Electrical/Starter Difficulties

[johnanc]

Dr. Lee,
I am replacing a 6.2L (OEM) in a 1984 K5 Blazer (no A/C, 700R4 X-mission, no turbo) w/ a new 6.5L (bought from local Chevy dealer, in crate). During process of R&R I have replaced all elctrical senders (oil press, water temp, etc) but have kept original glow plug controller. Batteries fully charged (ACDelco 78TD's) all contacts cleaned & tight.
I had lengthened the 3 smaller gauge wires running to the starter by ~12" to allow attaching them with the starter resting on the ground (hoping that doing so wouldn't add significant reistence). Main power cable was not lengthened.
I had wanted to test starter circuit after lenghtening those leads so (w/ starter installed)did following: Turning ignition to "start" caused glow plug relay to sound as if had dead short, and no starter engagement. Disconnecting power lead to glow plug relay & turning ignition to start produced typical low voltage "chatter" in same relay, and again no starter engage. (Admittedly not sure if glow plug relay is also doing same job an ordinary starter relay would be doing in a gasoline powered vehicle!).
If you have the patience to have followed me this far in my question-do you have any advice as to why the starter circuit may not be working. (Oh, I did notice that my right (pax side) headlight did not seem as bright so realize I may have a poor ground develop there, not sure if that would affect this situation.) Thank you, John

[CleviteKid]

Did you re-use the starter from the 6.2? Did you check the engagement of the starter pinion teeth with the flywheel or flexplate teeth? See the Members Section of www.TheDieselPage.com (http://www.TheDieselPage.com) for instructions (I think, haven't looked recently - might be in the R&R book).

Recheck your connections, particularly on the batteries themselves, and the big power cable to the starter.

Dr. Lee :cool:

[tom.mcinerney]

If the starter housing is making good contact with block, the batteries making good contact with block(-) and starter(+), it should spin if power motor; and solenoid should engage bendix (and spin starter&engine) if you energize solenoid via ignition switch(normal) or jumper.
Sometimes the conductor breaks within the insulation a couple inches back from end(vibes). When soldering old wires, there's typically a lot of copper oxide on the wire strands. If you don't remove the oxide[knife/fine sandpaper] it's not possible to get a decent solder connection(copper oxide a good insulator, prevents solder from wetting surface).