97 Ford E350 glow plug problems

[swoop]

We have a 97 Ford E-350 van with the 7.3 powerstroke. Recently I replaced all 8 glow plugs and the glow plug relay module. I connected a wire to the large stud on the relay module going to the glow plugs and ran the wire up under the dash board so I can watch a test light to make sure the glow plugs are lighting up. In the garage it has worked fine. We spent the night over in warm Leadville Colorado and the next morning went to start the beast and the glow plugs lit up 2 times when I was cycling the 'wait to start'. On my 3rd attempt the test light did not light up. Nor did the 4th try. The van was very hard to start. When it is very cold I normally cycle through the 'wait to start' at least 4 times with a 20 second ignition off between each.

Can someone tell me what the next step is to fix our hard starting problems?

[bfr44]

Your wasting your tome cycling the wait to start light. The glow plugs stay on for much longer then the wait to start light, and waiting that long between cycles only let's it cool down. Cycling the glow plugs that much could of worn out our rely sooner then it should, try jumping the relay over the two big posts with the ignition on for about a min before you start her.

[swoop]

Thank you for the reply! I ended up disconnecting the onboard computer entirely and installed a push button switch to the relay module. Now I can control how long the glow plugs are on. So do you recommend not cycling the glow plugs? I should only push the button in for 30 seconds or so and fire up the van?

[bfr44]

That might be something good for summer time but during cold weather the glow plugs should stay on for a longer time to keep the cylinder warm be for in heats up. It may run really rough with out them on while cold.

Good luck