January 10, 2010

January 10, 2010 odometer 120209

1. installed BWD (borg warner) gpr07 glow plug relay purchased at O'Reilly for $20.99. We had 10 consecutive days below freezing tying #3 record and ofcourse discovered that the glow plugs weren't working. Sucks that ford doesn't have any kind of actual feedback to show if the glow plugs are actually energised. Truck ofcourse calls for GPR11 which for some damn reason everyone wants $75.00 for, GPR07 has the same ohm reading on the coil is the same physical size only difference is the connections are clocked 90 degrees clockwise off from 11. I installed this same relay on my 96 pickup it appears to last approximately the same time as 11 atleast with a price of $20.99 a $55.00 savings.
2. Again I believe my 2000 van was built late in the year because the shop manual shows a different electrical connection using a solid strap off the gpr to the gp connectors, the truck has standard wiring with ring terminals. Leading me to believe that my truck has model year 2001 motor in it (it takes 2001 serpentine belt, which took me a while to figure out)
3. Unfortunately I had to pull the alternator twice to get to the relay because I originally accidently got a ford starting relay from oreilly and when I installed it and started the truck the relay never deenergised and after the battery went down I barely was able to get the alternator to put out enough power to get the truck home. Glow plugs seem to pull somewhere from 100-140 amps. I'm leaning towards 100, as 140 probably would have shut the truck down. Upon inspection nothing was damaged other than the starting relay's coil was open, so all the damage was inside the case of the relay. External lugs and wiring looked no different then before.

1. Changed oil and filter 14 quarts Delo 400 15W40 and motorcraft FL1995 filter