HJ60 - Glowplug issues (**Pics meh!)

[vanzbrown]

Having been reading through Tech for the past half hour, haven't quite found what i was looking for.

Over the past week, My land cruiser with a 2H has been taking longer to fire than normal, mainly first start after sitting for a while, but also longer every other time as well.

Now the obvious problem would seem to be with the glow plug system, because where once the glow plug light would stay on for say 3seconds and then id fire away, now the light and the clicking sound of the relay just flick on/off in a split second, and if i try to start it has to turn over a lot longer before i can get it to fire...

So thats my main question, but now, in addition to that, this morning, car wouldn't really turn over at all, read: flat battery as radio was resetting it self as i was turning on/off ignition... Related, i dunno?

So, just wonder what the original problem could be? Clearly i don't want to tinker too much/spend many $$ on parts before getting a bit of heads up where the fault may lie.

Thanks for reading folks
VB

[Wozza244]

Behind your passenger side kick panel there is a glow plug relay box, replace it. Bout $150-200 second hand is about what they go for.

[Wozza244]

Also, pull out your glow plugs, easy job. Put the end in a glass of water and give it 12v power, if it sizzles the water instantly its good, if not replace them too.

[vanzbrown]

Cheers for this info...

I have been able to find a lot more info now i have a few more terms to search with...

Located the timer box...

Have been having a bit of a fiddle under the hood, in hope that i didnt have to spend the money on the timer box, and now even been reading about wiring up a 'wilson switch' to bypass it all completely.

Looking through the manual, i was unsure if i had a superglow system or not, but from the reading and looking at mine and using a test lamp on the glow plug rail, when turned on, it flashes very brighly, then goes to a dull glow for maybe 15seconds...

Anyways, thanks for help so far!

[beavis]

How did you go, you could also try setting up a jump from another battery to see if the extra current from two batteries overcomes your problem. This will prove the theory that you have a short in the electrical somewhere and the battery has possibly dropped a cell or two and is not providing enough current on its own.

[vanzbrown]

Cheers, should have tried that perhaps before i bought a new battery... Ha, ahwell, the old man had a hydrometer and this show a few cells to be a bit sub par!

Just been trying to work out how this superglow system works, more so for the benefit of my own curiosity.

I realise now that there are two relays, the first (which delivers up to 12volts to the glowplugs, which on mine has not been working properly for the past few weeks) the second which keeps the plugs glowing at a lower voltage for a little while longer, till you hear the small click (which i have now been waiting for in the mornings to start the vehicle, does seem to help)

Not sure what affect the coolant sensor and the current sensor have on the Glow System? Any one with some info on this, The workshop manual doesnt really say.

Anyways, im going to try my hand at testing the glowplugs with the multimeter i have here, not really sure how to use it but going to do the ohms test, i guess for it to be an open circuit as the book calls it, the ohms value has to be close to zero? If not, ill pull em out and test like has already been mentioned.

Probably will need to replace a few plugs, then i think ill just give in and get the new Glow timer as mentioned by wozza in the original reply!

If nothing else, ive learnt a bit more and become a lot more interested in the electrical side of the old cruiser... If not for rust, the old bus has been pretty good till now!

[vanzbrown]

...and on a related note, a few things on here point to problems with a fusable link for the glow plugs... and while im at it fusable link for the regulator?


Am i looking for an inline fuse from the leads?

The manual mentions this, but bit hard when im not 100% on what im looking at!

Just wanted to check it out whilst im testing everything else!


Thanks for trying to help me out here!

[vanzbrown]

ok, well decided tonight to test glowplug resistance... First five plugs, 0.00, the final one, the one closest to the firewall that has the arm attached to it (arm was not attached when testing) showed a resistance of 1.3...

So, great, thats buggered i thought, so i unscrewed it to check it out, didnt want to come out to the block very easy like it should, then finally lets go, and this is the result... Could be a reason why glow timer was tripping out does anyone think. I also have another preheat timer that i was planning on testing tonight once the engine had cooled... but now, arrrgh!






** So questions i have, i need to get my car started to get into work tomorrow, what should i do now? How can i go about rigging it up so it fires up in the morning? Where has the busted bits of plug ended up?

So many questions...

[vanzbrown]

well, ok dont stress...

Once i thought about it, i removed a plug from the 2nd cylender, placed it in the last spot so at least the arm could attach to the bus bar and glowplug, then i used an old glowplug that was missing the top half to plug the hole on where i borrowed the other plug from (its not attached to the bus bar now), hooked it all back up and it fired up, just hope it does the same thing at 6am tomorrow until i can get some new plugs...