how do i know if my glow plug are working in my jinma

[bill 2]

i don"t know if the glow plugs in my 354 jinma tractor are working. is there a light that i am missing. i do know there is a hole near the gauge cluster. is that suppose to be there?
and i bought this used.

 

[RonMar]

Does it have an amp gauge? Each glowplug pulls about 7-10 amps of current. When you turn the key to the heat position the amp gauge should peg nearly 30 amps negative. As the plugs heat they pull less current so the amp gauge will slowly start to decrease from around 30A after a few seconds...

 

[bill 2]

yes it dose have a amp gauge and it dose not show a power drop when you turn it to the hot position.

 

[coolreinfarm]

Check the fuse first, it may not be blown but the internal connection may be melted, happened to me. If that's ok take a voltmeter set for D.C. And measure the voltage at the brass bar that connects all the glow plugs and to the negative battery post, have someone turn the key to heat position, if you have 12 volts there then the glow plugs are probably bad, if you don't you'll need to trace out the wiring, btw Chinese tractors have the worst wiring ever.

 

[bill 2]

ok so i cheek the fuse box it is good looking. so then i cheek it with my voltmeter. and that had no power going to the brass bar. but i look a little further and i found the power connection was supper corroded. So i cleaned it off and now it show a power drop on the amp meter. Thanks for the help!

 

[Tim Berframe]

My 354 has always been hard to start in cold weather. I always wondered if my glow plugs were working. It would take 35, 40, 50 seconds of holding the key over before the amp meter started to move back towards a non-negative position. The ignition spring is very stiff and holding the key for that long ended up breaking two keys.

I discovered that the power going to the brass bar is supplied through the ignition switch and through a 18 gauge wire. I installed a relay and a 10 gauge wire supplying power to the brass bar. HUGE difference. Plugs heat up hot to the touch in less than 5 seconds now.

Hope this helps...

 

[RonMar]

Yep, routing the high current glow plug power directly thru the key contacts, all that small gauge wire and the modular connection block behind the engine was not very good engineering. It performs much better with a high current contactor routing power directly from the fuse block to the bussbar. Don't run the plugs too long, they will burn up...