Engine wont start

You should still be able to start the engine without the glow plugs working if you blow warm air into your air intake. Steal your wifes or mothers hair dryer or use a paint stripping heater ( don`t get too close with the latter one). Blow the warm air in as your turning the engine over and it will act the same as using heater plugs. Obviously you may look a bit sad drying your engine in the middle of the road but believe me it works. I have used this method before on marine diesels.

I think I am starting to understand why you had a loose wire and non-fucntional glowplugs! The linking wires certainly don't join together - one (with a big ring on the end) goes under the ceramic insulator, the other (small ring) goes under the knurled metal screw at the end of the glowplug (when you undo this the ceramic bit comes loose). As with everything electrical, cleanliness is next to godliness, and a bit of vaseline as you are assembling the bits helps keep it that way. Good luck! As has been said before about 10 seconds is the right time.

Paddocks, a few days, unless you paid for express (£10 - next day) if your lucky they will arrive Friday, so have someone in to sign for it and you can do it over the weekend.

percyatok said:

I think I am starting to understand why you had a loose wire and non-fucntional glowplugs! The linking wires certainly don't join together - one (with a big ring on the end) goes under the ceramic insulator, the other (small ring) goes under the knurled metal screw at the end of the glowplug (when you undo this the ceramic bit comes loose). As with everything electrical, cleanliness is next to godliness, and a bit of vaseline as you are assembling the bits helps keep it that way. Good luck! As has been said before about 10 seconds is the right time.

Click to expand...

I though the links shoulnd be touching but on closer inspection i found the link wire is one wire with only the small conectors and im sure this isnt right, ive ordered new glow plugs with new wiring so this should fix them right?
Cheers
JD

Hey me again fitted the new glow plugs and it still dont start, i think the starter motor may be the problem, how fast should it turn the engine over? because it dont seem to be going that fast i recorded the sound so if anyone can have a listen just email me ([email protected]) and i'l send it to you.
Cheers
JD

right just incase, a fool proof wiew is the wire coming from the thing that looks like a spring (relay) on the bulk head to the first plug closest to the bulk head then a single wire from first to second, second to third, third to forth then forth to earth (earth being eather to the engine, chassis or streght to the battery negitive) for a test get a wire with a clip on each end e.g a jump lead, clip one end on the battery possitive then go to the input (driver side) of the relay (big spring on bulk head) hold it there for about ten seconds then try and start if this dosen't work keep moveing further along the line towards the glows and if that dosen't work it must be something else

Get rid of the heater plugs you've got and get some glow plugs. The glow plugs work on 12v so you need to get rid of the ballast resistor. Get a solenoid and wire direct to battery so you get a good feed. With the glow plugs if one stops working the rest aren't effected unlike the old style heater plugs. It should cost under £20 to get them and they are a lot better!

I have replaced them with new ones from paddock spares they look compleatly different and there wired differently though they still need the resistor acordding to the wiring diagram that came with them. Just looked at the box there probe type if that means anything to you all.

Yep, they're the new glow plugs. You need to bypass the ballast resistor, the new style i.e what was used in the defenders which you have, needs a constant 12v. As said before, the ballast resistor reduces the voltage down to about 6v. For a quick fix move the leads from the right to the left side of the resistor so you're just using it just as a handy terminal. One of the wires will need to be earthed though, that's for the glow plug light, this should be the thin wire that was on the right hand side of the ballast resistor. This will give you a constant 12v to the glow plulgs.

Ultimately you want to use a starter solenoid relay (i.e something heavy duty) so you can have a direct feed from the battery so the glow plugs have a good source of power and you're not running so much through the switch. The above will be fine for a while though.

Well people the engine started, i did the wiring on the glow plugs, changed the starter motor and it came to life . Thanks for all your help and im sure i'll be back for more lol.
Cheers
JD