Two unrelated questions

[Toby]

When mine did that I noted that the bus bar joins them all up and determining indidvidual performance was a pain in the but.  Knowning that this may be an issue in the future, I own an 81 MK1, I liked the idea of splitting them off to a better individual circuit.  Hence Vinces pimping sticky. 

It is pretty much a non-problem for most owners, and since the new GPs are much less fragile than the old ones they should last the rest of the life of the cars they are in as long as you do not use ether, which fractures the tips.

I think the time involved in taking the buss bar off is overstated. Remember that you do not have to take the buss bar off of the hard one (behind the IP) unless that GP is bad. I can get the 3 easy nuts off in about a minute and a half. Using the amperage draw method (from the Bently manual) you don't have to remove any of the nuts or buss bar unless you have a bad one.

Any time you have the injectors out, I also fire off the GPs and watch for the little curls of smoke coming out of the injector bores. If they smoke, they are good.

The Ford relay is a very good idea. I have seen more than a few GP relays with too much resistance at the contacts. I also feed the buss bar as close to the center as possible, like the Audi 5000 and Volvo 2.4D, and Ranger TD do. On a 4 cylinder that is only one post over, but it serves to quiet my OCD. ;<)

The spade fuse holder you are using is much better than the Rat Shack round fuse holders which are prone to water problems and high resistance issues over time.

[ORCoaster]

Dang, you had to go and remind me of something I should have done when I was doing the compression check.  Fire the glows and look down the holes.  Last time I did that they were all nice and red.  Oh well, so I missed the show.  I am not having problems with starting so I am thinking I am good on the condition of the plugs.  Like you say the newer ones are a little sturdier than the originals.  And I only have about 12K miles on them, and most of that is highway miles, not many cycles.

I don't use No No spray to start. 

The part I hate about the glow plugs, and the fuel solenoid wire is those tiny 8mm nuts, they just seem to get away from me down the engine block and I have to hunt for ever to find em.  Thank goodness for a super magnet out of a computer hard drive and a long stiff wire.  So far I haven't had to replace them

[theman53]

I keep about 50 of the nuts on hand. IIRC they are actually a m5-.8 thread, but I too drop them occasionally. I just dig out a new one and hope that it didn't fall and in some way get into the timing cover. If I can see it I get it.

[vanbcguy]

I dropped one down an injector hole once.  Thankfully the head is aluminium so I was able to fish it out easily with a magnet.  Until I saw that nut on the end of the magnet though I had some serious nerves going on.

[Baron VonZeppelin]

Mystery3 - did you ever find a new GP fuse holder box/casing ?

If you take the old one off - maybe you can find the part number on it with a magnifying glass.

I have 1 or 2 with broken off covers/lids.
Wouldn't mind a couple new extras around if they are cheap enough.

[mystery3]

The one I have is perfectly fine. In my original questioning I was thinking it was a voltage regulator or something because I don't see any reason for having an auxiliary fuse box with one fuse in it. I'm planning to move it inside the passenger compartment.

[ORCoaster]

Don't bother, it works fine where it is and it is much easier to get to there than up under the dash someplace. 

[mystery3]

I'm doing some rewiring. It'll be cleaner and easier to put it under the dash. I'll put it on the firewall next to the gp relay not a difficult place to get to.

[theman53]

Most people that pimp the plugs do it so that all that current is outside the cabin, not inside.

[ORCoaster]

That would be the high current draw and lines, the ones that spark, melt or otherwise might start a fire should they short out.

You know all voltage has some current associated with it, yes you do.

[Toby]

I never said that using a Ford solenoid to take the load was a bad idea. Its dumping the buss bar and ditching the GP timer for a push button that I have problems with.

[ORCoaster]

I just liked dumping the buss bar. I actually kept the GP timer as the means of kicking in the solenoid.  Works great.

[R.O.R-2.0]

i ditched my timer.. couldnt easily or cheaply find a replacement, but there was a switch in the car already, and then i just ran them off the switch and ford relay..