Inherited Diesel Mess...

Greetings to all! I have a 1985 Mitsu MM with the diesel engine. I inherited it from my parents who just didn't want to deal with it any longer. It has been sitting for years. I have been around and worked on diesels my whole life. The trouble with this truck is lack of familiarity I think. I can't even get the electrics to work, let alone the starter to even try and kick over the motor.

Where exactly is the fuse block located on these things?

Mine has a push button for the glow plugs. Is that factory or was that an aftermarket install? (It looks really nice actually, so it's hard to know)

Any help on where to begin to get this thing to kick over would be really appreciated. Once I get that far, I'm sure I can figure out the rest.

Thank you!

nosparkj

Is everything dead or just some things. Look on the drivers side near the dash.

Some things work and others don't. For example, The headlights work. Flashers sometimes work. That's about it, actually. The rest does not seem to work yet. Nothing in the cab works, i.e., blower motor, radio, windshield wipers, dash lights, etc.

look at the battery. There is the main line to the starter and then a smaller line that has a fusible link. It might have a bad fusible link.

Fuse box should be in the driver's footwell on the inside fender wall. Assuming diesel is the same as gas.

I agree with Camo, start with the battery and start chasing wires, there's gotta be a break or ground fault somewhere. Have you put a multimeter on the body and make sure it ain't hot? Might be worth a look, would mean a short, obviously. Might try the frame while yer at it. It don't narrow down the location, but it sure narrows down the issue.

Fuse 4 controls a lot of the things you mentioned, though the fusebox cover would have you believe it's just a lowly taillight fuse.

The starter, though, goes through a fusible link inline on the positive battery cable. Dunno about these trucks' links specifically, but something I've learned about other (BMW) fusible links is that they can look fine but have minute cracks that cause problems when a lot of current, such as to a diesel starter, passes through them.

That's possible since the batter cables run down the frame on these models. The glow plugs were part of the IGN system on the trucks so it was either diesel swapped or the glow plug module failed which is common. If there's no power to the fuse block in the truck then you can check the fusible links. If there is then you've got other issues.