rwhite1

I've done some searches but havn't come up w/ what I am looking for. Truck in question is an '01 w/ 250K miles. Lately it hasn't been starting that great and so I started checking the grid heater relays, elements, etc.

There is power to the relay from the fusible links. However, when the key is turned forward there is not power to the other side of the relay (2nd large terminal) and hence no power to the elements either. I ohmed both sides of the relay (w/ key off one side +12V, the other side 0V) and it showed there was continuity? Is this right?

Is this right? I ask because on my truck ('99 in sig) with the key off I had no continuity between the two large poles.

It appears the relay in the '01 is done for. Is this correct? This site - http://dodgeram.org/tech/dsl/trouble...diagnostics24V - doesn't talk about checking the relay using ohms.

Thanks.

nickg

relay is turned on by the ecm/pcm and only if certain parameters are met, you can remove the smaller wires(from pcm)and power one side and ground the other, this will allow power to pass thru the relay, and fire up the grids.
so to recap, key off no continuity between 2 large poles, if there is they are stuck on and will draw the batterys down as each relay uses 90amps. so by your description the relays are stuck on and likely have burned the grids out, the grids can be checked with a multimeter as well.
My o1 had them stick on and kill the batterys and caused a the voltage to drop to 9v when running, I ended up getting a set of ford starter relays and wiring them up manually, because my grids were being controlled from the ecm and they were cycling on EVERY hot start as long as the outside temps were lower than 5*C, I replaced IAT sensor but nothing changed,

here is some info for you
https://www.dieseltruckresource.com/...+starter+relay

http://www.cumminsforum.com/forum/98...r-relay-2.html

https://www.dieseltruckresource.com/...e-t285244.html