Glow Plug Bus Bar. Stupid Question.

[shwak23]

All the insulation cracked and broke off my bus bar for my plugs... How important is it to replace?



Sent from Outer Space!

[homerj1]

All the insulation cracked and broke off my bus bar for my plugs... How important is it to replace?



Sent from Outer Space!

Nuke that bus bar and pimp them plugs --

http://vincewaldon.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=30&Itemid=28

[the caveman]

Buy some shrink tube and cover it with it. It'll be just like OEM

[shwak23]

All the insulation cracked and broke off my bus bar for my plugs... How important is it to replace?



Sent from Outer Space!

Nuke that bus bar and pimp them plugs --

http://vincewaldon.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=30&Itemid=28

Yeah I was going to but i really just don't feel lile doing the extra work. Plus I don't have the patience to order the random electrical hardware I want to make it really clean.

Buy some shrink tube and cover it with it. It'll be just like OEM

Yeah this was my back up plan. I was hoping someone would convince me it is ok to leave it bare since it is so shiny but I guess I will head to home depot to get some shrink tube.
Sent from Outer Space!

[ORCoaster]

Pimp those plugs you won't be sorry.  Bus only hot when glowing the plugs so how often will you incur a short in the line?  It is fused by the way.  Well, it should be on the firewall if not deleted.

[wolf_walker]

Lotta green left on that block, very cool.


I'd be nervous, lot of juice flowing through a big bare wire.
Heatshrink it, electrical tape it, something.

[homerj1]

With the Ip off, it is really easy to pimp your glow plugs via Vince's instructions. That is why I did it.

  It really is just a wires, connectors, solenoid, fuse block and shrink wrap.

The results of doing the above are supposed to be night and day vs the factory bus.

[EcoTX]

Stock set up on my MK2 has worked fine for over 20 years and 385k and counting.
Still has the original relay dated 8/91 and the original 50A fuse even.
Unless the stuff isn't working for you and causing problems/headaches, why bother ripping it all out?

I think it looks cool like that bare, but that shine and copper luster will not last being naked to the elements, especially where it lives.
Also share the concern about it being a big, occasionally live wire there on the front of your motor that has the potential to cause issues.

Whatever, your car, your rules.

[JASGTi]

Pimp them Plugs!!

In fact I need to get mine finished 

[shwak23]

Stock set up on my MK2 has worked fine for over 20 years and 385k and counting.
Still has the original relay dated 8/91 and the original 50A fuse even.
Unless the stuff isn't working for you and causing problems/headaches, why bother ripping it all out?

I think it looks cool like that bare, but that shine and copper luster will not last being naked to the elements, especially where it lives.
Also share the concern about it being a big, occasionally live wire there on the front of your motor that has the potential to cause issues.

Whatever, your car, your rules.

I see the benefits of being able to individually fuse each plug but other than that I mean what exactly are the benefits? I guess if you notch each ring terminal so that you need not remove the small 8mm nut if you want to take out a glow plug that's helpful.

I just do not care to have 4 additional wires crowding up my bay... Yes I could put it in wire loom... It will just be a project for another day. It isn't like it is that big of a deal to remove the injection pump later... Or just do it with them on there... I do have an extra head I could mock it all up on... Well 4 extra heads to be exact.

I ended up just heat shrinking the bar. As pretty as it was after I polished it I just couldn't see more benefits than the potential negatives.

Sent from Outer Space!

[shwak23]

Lotta green left on that block, very cool.


I'd be nervous, lot of juice flowing through a big bare wire.
Heatshrink it, electrical tape it, something.

Oh this block was repainted green. As was my transmission.



I also painted some other stuff....

Sent from Outer Space!

[ORCoaster]

You asked for it!

I see the benefits of being able to individually fuse each plug but other than that I mean what exactly are the benefits?

You got #1 Nailed.  Individual fuses help us figure out which GP might be burned out or sucking more current than it's brothers when it comes to diagnosis.  You have to remove the buss bar to make that happen otherwise.  So convenience and speed are brought to fore with the individual wires.

But really, #2 Current to the system.  Notice the big arse wire from the battery goes where?  Inside to the fuse panel.  Then to the relay.  Inside the car.  From there the current comes back out through the firewall to the fuse.  Continues on to the buss bar.  Make that 2.5 feet of travel.  I never measured the resistance of that loop, I am sure someone here has, but for me I just know shorter is better.  So, by pimping through a relay from the battery to the buss itself removes some of the travel.  Put the juice though a better sized wire for the job and you don't loose current to heat.  Better, hotter glows, easier to start. 

#3  Knowing that big relay is in the fuse panel and not under the hood disturbs those of us who have had relays lock and burn up.  Now granted that is a personal choice to move the load out under the hood it also settles our stomachs and don't drink as much Pink Pepto anymore.

#4  Custom Blink Baby.  Adding wires to the engine compartment says two things when you open the hood.  I can make my engine prettier than yours and I know something about electricity that you don't.

#5  This is related to #2, You can run lines from a relay to either the buss bar or a distribution block with the individual fuses in it.  Some do, Some don't.  Given the option I am a splitter her but that would add more wire to the shortest route theory held up in #2.  But it does allow for more show and tell as in #4 and makes diagnosis in #1 easy as pie. 

There are probably others I didn't list here but these are the ones coming to mind as I stuff face before returning to meaningful work.

 

[shorttimer]

I'm in the Vince Waldon crowd. Yeah, it's a little more work, but you can bling it up as much as you want. I recently went on ebay & came up with 4 different colored wires with matching heat shrink., to go with a heavy duty enclosed fuse block that takes AGU fuses. I'm not doing an entire engine compartment electronic overhaul, but am addressing some of the big issues like super duty battery, stainless tray, the fitting & wiring for such, the glow plug issue & anything else that may be suspect for having electrical glitches. I got everything to do all these things at very reasonable price, mostly on ebay. For me, it's a cheap insurance.

[bbob203]

at the very least wire your standard bus bar to a starter solenoid under the hood and power it with the wire originally used for the bus bar from the fuse box. at the very least cold starting is improved.

[wolf_walker]

I'm one of those blessed souls that has never had a lick of trouble with stock buss bar/internal relay, lot of years, lot of miles.
I recognize that people do have problems and Vince's solution is significantly more elegant than a ford starter solenoid and a bunch
of ugly wiring with a pushbutton.  It might have something to do with my replacing glowplugs, as a set, just about yearly as a matter of maintenance.
Untill they start to be $20 a pop I'll probobly keep doing that.  I also haven't lived anywhere colder than central Oklahoma for a winter.
YMM, as they say, V.


Moving the relay out of the under-dash has been a "one of these days" projects I have yet to get to.
I did relay my reverse lights though, they fail more often in my world.


My other GP related project has been to retrofit a 240D Mercedes late style GP relay, it
is a single small unit with relay, fuse, separate GP wires, and I believe the later one's incorporated
afterglow and a temperature dependent feature.  I do know that they do some match referencing
current draw on #1 and comparing it to the others to see if all is well, it nixes the GP light if
it isn't.  Debatable usefulness, but it's interesting engineering for the era.
The unit and it's plugs are pretty attractive too in an industrial sorta way, it could still use
larger wires for voltage drop, but there are a lot more OM616/7's still on the road than rabbit diesels.

Been my experience that everyone with every diesel complains about there glowplug system.
Ever.


http://www.ecklersmbzparts.com/mercedes-240d-glow-plug-relay.html