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Series III - 2.25 Diesel heater plugs

N

NickWhiteKent

Shifting Up
Hello,

Been enjoying driving the Landy about the last couple of weeks after solving my stalling problem. Went to start her on Saturday and found the glow plugs wouldn't come on (at first I thought it was just the dash bulb, but after starting from cold it's definitely the plugs not heating up at all).

She still starts after a lot of cranking but then again it's not freezing cold at the moment. I did have 5 minutes to poke about (ok, more like 2½ actually) and couldn't find anything obvious out of place. I'm hoping it's simply a fuse or something - any pointers before I resort to tracing the wiring back from the ignition barrel?

TIA,
Nick
 
Nick,

If you have the older, series wired type, it is worth removing the connections and giving everything a good clean, and remaking them. With the older plugs, if one is faulty, none of them will work. If cleaning and retightening makes no difference, and all connections appear good (inluding the last earth connection to the cylinder head and the connections across the resistor on the bulkhead), then you may have a blown plug. The newer, parallel wired ones are more reliable in that if one goes, the other three will work. Not sure of the best way to test the plugs, I guess if you remove them you can check whether the filament has gone visibley.

Hope this helps, Simon
 
Hi,

I had a quick look (again) under the bonnet last night. I didn't have time to confirm the connections across the plugs but the cable looked undisturbed. I will of course do this. Oh, and they seem to be the series wired type of plugs.

While I was looking I managed to find a bank of fuses on the underside of the steering column. One of the fuses was blown, it was the fuse in the lowest position of the five and was marked as 17a continuous, 35a blow. Can anyone tell me, or tell me where to find what this fuse is for?

Ta,

Nick
 
Hi Nick...have a look here for an article about your heater plugs and how to check them for faults.

The fuse... Hmm. My fuse box (SIII 2.25 Diesel)has four fuses in it, and as far as I know thats the norm. One is a spare socket (second one down, IIRC)
The others...well, try all the electrics, and pull a fuse at a time to see what stops working. The fuses all do more than one circuit... for instance blowing the top fuse will cost you all the lights, the inspection sockets, the horn and all the panel lights. As far as I can remember the third fuse is the one which the heater plugs run from, via the ignition switch. This also handles the charging circuit I think. Must admit, other than keeping the fuses clean, I rarely mess with them unless something goes wrong! Have a check through your electrics and see if there is anything not working, apart from the heater plugs. You very rarely lose just one circuit on these fuses...usually loads go off at the same time!

My first guess for your heater plug problem would be a failed plug...thats the problem with the original type of system, lose one, lose them all. Have a read at the article, and check through the wiring.. (bet its the one nearest the bulkhead.)
 
Nick, all the fuese should be 35 amp. If I were you I would swap them around and see what happens. Put one of the others in that slot and see if the glow plugs work. Take each fuse out in turn and see what doesn't work each time.

As far as I can tell from the wiring diagram, there isn't a fuse for for the glow plugs as such. One with a a white wire coming from it, is the one for the starter, and the same fuse for the three warning lights - charge, oil, low fuel. Are those lights working?
 
Big Sandy said:
Hi Nick...have a look here for an article about your heater plugs and how to check them for faults.
--

What a great clear guide - I'll be having a play this weekend. As for the fuse, it may be a four fuse bank and my memory is also blown (more than likely). I have to admit, I did swap the faulty fause out with another similarly rated one in the bank, but still no-glow.

Still, with the aid of this guide I'll have a play. If there is a blown plug I'll think about replacing the lot for the later type of plug.

Thanks again,

Nick
Click to expand...
 
Hi Guys,

Had a look here (thanks again Big Sandy) and ordered myself a set of the later plugs to swap out my entire set. Went out this weekend, removed a plug out, offered up the replacement and it's miles smaller (obviously ordered the wrong ones from Craddocks).

Anyone able to give me a part number, or a specific item to ask for to get the right ones from Craddocks?

TIA,


Nick
 
i've got a set you can have for a fiver never used em swapped engine for a 2.5 which takes the smaller plugs.
one thing though if the plug or the resistor has blown the light gets brighter so maybe start looking at the supply to the resistor from the ign barrel.
 
Hi Conkers, thanks for the offer, more than happy to bung you a fiver for the set (I'll change them anyway if they are the non-series wired type), I'll even chuck in the four plugs I have as they sound right for your lump.

