Ford 3000 diesel - pre heater in air inlet manifold

Hi all - I recently bought the tractor from my next door farmer friend. He instructed that when starting from cold, to turn the ignition key to the left for 30 seconds, then turn to right to start. Currently I have the timing cover off to replace the front crank seal. i.e. air cleaner etc. off.
I looked into the air manifold - [b:7098ba3787]There was no heater fitted!!![/b:7098ba3787] just the threaded hole with a blanking plug.

I can buy and fit the heater [b:7098ba3787]BUT[/b:7098ba3787] but how do I get a diesel feed to it - where from? The injectors have a pipe back to the tank - from there? or is a reservoir required? I [i:7098ba3787]assume[/i:7098ba3787] that as I have a 3 position switch, I should be able to find the wire - is it normally inside the harness or ?

Thanks for any advice. Peter (in the UK)

Yes, a simple tee fitting in the return line between the injectors and the tank can be used to provide the fuel to the thermostart unit. As for the wire, check to see if there is a brown wire with a red stripe on its own terminal on the back of the key switch (that was the original color (colour for you) code according to the I&T manual). If there is, then search for a similarly colored (coloured) wire anywhere near the intake manifold that isn't connected to anything.

Thanks Sean. Can you belive that my farmer friend had used the tractor for 50+ years thinking the heater was active!!

It will be coming from the exhaust side wiring bundle that goes to the alternator, around in front of the top of the valve assy...just below where the valve
cover mates the cast iron and should pigtail out right in front of the engine...pigtail less than 10".

My '65 uses a push button on the dash to energize it with the key on.

Later model Fords use it in the turn key switch: Off, Acc, On...........Start. In that gap between the On and Start positions, the red dash warning lights,
that were illuminated once key is off the Off position, extinguish....that is your clue that the TS is activated....leave the key in that position for a length of
time depending on how cold it is, 30 seconds up, and then roll on over to Start position.

If you want to know it it's working, remove the intake hose from the air filter and peer into the intake manifold. Have someone activate the switch and
wait. The heating coil will glow orange and given a few seconds, the heat causes a bimitallic wire to change position and in doing so, removes the plug
from the end of the fuel line allowing fuel to fall onto the orange glowing wire, illuminate and fall to the bottom of the manifold or be sucked into the
combustion chambers if rolling the starter...which ever is the case.

Thanks Texasmark1 - Have investigated and there was no wire connected on the key switch! - so facility never installed but it has the 4 position switch.
Waithing for the glow plug to arrive.

Thanks for your comments

The original switch was 5 positions, not 4. "Off" was in the center, "Run" was one click to the right. "Start" was a spring loaded position to the right of "Run". "Heat" was one click to the left of "Off", and "Heat-Start" was spring loaded to the left of "Heat". Owner's manual procedure for cold starting was to turn it to "Heat" for 30 seconds and then turn it to the left against the spring for the "Heat-Start" position until it started and then release it and it would spring back to "Off". Since it is a diesel with a mechanical fuel shutoff it doesn't need any electricity to actually run. It also says that if you want the gauges and warning lights to work turn it back to the regular "Run" position once it's started.

Thanks for help - all work completed with front seal replacement and fitting the "Glow Plug" into the inlet manifold. All works well and tractor starts much better.