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HMMWV M1038 Won't start after running fine??

BRob18E

Member
130
7
18
Location
Liberty Township, OHIO
Hello all and thanks for the help.

I have a M1038 and It won't start all of a sudden. Batteries are good. The glow plug light does not come on at all now.

I believe what I may have done is overloaded the electrical system, but that is me speculation. I use this to jump start my TB175 excavator because it is a 24 volt system as well. But this time my son/I left it hooked for about 20 minutes while the TB175 was running. So that's is two alternators running on one system. That is total speculation on my part.

Does anyone have knowledge on what may of caused my glow plug light to not light up?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
 

Wire Fox

Well-known member
1,254
158
63
Location
Indianapolis, Indiana
Hello all and thanks for the help.

I have a M1038 and It won't start all of a sudden. Batteries are good. The glow plug light does not come on at all now.

I believe what I may have done is overloaded the electrical system, but that is me speculation. I use this to jump start my TB175 excavator because it is a 24 volt system as well. But this time my son/I left it hooked for about 20 minutes while the TB175 was running. So that's is two alternators running on one system. That is total speculation on my part.

Does anyone have knowledge on what may of caused my glow plug light to not light up?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
I think you may have hit the nail on the head; however, there's always things we can test out, just in case. Remember that prior to disconnecting any electrical equipment, remove the ground terminal cable from your batteries first.

Inspecting the ground connections of all of your electronic devices is always a good start; remove the fasteners and clean off any corrosion, ensure the proper washers in place and fasteners correctly torqued, and possibly install the ground wire kit to improve the ground path beyond the factory configuration. Check your glow plugs to ensure that they have the proper resistance (1.5-5 Ohms). Check to ensure the connection is clean and seated correctly for the temperature sending unit/glow plug controller (depending on version of system) on top of the engine.

You'll also likely want to investigate to ensure that your alternator is still outputting current. Part of me wonders if the other vehicle could have damaged the regulator and is thus affecting the output of your current alternator, possibly leading to your batteries actually being discharged enough to not run the glow plugs. (Can you slave start your HMMWV?)

If all of this is still no good, I'd firmly lock my eyes onto the electronic start box and strongly consider installing the newest S3 box. It's expensive, but it's the most resilient box we've had to date.
 

bikeman

Well-known member
Steel Soldiers Supporter
2,894
501
113
Location
Ft. Bragg, NC
Just making sure, it won't start if the transmission is in gear. Due to personal experience while in service, that's the first thing I ALWAYS check.
 

BRob18E

Member
130
7
18
Location
Liberty Township, OHIO
I think you may have hit the nail on the head; however, there's always things we can test out, just in case. Remember that prior to disconnecting any electrical equipment, remove the ground terminal cable from your batteries first.

Inspecting the ground connections of all of your electronic devices is always a good start; remove the fasteners and clean off any corrosion, ensure the proper washers in place and fasteners correctly torqued, and possibly install the ground wire kit to improve the ground path beyond the factory configuration. Check your glow plugs to ensure that they have the proper resistance (1.5-5 Ohms). Check to ensure the connection is clean and seated correctly for the temperature sending unit/glow plug controller (depending on version of system) on top of the engine.

You'll also likely want to investigate to ensure that your alternator is still outputting current. Part of me wonders if the other vehicle could have damaged the regulator and is thus affecting the output of your current alternator, possibly leading to your batteries actually being discharged enough to not run the glow plugs. (Can you slave start your HMMWV?)

If all of this is still no good, I'd firmly lock my eyes onto the electronic start box and strongly consider installing the newest S3 box. It's expensive, but it's the most resilient box we've had to date.
Thank you Wire Fox, that is the kind of answer I like to see. Very informative. 5 minutes with someone knowledgeable is worth hours of research online. Let me touch base on some things I have done and maybe you can point me in the right direction (which I think you have already, S3 box). I'll follow along your message and try to touch on everything. I opened up the hood and dog house and went through as much connectors and ground wires as I could. I do not know if I have the upgraded grounding system, but the HMMWV has started and purred like a kitten the first day I got her. When I was checking the glow plugs I did realize one of the connectors was loose on the front left cylinder but it was holding in place. I'll get new cables for that once I fix this issue. I googled where the fuses were and someone on one of Steel Soldiers told someone on their forum to check chapter 3 of the TM. I pulled mine up and still didn't find anything. I see one in the manual but my HMMWV was rebuilt in 03 (that's a guess, I would have to go look to be certain) The TM isn't really helping me find a bad fuse if that is the issue. I do have some sort of box that reads 19207-12338603 ADCO CIRCUITS 3X823 AMG200000-1000 on it and that's about where the TM says the fuse would be. it's next to the windshield washer fluid.

As far as checking connections, I was an 18E and you would be amazed at how people would come say "my radio don't work" and the **** battery was dead. We use the ABC's method. Antennas, Batteries, Connections, Data. The batteries are good and the connections all look sound. I even though if I turned it over for 15-20 seconds that the cylinder may build up enough heat and pressure to fire the cylinder even if the glow plug didn't get hot. (don't laugh, I'm not a mechanic, although I do dive right in). I will end up doing the Ohms testing the glow plugs, but I doubt that is the problem since it ran well prior to this. I will re-check the temperature sending unit and use electrode cleaner before I reconnect them.

I will check the alternator output right after I send this. Again, my batteries are kicking no problem, so I don't know if that's the issue. If I did damage the alternator, the problem hasn't been around long enough for it to drain the batteries yet.

And final follow up, do you know any "good guys" on here that can get that control box for a reasonable rate? That's what I love about this site, good men helping good men!

Your time, help and knowledge is greatly appreciated. Thank you!
 

