I bet it is the glow plug relay pictured above. Worked one day and not the next, makes me think the relay.

 

you do not have air brakes or air susp. (unless aftermarket air susp.)"plug it in" means plug in the block heater its usually in the front bumper

 

I hope you have it running by now, but in case you don't go for the glow plug relay first. I've had several bad glow plugs and could still get my 99 started down well below freezing. The relay is relatively cheap and it's the most logical place to start. From there, you can ohm out each glow plug at the connectors entering the valve covers. On each connector, the first 2 wires and the last 2 wires are the feed to the glow plugs. Use a meter to check resistance to ground with the plug disconnected (odd little clip is a PITA). All 8 should be between 0.6 and 2 ohms. If you have to go in and change one, change them all ($8-10 ea.)

The plug the others were mentioning is for your block heater. Every powerstroke I've seen has come stock with one, but the plug is usually zip-tied behind the bumper. Dig around in there and you should find a 120vac plug. Even with a dead glow plug relay or many glow plugs bad, it will start after being plugged in over night - even down in the teens.

I'm not too far from you anyway. If you get it running while is warm out (or by plugging it in) drive up and I'll test the relay and glow plugs for you.

--John

 

Okay guys thanks for checking up on me. I just tried starting my truck today and of course everything is dead. I tried giving the truck a boost with jumper cables but that didnt work-out well.

First of all I have two batteries and wasnt sure which one to hook the cables to. I hooked up the cables to both for several minutes but it didnt work. I get it cranking but it doesnt seem to be enough. I will try to get one of those portable jumpers tomorrow. I gotta get this truck up & running by next month.

I checked the front bumper for any type of plug but i dont see one. Where would it be? It's dark now (plus the Giants are playing) so I'll try looking 2morrow.

 

It'll be on the driverside behind/around the fog light...I'll get ya a pic tomorrow.

 

Okay Thanks!

 

Maybe I missed this somewhere in the thread but I want to add it anyway. The 7.3 and I believe 6-oh-nos are HEUI right, using high pressure oil to make the injectors work? A buddy of mine has a 7.3 and the seal in the turbo started to leak oil. The truck burned off some oil and the next morning the truck wouldn't start. He cranked on it and cranked on it and cranked on it but it wouldn't start. He finally called and had it towed to a dealership. After a couple of quarts of oil the truck fired right up. After that was the 12 hour mechanicing session to change the turbo but hey, thats a navistar for you.

So while this probably isn't your problem, checking the oil is cheap and easy.

 

A jump pack probably won't do it, but it's worth a try... Most likely, you'll need a good trickle charge. With how cold it has been, you'll need fully charged batteries. My 99 was turning over real slow last night with relatively new batteries (didn't have the block heater plugged in). If you're jumping it, hook it to the battery that has 2 cables coming out of the + post. If you are just trickle charging, it doesn't matter.

 

any updates?

 

let me know if you need glowplugs. i just so happen to have a set. but i'd check the relays first and plug that baby up....