Hello all,

When I first got the car, I posted all sorts of questions.
Thank you for your help and responses.

Now I will post something other than a question.

1) Autozone had the glowplug, and they were 11 or $12 each Bosch

2) Installing them (all 5) solved the hard starting, hands down!

They were kind of difficult to put in, but I was able to manage with my (not large) hands, a craftsman socket set (including the deep ones), a 1/2 wrench, and a magnetic pick-up tool. I only had to remove 1 piece of throtle linkage and a small vacuum hose to get to the last one. The coolant hose, I was able to push it out of the way, and up on top of the oil filter housing.

THE TIP - Magnetic Pick-Up Tool, and how I used it.

These are very cheap and handy. They look like a small radio antenna with a magnet on the end.

When unscrewing the little 8mm nuts, get the magnet there to catch them, esp. if you dont have a good grip with your hand. ALSO when putting them back on, If you can squeeze your hand down into possition, do it without the nut in hand. Then PASS THE NUT TO YOURSELF with the pick up tool.

Thanks for all the advice about not dropping them. I did this and it worked!

Happy Dieseling

Mark
Running WVO blends.

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1983 300CD 245K
Running WVO blends

Mark,

I always loosened the GP nut and then removed the GP with the nut and wire still on the GP. Then I removed the nut and wire after the GP was screwed out of the head. I then installed the wire and nut on the GP first before starting the GP in the head and tighte dthe GP nut after the GP was screwed tight in the head.

But now that I have ratchet box wrenches, I have to remove the GP nut first. So for GP installation, I cut the wire connector into a "spade lug" so I can put the nut on the GP first and slip on the connector after the GP is tight in the head. This is because the ratchet box wrench can't be used if the wire is on the GP.

The above was on a 116 engine. I haven't done any GP work on my 603 engine yet. Not really looking forward to it.

P E H

Jim,

How about the other 4 GP in the 603 engine? Seems like others on the forum advise that the intake manifold must be removed.

I should probably remove the manifold and crossover pipe anyway to see how much crud is in them.

I didn't understand what you meant by "the nuts are captive on the wire end".

P E H

Some of us did get that.......

__________________
Jimmy L.
'05 Acura TL 6MT
2001 ML430 My Spare

Gone:
'95 E300 188K "Batmobile" Texas Unfriendly Black
'85 300TD 235K "The Wagon" Texas Friendly White
'80 240D 154K "China" Scar engine installed
'81 300TD 240K "Smash"
'80 240D 230K "The Squash"
'81 240D 293K"Scar" Rear ended harder than Elton John

Jim,

I'll have to go out to the SDL and see how the captive GP nut and connector work. I still think a new GP should come with a new nut on it unless the nut is not removable from the connector.

As you probably know, I'm a big proponent of the "not broke, don't fix" philosophy. Especially with GP. GP are kind of like a light bulb, they either work or they don't.

Seems like U were lucky that the GP that "broke" were ones you could get at to R&R. I probably won't be as lucky.

P E H

I'm well aware of your philosophy.

But, just so everybody else is not steered in the wrong direction, a glow plug is not like a light bulb. The heat produced by the glow plug is directly dependent on its resistance. As the plug gets older, its resistance climbs and the heat output is reduced accordingly. A glow plug with a resistance of 1.2 ohms, which I am sure you would continue to use, draws 33% less current and puts out 33% less heat than a glow plug with a resistance of .8 ohms.

No big deal if the temperatures are above freezing, but, when it gets cold................

On my 603 the #2 was easy as well, about 15 minutes. I was prepared with my magnet for the nut to fall off but it didn't. Took me a while to realize that it was captive. Very nice warm feeling of appreciation to the german engineer who thought of that for these engines. BTW, no way will my hands fit next to the GPs. I just used a long set of needle nose pliers and some deep sockets, extensions and a wobble wrapped in tape (for less wobble).

cheers,
Matt.

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-livin' in the terminally flippant zone