Nate475
New member
- 39
- 0
- 0
- Location
- Glen Burnie Maryland
Just before Christmas my M1009 would no longer start in cold weather so I ordered a set of glow plugs. Then to my surprise 6 out of 8 glow plug tips broke off when I took them out. The only good thing about this is that the tips didn't just swell requiring a glow plug removal tool, instead they disintegrated into a black carbon like substance, lol making them easy to remove. I'm not a mechanic and I have no garage so because of the weather it took me two solid months to get it fixed. So for those of you who have or will have this problem, here's what you have to do.
The glow plugs angle upwards underneath the fuel injectors. The tip of each plug is positioned in front of the fuel ejector nozzle inside the pre-combustion chamber for each cylinder. When the tips break off you have to remove everything but the injection pump on top of the motor in order to get your injectors out to clean the chambers out. And it goes a little like this:
1. Take out your rear battery and disconnect your battery cables. You will need the rear battery tray empty to support your aching body on and for added clearance for wrenches.
2. Remove your air cleaner assembly.
3. Remove the CDR valve with the bracket attached and all the CDR hoses and set them aside.
4. Next remove the drivers side alternator bracket extension that goes from the alternator bracket to the intake manifold stud.
5. Remove the 3 ground wires attached to the 2nd most rear intake manifold bolt on the passenger side. If your truck is like mine the top ground wire nut will be seized up and you will have to cut the thin ground wire and bend the other two in order to rotate the entire assembly out of the manifold. I had to heat mine with a blow torch to get the ground wires off of the bolt. Remember, when you put these bolts back in and then attach the top nut for the alternator bracket and the ground wires you will need to apply anti-seize lube to keep the problem from happening again.
6. Next, like a yoga guru lay your body across the motor and loosen the vacuum pump bolt from the rear of the engine and rotate the vacuum pump clock wise in order to access the rear most intake manifold bolt on the passenger side.
7. Remove all 16 manifold bolts and take notes on where the 3 bolt types go. You will also have to remove some really miserable fuel line brackets in the process.
8. In order to facilitate the fuel injector line brackets you will have to unscrew the flare nuts at each injector and remove the injection line brackets that are attached to the cylinder head to gain clearance to remove the bottom portion of each injector line bracket.
9. Remove the intake manifold. It should come off with a tiny bit of prying, but be gentle. And make sure that you don't damage any of the remaining fuel lines as you remove it.
10. Get a 5/8" flare nut wrench and disconnect each injector line at the injection pump. There's a fuel line bracket for each pair of injector lines. Loosen them but keep them in place, this will allow you to keep your fuel lines in order.
11. Once the metal injector lines are off, you then need to remove the rubber fuel lines which connect the fuel injectors together. The stock lines will have these nasty little clips to deal with. Just cut them off as close to the injector as possible. They should be replaced with the slip on fuel lines that don't need the clips to make things 10 times easier.
At this point it makes no sense not to have your injectors rebuilt and to buy an injector installation kit. I had mine rebuilt for $158 dollars and the injector install kit cost me $28 bucks. Check out ebay for a steal of a deal.
12. Using a 30 mm deep well socket remove each injector. If you are not rebuilding your injectors label each one so that you can put them back into the correct cylinder. I'm not sure why but my diesel engine manual recommended it.
13. Once the glow plugs and the injectors are out you will need to remove any large glow plug pieces out of the precombustion chamber with a pair of hemostats, or a tiny pair of needle nose pliers. Next, buy a 1/2" OD piece of clear vinyl tubing and duct tape it into the nozzle of a shop vac hose to make yourself a mini vacuum nozzle. Then vacuum out each precombustion chamber to get out all of the glow plug fragments present. If you don't it could result in engine damage. Use your finger to feel around inside the precombustion chamber to make sure that it feels clean before you proceed.
14. At this point you will have to put everything back together. Apply some anti seize to the injector threads and torque them down to 25 pounds. The two rear most injectors have a rubber plug with a metal clip. Put these on before you install the injectors. If you don't you won't be able to get the little fuel line plugs on no matter how hard you try.
When you put your intake manifold on make sure that you use a new gasket. The gasket kit sold for the Civy diesel blazer will not fit because it is designed for an intake manifold that is equipped with a EGR valve. You need a gasket for a "J" series engine which is a heavy duty version with no EGR valve. My gasket was for a 91 chevy diesel pick up truck with a 6.5 liter J series engine. The J series is a heavy duty version with less emissions equipment and no EGR. When you get the right gasket it will have the center rectangular hole blocked with a metal plug. Don't use the civy gasket because it will blow out on you.
You also need to consult a Haynes diesel engine tech manual to get the torque sequence for the intake manifold bolts. They have to be torqued in a clockwise manner to 15 pounds starting with the bolts in the center. They also have to be done in 3 stages, meaning that you have to torque each bolt in 5 pound increments. 5 pounds the first round, 10 for the second, and 15 for the 3rd round. The reason for this is because there are metal fuel line brackets involved which will give you false torque readings as they flatten out under the bolt heads.
Consult a tech manual before starting this job. And remember, what ever you do, change your glow plugs regularly, and don't use a cheap brand known to swell. Because if you don't, the above job will be a routine every few years when your plugs burn out and swell, and that seriously sucks.
Now that I have done this job to my truck it starts great in cold weather. And it doesn't vibrate as much when idling which is a major plus. My injectors were gummed up and nasty, apparently from sitting for so long on a military base.
Also, when you get everything together I would prime the fuel filter before attempting to start the truck. You will have to crank the engine a bit on the first start up due to air being present in the injector lines.
