Ok, as a new dude here is what I gleaned from forum and web searches and observations on my rig. Glow plug is an electrically heated wire that heats the combustion chambers raising the air temperature inside the chamber so that the engine can do a cold start. Apparently somewhere along the line someone installed a "Wilson Switch" on the steering column bypassing the pull string knob that sadly still sits in the dash a former shell of itself with just a nub of string where his working johnson used to be). In order to do a cold start I turn the key half way and depress the switch for approximately 30 secs then a full turn and she kicks over in a cloud of black and then white smoke. I get that the black smoke is unburned fuel and is mostly owing to me hitting the accelerator during the start procedure to help the engine get itself rolled over the first time in the day. She doesn't need that help during the day , just to get out of bed. The reason that I'm timing the readiness of the engine is that the glow plug ready indicator on the dash doesn't function. Ok now my questions. What exactly is the Wilson switch ( actually a button) supposed to do and how can I tell if it is doing it's job effectively? Are there alternatives to the Wilson switch, pros/cons? Next how is the glow plug sensor connected to the glow plugs? I understand that the screen is supposed to glow red when the engine is ready. Please someone tell me that "back in the day" they didn't just decide to connect a hot line into the engine to heat it like a toaster element and a mirror element wired right into the dash so I could know "real time" just how hot the engine really was? Or is it more like some kind of mechnical sender unit that just passed the heat directly from the engine to the glow screen giving the same real time report. Are there other indicators out now that can replace the glow screen on my dash with something that I can see or read easily?
Thanks again for your patience guys.
Thanks again for your patience guys.