Well it started and its running great. It was definitely a fuel starvation issue (air in the line). I thought I had purged it all out. But I used the ball pump again (self installed marine style pump) this evening just before attempting to start it and I heard a stream of bubbles in the tank come through the return line. A full charge of the battery and it started on the first try.

I got thrown off the trail of the fuel issue. The day before it wouldn't start, the dash light stopped working for the glow cycle. I thought for sure the issues were related.

Thanks for all the help everyone. Craig and Brian Carlton (1st and last reply) win.
[edit] Nice, I'm marking my 100th post with an embarrassing trouble-shooting story.

I finally had some time (and warm weather) to replace the one bad glowplug this past weekend. The plug was kinda mangled. The top part where the wire connects was bent over at an angle. Anyway, so I tried to start the car and finally saw the glow cycle light come on. But it went out right away. After say, 2 seconds -- about the time it takes to burn out a fuse! I popped the cover off the relay and sure enough, the fuse burned out.

What could be causing this? The fuse was swapped out for a new one when this whole problem started. The car has been starting fine since then -- okay, maybe a little rough since one of the plugs was bad, but the fuse was functioning fine.

I've REconfirmed continuity of all the wires between the harness and the glow plugs. When I check the ohms using the neg on the battery and the positive on the harness, I'm getting readings over 1 (but less than two) on all wires. I suspect this might be due to the fact that I have a blown fuse in the relay. Power to the relay looks fine.

Should I just replace the fuse with another new one and hope for the best? I guess I should buy several!

I do not know if the strip fuses are the exact same size. Anyways the series glow plugs on older cars take a 50 amp I believe and your car an 80 amp. Any value on the replacement fuse you used?
The only thing that would probably take a new 80 amp fuse out might be a shorted glow plug wire to the block for example or a shorted plug. You seem to have eliminated a shorted plug as a possibility. Can you use your old fuse for a test use?

i had a 616 engine that had all glowplugs bad. (dont know why they all went bad at the same time, but..) made one hell of a smoke cloud when i started her up.

__________________
Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?

As long as they would add one additional commandment for you to keep thy religion to thyself.
George Carlin (Wonder where he is now..)

1981 240d (engine donor 1983 240d) recently rebuilt engine hurray! - No more.. fought a tree and the tree won.

pearl black 1983 240d 4speed (Converted!@$$%) atleast the tranny was rebuilt.

Better replace the weak one too.

tom W

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

Very strange... if you follow the Buy Parts link, it clearly states the only strip fuse available for the 86 is a 30 amp fuse. I called the dealer just now and they CONFIRMED that it needs to be an 80 amp fuse. That's why my new one burned out. I replaced the original with a 30 amp. Its going to take 2 days to get the 80 amp.

Thanks for the help y'all. I'll post up on Friday.

I order the fuse from the dealer (3 of them, in fact) for about $5.50 with tax.
I clearly had the wrong fuse in there. As soon as I touched the proper 80amp fuses, I knew. The 80am fuse is much more firm. I put it in, turned the key and the glow light came on for a good 15 secs and she started right up. It fired alot faster than normal and ran much better on initial start-up.

There's a lesson here -- THE WORLDPAC DATABASE SHOWS THE WRONG FUSE FOR THE GLOW RELAY ON AN 86! DO NOT FALL INTO THE SAME TRAP!!