yes it comes on and goes off as normal

 

can i put 12v striaght to the two big wires on the side of the grid to see if it works or is that a no no both cables are black so i dont think polarty matters . does it??

 

Hi, wonder if I can jump into this conversation. I have a '01 2500 diesel that has a cold starting problem also. The 2 solenoids on the driver's side inner fender have a battery sized cable each. When the ignition is turned to the ön position, the wait to start light comes on. So each of those cables heads over to the heater grid. They are both positive terminals - 1 from each of the solenoids. I measured approx 10.5VDC between the grid terminal & battery ground ( you only have about 10 seconds to check this while the wait to start light is on ). Like mentioned, you will feel the heater grid warm up-may have to do this cycle 2-3x though.

 

you could just jump the two large wires on each coil together to test the grid, there will probably be a good ark at connection

 

trucker,
artnt the big wires atop the solenions + and - ???if so i would not want to jump together,as pos & neg dont mix. Ramit says the two at the grid are both positive, iam confused on how to test this grid, can one of u break it down in to laman terms, as i am not getting the test proceedure.thanks mike

 

Hi, my '01 might have a slightly different setup than yours but you can tell if the wires on the solenoids are + or -. Just take a voltage meter or a regular 12 volt test light & attach 1 end to the - of your battery. If you get a reading or light on when checking any terminal of a wire, that will be +. In my Ram, I removed the whole double cable from between the solenoids & the grid to clean the ends. So the 1 cable is attached from the 1 solenoid to the 1 side of the grid. The other cable does the same to the other side of the grid. Mine does heat up. Initially I checked the grid's resistance with an ohm meter & it was about 2 ohms.

 

i finally found my meter yesterday so ill get after it lator, got honey dos it sunday

 

ok one big wire is hot at the grid, one is not, with the key on, or started, damn thing is working again this morning, i dont get it, whats up with this????

 

no.... they are both positive, one of the wires on each coil is hooked to the + side of the batt, the other side is hooked to the grids, when the signal is sent on the small wires, it trips the coils and hooks the two large wires together

 

ok thanks makes a little more sense thanks