Freak Glow Plug Problem
 

So today I started to check my glowplugs to see if they were functoning. I start out wiht my mulitimeter. Four are good, one is bad -the #2 cylinder- so I plan on replacing that one. No big deal right?!?! This is where things go sour. I Take out the #2 GP and to my surprise, there is no pencil tip on it!:eek: :eek: (see pictures) I got a dentist mirror to look in there to see what I could see and I think I see the end of the plug. I tried using a magnet to get it out, needle nose plyers won't fit, and if I can find my forceps I will try those too. My question to you all is do you have anyother ideas on how to get the remnant(s) out? Would it help to take out the injector? I need to get this back together soon , so the quicker the better.

Have you tried a piece of solid copper wire like used in Romex, with a dab of grease on it? I used that trick on small nuts and bolts that would run an hide in areas too tight to get a magnet into.

Never heard of Romex before. Could you elaborate? (spelling?)

It's the 3 lead wiring that is in the walls of your house (if it has updated wiring and 3 prong outlets. It is sheathed in white or yellow, depending on eletrical load. Inside that are 3 wires, one bare copper, one cased in white, and the other black. You can find it at Home Depot or the likes.

Romex is solid copper electric wire used in houses to go to wall plugs etc.

Shop Vac?

I was going to try the shop vac next. Thanks. We will keep you posted.

It's a minute or two to pull the injector. Now you can get a shop vac with a tip down into the prechamber and vacuum the debris.

You'll never do the proper job via the glow plug hole..........

If the glow plug tips are magnetic, maybe a magnetized probe of some sort, if the vac doesn't come up with any bits?

non-magnetic part retreiver
 

Not everything one might drop down a hole is magnetic. The hardware store will probably have a small part retreiver with little fingers and a plunger to extend/open and retract/close them. From the injector, you could probably get a straight enough line on it to make one work.

Otherwise, a small copper wire noose or rod with something sticky on it might work. Make sure you use long enough wire you can tighten the noose on the object once you've got it. Or for something sticky, chewing gum. the sticky side of duct tap or maybe a ball of that soft. sticky goo they use to hold junk mail closed while it goes through the mail.

After a good bit of fiddiling I hae come to the conclusion that this is the only way to go. The only problem is that I do not have a socket to fit the injector. Is it just a 1 1/16 deepwell? I need to make a run up to Home Depot later for some stuff so I could pick one up there.

27mm. Good luck, the carbon seizes on those glowplug tips pretty solidly. You may have to work it a bit if you manage to get a hold of it.

Some "deepwell" sockets are deeper than others. If it's not deep enough, the return nipples won't fit.

Can't say what the HD tool will do, but, the Sears 27mm deep socket definitely works. 1 1/16 is also fine.

Well I got the injectors out and since I was in there I decided to do a compression test. This is what I got:
1) 280 psi
2) 300 psi
3) 290 psi
4) 260 psi
5) 305 psi
I assume that these are relatively good numbers even with number 4.
But back to the number 2 GP. I got the injector out and tried to pry the GP out but no such luck. It is in there pretty good. While I was cleaning up I thought about drilling the GP out. Just straight through the center and use a shop vac to make sure melat shavings don't go anywhere they are not supposed to. This would be a last ditch effort of course. Tomorrow I plan on using some WD-40 to see what that does. As the picture in my first post shows, there are no threads on the remnant GP so it must be just friction. Any other ideas?

And yes I did go to Sears and got their 1 1/16" deepwell. Fits like a glove.