the same battery and see if there is a difference, then do the same on the passenger side battery. There should be no difference in voltage between the post and clamp. Then check the voltage on the fender mounted solenoid, there should be no voltage drop there either.

When you tested the batteries did you disconnect them from the truck or did you leave them connected? If you left them connected you will get a bad reading since they are connected in parallel.

89 Stroker · Jan 16, 2014

Bugman said:
Your batteries should be connected together from the drivers side to the passenger side to the starter and solenoid on the fender. Take a digital volt ohm meter and check the voltage on the positive post of the drivers side battery and then check it on the battery clamp on the same battery and see if there is a difference, then do the same on the passenger side battery. There should be no difference in voltage between the post and clamp. Then check the voltage on the fender mounted solenoid, there should be no voltage drop there either.

When you tested the batteries did you disconnect them from the truck or did you leave them connected? If you left them connected you will get a bad reading since they are connected in parallel.

both done in the truck and out of the truck , they are out now so i will get them checked again , could a bad solenoid do this? recently replaced the one on top of the engine but not the fender one

Bugman · Jan 16, 2014

The solenoid on the fender is just a connection point for the power to the glow plugs and the trucks electrical. You may have bad battery cables or clamps. Have you tested the glow plug relay and glow plugs? Using starting fluid on a engine that has glow plugs is a big no no.

89 Stroker · Jan 16, 2014

Bugman said:
The solenoid on the fender is just a connection point for the power to the glow plugs and the trucks electrical. You may have bad battery cables or clamps. Have you tested the glow plug relay and glow plugs? Using starting fluid on a engine that has glow plugs is a big no no.

not yet , how would i test those? , and i know but i had to and it was not too much , i know using it a lot is bad but a little wont hurt to much , i have a feeling it may be the cable , a few weeks ago i had 2 new batteries in it and it turned over faster then it ever has and fired right up , so the slow cranking leads me to believe its pulling from 1 battery

Bugman · Jan 16, 2014

To check the relay you need a digital volt ohm meter. Before you turn the key on see what post you have voltage on. You should only have it on one large post. Turn the key on and check it. You should have voltage on both large post and there should be less than 0.3 volts difference between the two. If you don't have voltage on both large post check the small post, you should have voltage on one of them, if you have voltage on both of the while the key is on then you are not getting the ground signal from the PCM and will need to trouble shoot that. The PCM will keep supplying the ground for up to 2 minutes before removing it.

To test the glow plugs use the digital ohm meter and follow the instructions with the meter to zero it out. Now on both valve cover gaskets there are two plugs. Each plug controls 2 glow plugs and 2 injectors, the glow plugs are the outside pins on each connector. Measure the resistance of the glow plug to ground, it should be between 0.6-2 ohms for it to be a good plug.

The reason that starting fluid is bad is that you may end up with a glow plug setting it off before the cylinder is at the top of its stroke. If this happens it might end up trying to push the piston back down which could be catastrophic to the engine.
There is a reason that you don't use it on a glow plug equipped engine.

For the battery problem check the grounds also.

89 Stroker · Jan 16, 2014

Bugman said:
To check the relay you need a digital volt ohm meter. Before you turn the key on see what post you have voltage on. You should only have it on one large post. Turn the key on and check it. You should have voltage on both large post and there should be less than 0.3 volts difference between the two. If you don't have voltage on both large post check the small post, you should have voltage on one of them, if you have voltage on both of the while the key is on then you are not getting the ground signal from the PCM and will need to trouble shoot that. The PCM will keep supplying the ground for up to 2 minutes before removing it.

To test the glow plugs use the digital ohm meter and follow the instructions with the meter to zero it out. Now on both valve cover gaskets there are two plugs. Each plug controls 2 glow plugs and 2 injectors, the glow plugs are the outside pins on each connector. Measure the resistance of the glow plug to ground, it should be between 0.6-2 ohms for it to be a good plug.

The reason that starting fluid is bad is that you may end up with a glow plug setting it off before the cylinder is at the top of its stroke. If this happens it might end up trying to push the piston back down which could be catastrophic to the engine.
There is a reason that you don't use it on a glow plug equipped engine.

For the battery problem check the grounds also.

i will check on that stuff , just find it weird after sitting over night it hard starts in the morning , but later on it fires up , even only driven 3 miles and not all the way to operating temps

Bugman · Jan 18, 2014

Find the problem yet?

89 Stroker · Jan 18, 2014

i will know more tomorrow , i took the batteries out , replaced some cables and switched around the grounds and it fired right up this afternoon , its been sitting since Thursday so tomorrow morning will determine if it helped