I have 01 Ford F-350 Turbo Diesel that will not start. I have replaced the starter because it had gone bad, but it still will not turn over fast enough to crank. It turns over slowly for maybe 10 seconds before draining the batteries dead. I've checked and replace all battery cables. The batteries are new, but still the engine turns over very slow. I noticed when I connect the ground terminals to the batteries I get a heavy spark. I let the truck sit overnight and the batteries drained all the way down and since then no luck with getting it started, even after the above mentioned work. Any help with this issue would be greatly appreciated. Thanks Tony

 

Sounds like you have a dead short somewhere in the system. You shouldn't have a huge spark when you connect the batteries, as long as everything is turned off. If you have a large spark and fresh batteries going dead overnight it seems that somewhere in your electrical system a positive lead is crossing over to negative and shorting out. You need to chase wiring and look for shorts that are not fused. A short that severe should probably pop a fuse. Do you have any after market accessories installed that you wired up without a fused link?

 

try running jumper cables from one battery to the other and see if that will fire it. that will also help you in locating which side of the wiring you have to look on.

 

I've checked all the fuses none bolwed, there are no accessories installed by me but the wiring from the privious owner is still there. I'll remove that and see if it helps....Also will try the jumper cable... I,ll let you know what i find....Thanks tony

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just took ALL accessory wiring out from the privious owner still no luck,the heavy sparking was still there. I did get the heavy sparking to stop by removing the BLACK wire with RED stripe from the relay that goes to glow plug harness. Could it be relay is bad or bad glow plugs? i am new to diesel and very excited cause i,m learning how diesel stuff works so please bare with all the uneducated questions, you have been big help in keeping me motivated...Thanks tony

 

I've read about the glow plug relay causing all sorts of odd issues. This could easily be your problem. It's possible that it's shorted itself internally and is staying on all the time, hence the dead batteries syndrome and the big spark when you connect everything back up.

 

just finished tracing wirers found that the passenger side [9 pin] glow plug connector had all the wires striped about 1-2 inches up from the connector,i repaired the wires best i could bolted everything back together and still the heavy spark when connecting cables. I have not replace glow plug relay yet. i tried to crank the engine still the batteries drained down within about 10 seconds.

 

Try and unhook the cable of the relay and see what happens.

 

just tired unhooking the cables to the relay, Only when i unhook the output cables yellow [driver side] & brown [passenger side] leading to the glow plugs do the sparking stop. I rehooked the cables and unplug the [9 pin] glow connectors on both sides of the engine the spanking stopped!! When i reconnected the glow plug connectors the sparking will start if i connect the batteries....Could the glow plugs be at fault? ANY suggestions is highly appreciated.....I'M about ready to take it the dealership thanks.....tony

 

If the glow plugs have been on the entire time, no doubt their any good and probably shorting out. Relay got hot and glued itself closed. My theory anyway.

 

The relay seems to be fine, ran a ohm meter test an zero voltage when the switch is off, I get 11.81 volts when the swich is turned on. Only when the glug plug connectors are unpluged do the sparking stop.