ROUGH START AND IDLE

[stuley]

When I start my truck the Wait To Start light stay on longer like it was cold out. Temps here in Maryland are 70 or above. The truck cranks longer than normal and then starts. It puffs a white cloud and then has a rough idle for a while. The other day I tried to hit the accelerator and it didn't want to move. ANY HELP....POSTED ON THE DIESEL STOP AND NO HELP AT ALL....THANKSYou can reach me at [email protected]

 

[sagebel]

stuley, if were colder I would say check your glow plug relay. I guess you could still do it. That's what mine did when my GPR went but it was about 30* and I had to crank and crank to get the thing started after plugging it in for 3 hours. Welcome to the site. There are many more much more knowledgeable folks here that should be along soon. Also, a little more info on the truck and what has already been done to troubleshoot the problem will help.

Scott

 

[jlayne]

welcome aboard,

is the relay working on the top of the engine, that would be the easiest and cheapest fix... i always look at the little things first

 

[Ford_Forgotton]

well, the puff of white smoke is USUALLY indicative of either a bad glowplug, or a bad glow plug relay.

You can test your GP relay by using a good set of jumper cables to go AROUND the GP relay. Basically hook one end to your battery (+) and the other end to the OUTPUT side of the relay then try to start the truck. If no smoke, then bad relay!

You can test each glowplug by unplugging the UnderValveCover harness and use a Volt/Ohm meter set on "20-ohms" scale. You want .1 to .6 ohms optimal, but anything up to 2 ohms is considered acceptable. If you get NO OHM reading, then the GP is OPEN and BAD. Anything over 2 ohms is BAD also. Remember to touch your OHM meter probes to each other and see how much resistance the probe wires are (usually under .5 ohm) and subtract that from your reading. (.7 ohm reading minus .5 ohms probe wire resistance would be .2 ohms actual resistance).

I did the math one day, and even losing ONE glowplug created almost 100 amps LESS current draw at startup. So in theory, if you had a CLAMP ON style AMP meter that could read up to 1000 amps, you could clamp it onto the GP cable, turn the key, and see if its drawing close to 800 amps. If not, you have problems.

 

[CPUNeck]

The truck cranks longer than normal and then starts. It puffs a white cloud and then has a rough idle for a while. The other day I tried to hit the accelerator and it didn't want to move. ANY HELP....POSTED ON THE DIESEL STOP AND NO HELP AT ALL....THANKSYou can reach me at [email protected]

Hmm.. I'm interested in the slow cranking. Once the temps get to 60 or better here in GA, I don't EVER wait on the light, I just crank like it's a gasser and have been doing so since new (Early 99') now at 172k mi Soooo, because your waiting longer on the WTS light, and perhaps the glow plugs are drawing current longer, that could explain the slower cranking. On the other hand since I have no Bio on your rig lets asUme your batteries are 3-4 years old, or worse are still OEM. Just by being of low charge or failing cell, could cause these symptoms. If the smoke clears up after a short while and there's no other problems you can be sure it's a lack of heat in the combustion chamber at startup. I'd check your batt. voltage. Keep us updated. Oh, welcome aboard