Good luck!
P.S. You will also have to remove a spring on the injection pump. I think it's a throttle return spring. I also had to remove a transmission linkage rod from the steering column in order to get the rear most injector out on the drivers side. Both are easy and require a pair of needle nose pliers to remove and install.
The glow plugs angle upwards underneath the fuel injectors. The tip of each plug is positioned in front of the fuel ejector nozzle inside the pre-combustion chamber for each cylinder. When the tips break off you have to remove everything but the injection pump on top of the motor in order to get your injectors out to clean the chambers out. And it goes a little like this:
1. Take out your rear battery and disconnect your battery cables. You will need the rear battery tray empty to support your aching body on and for added clearance for wrenches.
2. Remove your air cleaner assembly.
3. Remove the CDR valve with the bracket attached and all the CDR hoses and set them aside.
4. Next remove the drivers side alternator bracket extension that goes from the alternator bracket to the intake manifold stud.
5. Remove the 3 ground wires attached to the 2nd most rear intake manifold bolt on the passenger side. If your truck is like mine the top ground wire nut will be seized up and you will have to cut the thin ground wire and bend the other two in order to rotate the entire assembly out of the manifold. I had to heat mine with a blow torch to get the ground wires off of the bolt. Remember, when you put these bolts back in and then attach the top nut for the alternator bracket and the ground wires you will need to apply anti-seize lube to keep the problem from happening again.
6. Next, like a yoga guru lay your body across the motor and loosen the vacuum pump bolt from the rear of the engine and rotate the vacuum pump clock wise in order to access the rear most intake manifold bolt on the passenger side.
7. Remove all 16 manifold bolts and take notes on where the 3 bolt types go. You will also have to remove some really miserable fuel line brackets in the process.
8. In order to facilitate the fuel injector line brackets you will have to unscrew the flare nuts at each injector and remove the injection line brackets that are attached to the cylinder head to gain clearance to remove the bottom portion of each injector line bracket.
9. Remove the intake manifold. It should come off with a tiny bit of prying, but be gentle. And make sure that you don't damage any of the remaining fuel lines as you remove it.
10. Get a 5/8" flare nut wrench and disconnect each injector line at the injection pump. There's a fuel line bracket for each pair of injector lines. Loosen them but keep them in place, this will allow you to keep your fuel lines in order.
11. Once the metal injector lines are off, you then need to remove the rubber fuel lines which connect the fuel injectors together. The stock lines will have these nasty little clips to deal with. Just cut them off as close to the injector as possible. They should be replaced with the slip on fuel lines that don't need the clips to make things 10 times easier.
At this point it makes no sense not to have your injectors rebuilt and to buy an injector installation kit. I had mine rebuilt for $158 dollars and the injector install kit cost me $28 bucks. Check out ebay for a steal of a deal.
12. Using a 30 mm deep well socket remove each injector. If you are not rebuilding your injectors label each one so that you can put them back into the correct cylinder. I'm not sure why but my diesel engine manual recommended it.
13. Once the glow plugs and the injectors are out you will need to remove any large glow plug pieces out of the precombustion chamber with a pair of hemostats, or a tiny pair of needle nose pliers. Next, buy a 1/2" OD piece of clear vinyl tubing and duct tape it into the nozzle of a shop vac hose to make yourself a mini vacuum nozzle. Then vacuum out each precombustion chamber to get out all of the glow plug fragments present. If you don't it could result in engine damage. Use your finger to feel around inside the precombustion chamber to make sure that it feels clean before you proceed.
14. At this point you will have to put everything back together. Apply some anti seize to the injector threads and torque them down to 25 pounds. The two rear most injectors have a rubber plug with a metal clip. Put these on before you install the injectors. If you don't you won't be able to get the little fuel line plugs on no matter how hard you try.
When you put your intake manifold on make sure that you use a new gasket. The gasket kit sold for the Civy diesel blazer will not fit because it is designed for an intake manifold that is equipped with a EGR valve. You need a gasket for a "J" series engine which is a heavy duty version with no EGR valve. My gasket was for a 91 chevy diesel pick up truck with a 6.5 liter J series engine. The J series is a heavy duty version with less emissions equipment and no EGR. When you get the right gasket it will have the center rectangular hole blocked with a metal plug. Don't use the civy gasket because it will blow out on you.
You also need to consult a Haynes diesel engine tech manual to get the torque sequence for the intake manifold bolts. They have to be torqued in a clockwise manner to 15 pounds starting with the bolts in the center. They also have to be done in 3 stages, meaning that you have to torque each bolt in 5 pound increments. 5 pounds the first round, 10 for the second, and 15 for the 3rd round. The reason for this is because there are metal fuel line brackets involved which will give you false torque readings as they flatten out under the bolt heads.
Consult a tech manual before starting this job. And remember, what ever you do, change your glow plugs regularly, and don't use a cheap brand known to swell. Because if you don't, the above job will be a routine every few years when your plugs burn out and swell, and that seriously sucks.
Now that I have done this job to my truck it starts great in cold weather. And it doesn't vibrate as much when idling which is a major plus. My injectors were gummed up and nasty, apparently from sitting for so long on a military base.
Also, when you get everything together I would prime the fuel filter before attempting to start the truck. You will have to crank the engine a bit on the first start up due to air being present in the injector lines.
Good luck!
P.S. You will also have to remove a spring on the injection pump. I think it's a throttle return spring. I also had to remove a transmission linkage rod from the steering column in order to get the rear most injector out on the drivers side. Both are easy and require a pair of needle nose pliers to remove and install.