[Vwdiesel] Ford diesel hard starting

[Harmon Seaver]

   Slightly off topic, but my son bought a 2000 Ford 250 with the 7.3L turbo
diesel in it. Starts and runs great when warm, but when the outside temp gets
down below 45F (7.22C) it won't start. Put in new glow plugs, no joy. It's
definitely getting power to the glowplugs. Spraying ether in the air intake
doesn't help either -- which seems really weird to both of us. What it does then
is fire very briefly, then nothing and you can crank until the two batterys are
dead and it won't fire again. However, if you spray ether, crank, it fires then
stops, so immediately turn off the key, then crank again it will fire again.
   I've never seen a diesel that wouldn't run on ether before, which makes us
think that there's something in the electronic fuel injection system that is
perhaps closing an air intake at low temps???? That's the only thing I can
figure that would stop it from running on ether. 
   No, we don't have a shop manual. At this point, he just wants to get it
starting right and sell it -- too damn big and hard to drive, very hard to even
work on because it's so tall. Anyone know of any *good* Ford diesel lists? I've
googled for this but get zillions of hits and none of the forums I've found so
far seem much good.



-- 
Harmon Seaver	
CyberShamanix
http://www.cybershamanix.com