Warm Start Problem

[SteveMc]

My 87 6.2 starts great when cold or hot. However if you are in the warm range, as in it sets for an hour, the glow plugs don't come on and I have to wind it up with the starter to build heat for a start. 80 percent of the time it starts just fine in this range but, the other 20% I have to crank for a while.

Have changed the controler and have looked for the inhibit tempature switch to check it but, where is it? Have a picture from Chiltons diesel engine book however, it isn't in the area on the passengers side of the vacuum pump that I can see.

Any Ideas where the switch may be OR any ideas of another cause for this problem

Thanks SteveMc

[cschneider]

After '85 there is no acutal temp inhibit switch. The controller itself has a temp sensor that, if I remeber correctly, will shut the controller off above 115 degrees. This problem usually means there is something wrong that has nothing to do with glow plugs. Compression and starter speed would be the first place I would look.

[Mark Krieger]

My P-30 Stepvan wouldn't start easily after it had been sitting for an hour or two. I noticed that the glow plugs wouldn't come on either.

Last week it discharged the batteries after sitting for a couple of days. I began to suspect that I had a bad battery. I pulled them off one at a time and found that the driver's side battery would start the truck and the passenger's side battery wouldn't even turn it over. I'm guessing it had a bad cell and was killing the one good battery.

I put in two new Type 78 batteries with 825 Cranking Amps each! I've noticed two differences...

(1) The glow plug lights always cycle on after the truck has sat for an Hour. They cycle on for a second or two at every start. They wouldn't cycle on for a warm start before this.

(2) The truck fires off immediately; no matter how long it has been sitting. It also cranks over noticably faster.

Is the glow-plug controller sensative to battery voltage?