Start/heat switch&glow plugs

[poor farmer/logger]

Well, I'm back once again.lol.. Made it threw the winter without any problems though. Put a few hours on the D7E and it worked pretty good threw the winter keeping the roads open and intially opening up the roads.

Back home now and it's breaking up so I'm going threw the 7 a bit and fixing a few things. I hadn't used the glow plugs all winter so to a bit of my surpirse when i went to start it when it was warm out the glow plugs were not working. Took the top cover off by the gauges and low and behold the wire was coroded and burnt off. It had gotten hot at one point because there was some melted plastic there. Figured before I go any further I'd test and see if there was any power coming out the switch. Sure enough nothing.

So it's looking like I'm needing a new start switch. Just wondering if you guys have ran into any good aftermarket switches. Have to wait till monday to phone cat but I suspect it'll be a pretty good price for it. I also could stand to use a new wiring harness. I was wondering if anyone has made up there own or found a aftermarket source for them. Emailed a company in Wisconsin that makes wiring harnesses but most likely wont hear from them either till Monday at the earliest. There is a switch on ebay but I kind of wonder about the quality. It's about 30 dollars shiped to me. Probably half of cat. Maybe even more then half.

When the glow plugs were working I only had about 5 or 8 amps of draw according to the amp gauge. Is that about normal. Read somewhere else on here that they had about 20 amps but that seemed a bit high. I know that one wire is broken on the glow plugs so there's definatley one that's not coming on. I tested the old harness tonight with a battery charger and there's power coming threw to all of the leads so I'm assuming the others were working. Was thinking about soldering on a wire on the broken one and hope or the best but the rest isn't in that great of shape.

Thanks

Ryan

[rusted]

The glow pugs should draw about 5 amps each, so a discharge of 20 would be correct for 4 plugs.

[Old Magnet]

I source switches here http://www.colehersee.com/catalog_top/index.htm
but it takes a little time to plow through the catalog and then find a distributor.

[Jason 10/D4]

There is some on ebay under buisness and industrial ,antique tractors and caterpillar

[poor farmer/logger]

Thanks guys, I'll have to do some more checking on the glow plugs themselves once I get the wiring sorted out again. Had planed on pulling leads and seeing if the draw changed any but got to get the harness fixed or replaced first.

OM, found the switch pretty quick that is like the caterpillar but it lists it as being rated for 12 volts. I didn't see another one so I assume that one is going to be out. Definatley looks allot better though then the one that I looked at on ebay. It was made in Turkey

I searched Caterpillar switch on ebay and I only found the one but I'll take a look threw like you said Jason 10/D4

Thanks

Ryan

[Jason 10/D4]

Ryan the store on ebay is www.teraparts.com and the item # is 360038580929 Hope this helps. Jason

[poor farmer/logger]

Thanks for the link. Managed to find it with the item number, for some reason the link just brought up a page with teraparts on it and that was it.

I'll have to send him a email and see if he'll ship to canada or not.

I got thinking about the other one and started to think that it would work. Got looking threw theire website and saw where they confirmed what I suspeceted. You can use it on 24 volt but the amp rating goes to half. Just what I suspected when I was thinking it threw. I sent them a email anywyas to see if they had a distributor close to me. I've heard of them before so I think that there are some around here.

Thanks Ryan

[bob]

Ryan, get yourself a simple little solinoid and only use the heat terminal on your switch to control it. Switch will last longer that way. Then take the main power on a 10 Ga wire to the heavy lug on the solinoid and put the 10 Ga. purple wire to the glow plugs on the other heavy lug.
Later Bob

[poor farmer/logger]

Sounds like a good idea bob, thanks for posting. I think we've got some new solinoids kicking around the shop.

I'm planing on redoing all the wiring on the gauges and off the switch to the starter. So I'm going to have to get some wire anyways.

Still not satisfied with that starter that I had rebuilt. I should just go buy a new 50MT and put new cables on and be done with it but I think that'll be next falls project. Once I get the glow plugs fixed it'll start okay threw the summer. I borrowed the neibours battery tester and checked them and they seemed to be okay. Both held up under a load anyways. They were on the edge when it was colder out but still in the green. With a load they droped to about 11 volts. That was at about +5F. Starter still seems to be drawing more power then it should. Sits at about 25 or 26 volts with no load on and drops to 20 or 21 volts when I'm cranking it over. Quite quickly too it drops. I've still got the old solinoid on but it's working okay. Better then those cheap chinese ones I had on there anyways.

Ryan

[bob]

Ryan, your starter will draw more than the MT50 because it's working harder.
It's nice to have glowplug draw through the ammeter but if you check the circuit out and it's good wire up the sol direct from the battery and save the ammeter. Meaning power it from the bat side of ammeter not the gen side as is normal to do.
Later Bob