Let me know where to send them to?

[email protected]

Thanks,

Nick
 
Hi nick these are the plugs, I don't know if you can tell by the pic but they're a bit fatter than the 2.5 plugs.
Wire them up from the resistor just like the old plugs but DON'T wire the last one to the engine block it will blow your resistor like fuse they earth themselves to the block hence if one goes the others still work.
 

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Hi, I realise this is an old thread now but I'm having issues with my heater plugs too. I found that my landy doesn't start too well in the cold, and the cold start light doesn't come on at all.. so I decided to look at the heater plugs. Whilst all four are in place and each one is wired to the ballast resistor, there is no feed to the ballast resistor from the ignition. I then went inside to check the wiring and found there was no cold start light, nor fittings at all, the socket in the back of the dial is completely empty! Can anyone suggest a solution that would be suitable?
 
mark29uk said:
Hi, I realise this is an old thread now but I'm having issues with my heater plugs too. I found that my landy doesn't start too well in the cold, and the cold start light doesn't come on at all.. so I decided to look at the heater plugs. Whilst all four are in place and each one is wired to the ballast resistor, there is no feed to the ballast resistor from the ignition. I then went inside to check the wiring and found there was no cold start light, nor fittings at all, the socket in the back of the dial is completely empty! Can anyone suggest a solution that would be suitable?
Click to expand...

Yep. I'd replace the missing parts with original, then change to the later type heater plugs, without the resistor (though you'll find some kits with instructions telling you to leave it in. Don't, they need the full 12v). Read Big Sandys guide if you haven't already. The replaced dash light (cold start light), can be wired in too. It won't glow steadily brighter as it should with standard plugs, but will simply glow very bright to indicate either 'on' or 'off'

All the info is on here somewhere. Ill have a look for my original thread. Nothing that I wrote, but should show you where I found the info from others.

Found it!

https://www.lrukforums.com/showthread.php/199863-Parallel-plug-conversion
 
Its best to wire the light as original - ie across the 2 resistor terminals - as it then tells you that the plugs are actually working. if they're not - the light won't come on.

No point in replacing your plugs if they work. To check get a test lamp - put one end on battery live and the other on top of plug no 1 - should light. Now no 2 and so on. when it doesn't light - you know where the problem is. No need for ignition or switch feed. Check back to resistor.

I've found the original plug system is prone to bad connections on the plugs themselves - made worse by the heavy currents. Clean it all and polish it and it'll work for a long time.
 
I used to find that Champion glow plugs used to fail internally with a short to earth so although all seemed well with a test light the plugs did not heat, very occasionally other makes did the same. So remove all the wires from the plugs and check with a low wattage test light from the battery positive to the center connection of each plug to check for an earth short in the plug. Repeat for each plug.
 
Thanks for the help and info guys. I changed the plugs to the new parallel type and wired using the diagrams and info you guys have posted or guided me to. I didn't have a light (the whole fitting was missing) so temporarily I found a 12v LED light that I wired in as instructed, it works perfectly. Thanks again.. For a 32 year old engine, it starts first time and drives like a dream now :)
 
Goodness me, I have chased this glowplug problem for most of the day.... glowplugs were broke and a someone has obviously treaded these boards before (worse than I have), so I replaced, the resistor conducts so its ok, but there seems to be nothing from the ignition to the resistor, no volts read on it and nothing hears. I have replaced the indicator bulb behind dash as it was duff and fixed all manner of other botches... Surely the chances of the ignition barrel been duff on the coil output are fairly low ?
 
Ahhhh I give in... I have replaced ignition and ballast coil.... wires etc, small brown from ignition goes to empty fuse (series 3 82 btw)... At last I have heat going through the coil but ONLY when the engine is turning over... How weird is that ? Any ideas on the issue ? there is definitely power to the ignition and it just the coil which doesn't heat when in the pre heat setting ?
 
Assuming you have the correct ignition switch for diesel, have you experimented with the ignition switch to see what terminal is energised as the key is turned?
The standard terminal connections on the ignition switch are:
#1 glow plugs brown/red
#2 starter solenoid white/red
#3 power out to brake/oil lights, wipers, indictors etc. white
#4 power in from battery brown
 
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