Glow plug electrical woes?

[Green1]

I'm pretty sure, but it has been a while since I was mucking around down there, that the initial glow plug relay sends 12V to the plugs(yes I know they are 6.2V plugs) and the drop resistor is only connected to the second relay that is used after the initial hit to get it started.

ok, this isn't relevant to this particular poster as they don't have the rapid system, however for anyone else, It is again not that simple. You are correct that it initially over-voltages the plugs, however even for that phase it's still not 12v, it's approximately 10v (hence why I suspected this initially when he stated he was loosing about 2volts, because that would be normal for a rapid-glow system)

[dpd]

Thanks for the diagram Loki! Interesting to see the difference first hand as I have the 'standard' glow plug system, not the quick system. From what I hear I am lucky as the standard suffers fewer problems, I never have to wait more than about 10 seconds on a cold day anyway.

Problem is solved, thanks everyone. It was a simple electrical problem; the positive battery terminal was tight and clean and fine, however, the bolt that I had attached the glow/starter wire to and the tabs that I crimped on a year ago when I was redoing my battery compartment, must have not been secure enough, or dirty or something. When I peeled back the rubber to inspect there was tons of melting and black carbon from burning. So new tabs, new crimping and making sure everything was extra clean and tight and everything is working fine again. It was caused by a cold weather start (with the wrong oil in the deli, too, for winter) when I had to lean on the starter for a couple of minutes, causing melting and toasting that I was lucky didn't start a fire.

[jessef]

It's always good to see a happy ending when it comes to electrical gremlins.