Wire Fox

Well-known member
1,254
158
63
Location
Indianapolis, Indiana
Thank you Wire Fox, that is the kind of answer I like to see. Very informative. 5 minutes with someone knowledgeable is worth hours of research online. Let me touch base on some things I have done and maybe you can point me in the right direction (which I think you have already, S3 box). I'll follow along your message and try to touch on everything. I opened up the hood and dog house and went through as much connectors and ground wires as I could. I do not know if I have the upgraded grounding system, but the HMMWV has started and purred like a kitten the first day I got her. When I was checking the glow plugs I did realize one of the connectors was loose on the front left cylinder but it was holding in place. I'll get new cables for that once I fix this issue. I googled where the fuses were and someone on one of Steel Soldiers told someone on their forum to check chapter 3 of the TM. I pulled mine up and still didn't find anything. I see one in the manual but my HMMWV was rebuilt in 03 (that's a guess, I would have to go look to be certain) The TM isn't really helping me find a bad fuse if that is the issue. I do have some sort of box that reads 19207-12338603 ADCO CIRCUITS 3X823 AMG200000-1000 on it and that's about where the TM says the fuse would be. it's next to the windshield washer fluid.

As far as checking connections, I was an 18E and you would be amazed at how people would come say "my radio don't work" and the **** battery was dead. We use the ABC's method. Antennas, Batteries, Connections, Data. The batteries are good and the connections all look sound. I even though if I turned it over for 15-20 seconds that the cylinder may build up enough heat and pressure to fire the cylinder even if the glow plug didn't get hot. (don't laugh, I'm not a mechanic, although I do dive right in). I will end up doing the Ohms testing the glow plugs, but I doubt that is the problem since it ran well prior to this. I will re-check the temperature sending unit and use electrode cleaner before I reconnect them.

I will check the alternator output right after I send this. Again, my batteries are kicking no problem, so I don't know if that's the issue. If I did damage the alternator, the problem hasn't been around long enough for it to drain the batteries yet.

And final follow up, do you know any "good guys" on here that can get that control box for a reasonable rate? That's what I love about this site, good men helping good men!

Your time, help and knowledge is greatly appreciated. Thank you!
86humv is a great guy to work with and almost always has a few extra of the parts you need. His prices aren't always the lowest out there, but they're never unreasonable and he always seems to have stuff that's remarkably hard to find. Lucky for you, he's listing one right now: https://www.steelsoldiers.com/showthread.php?186650-S3-Smart-Start-Hmmwv-NOS

Now to talk about your fuses... you just so happen to be looking for the wrong thing. The HMMWV isn't equipped with fuses. Instead, it has two self-resetting circuit breakers. Both of these are mounted on the right-hand side of the steering column, accessible by removing the gauge panel. One circuit breaker is a little bit of everything. The other just runs the blower for the heater. Other items just have their own internal circuit breakers or in the case of some auxiliary equipment, will just be located in another location specific to that kit's installation instructions.

Glow plug cables: You can't really replace just these. If your engine bay has a dedicated glowplug-only harness, you're using the least-reliable starting box that has existed for the HMMWV and if it was fully functional, I'd still recommend replacing them. For every other configuration, the glow plug wires are an integral part of the engine harness. You can try to manually splice and replace the connectors (with your MOS history, it sounds like you'd have the right skills for this), or you'd have to replace the whole harness as a unit. This can be expensive unless you walk into a very good deal.
 

BRob18E

Member
130
7
18
Location
Liberty Township, OHIO
86humv is a great guy to work with and almost always has a few extra of the parts you need. His prices aren't always the lowest out there, but they're never unreasonable and he always seems to have stuff that's remarkably hard to find. Lucky for you, he's listing one right now: https://www.steelsoldiers.com/showthread.php?186650-S3-Smart-Start-Hmmwv-NOS

Now to talk about your fuses... you just so happen to be looking for the wrong thing. The HMMWV isn't equipped with fuses. Instead, it has two self-resetting circuit breakers. Both of these are mounted on the right-hand side of the steering column, accessible by removing the gauge panel. One circuit breaker is a little bit of everything. The other just runs the blower for the heater. Other items just have their own internal circuit breakers or in the case of some auxiliary equipment, will just be located in another location specific to that kit's installation instructions.

Glow plug cables: You can't really replace just these. If your engine bay has a dedicated glowplug-only harness, you're using the least-reliable starting box that has existed for the HMMWV and if it was fully functional, I'd still recommend replacing them. For every other configuration, the glow plug wires are an integral part of the engine harness. You can try to manually splice and replace the connectors (with your MOS history, it sounds like you'd have the right skills for this), or you'd have to replace the whole harness as a unit. This can be expensive unless you walk into a very good deal.
You are the man my friend. Great information. I have wrote to 86humv asking about the part and I will see if the breakers are good or tripped. I don't know how to give a "like" or "helpful" but I would if I knew how. Its sad, I'm SpecialForces18E on Ebay, I have a few things listed. My whole dam basement and garage are full of parts and boxes and I probably have a few of these sitting around, but I spend more time fixing and buying than I do listing. My wife's about to kill me but hey, I enjoy fixing things. ****, I grind-ed off the charging port of my cell phone and installed a new one just to see if I could. But ****, who can go a few days without a phone, so I had already got a new one by then, it was the challenge. Plus old phones are always good for a quick GPS tracker or security camera if needed. I'll work on that harness or upgrade to the better system.

Thank you again for the help. Truly!
 

Milcommoguy

Well-known member
Supporting Vendor
1,649
2,084
113
Location
Rosamond, CA
Don't think you will find a fuse. There are two circuit breakers behind and to the right of the instrument cluster.

Where's Waldo, CAMO
 
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