GRATCH
HUGE MEMBER
You have to turn the key and hold against the spring after ignition on and just before the starter position and you will see the light start to glow and get brighter. Do this for 10 to 30 secs then turn the key all the way to start. It's unlikely to get cold enough in Oztraylier to need it though.
rog8811
New Member
It depends on your pre-heaters.
Are they original series type or the more modern parallel ones?
These drawings may help you decide....The wire colours are what I found under my bonnet but I think are standard.
If the old series type there should be a thick and a thin wire on each end of the balast resistor. The thin ones go to the cold start bulb....
With the parallel pre-heaters both thick wires and one of the thin ones need to be joined together (one end of the balast is a convenient point to do it) and the other thin wire needs to be connected to earth. the earth wire to the front end of the engine, that used to go to the front pre-heater, needs to be taken off.
It is not unknown for the newer pre-heaters to be fitted but the thin bulb wires get left in the old positions, this will stop the bulb from lighting.
Regards rog8811
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treeman
Active Member
I found this out the other day when I started to rewire my series 3, although my cold start bulb wasn't wired in at all and one of the previous owners had also removed the balast resistor completely.
One question though is you have the glow plug feed going to number 2 plug I have the feed on mine going to number 1 plug will this make any differences to the resultant voltages at each plug or does it not really mater??
treeman
Active Member
The reason for it, I believe, is that if a wire comes loose from one of the pre-heaters more of the remaining ones are going to still work. see quick and dirty drg below.
Regards rog8811
Cheers rog8811 that clears that up then will move feed to plug 2 the weekend 
TheKeymeister
Active Member
On my series 3 (with original ballast resistor and plugs), theyre controlled by a manual switch and my cold start light starts off completely out, then the light "warms up" and fully illuminates....
Not to worry though as I ripped out all the wiring and going to start from scratch
Not to worry though as I ripped out all the wiring and going to start from scratch
Johnny_Regis
Active Member
When I had a diesel SIII (have petrol now) I changed the glow coils for glow plugs, and when installed the cold start light worked for the first time! The coils were a charred and corroded mess I assume this is why no light; God knows how it ever started on those coils! Well worth the upgrade, pretty cheap and made starting much easier. New ballast resistor isn't much either.
