Broken Glow Plug

bigkat1249 · Post by **bigkat1249** » Sun Jul 30, 2017 3:58 pm

Hey guys,

I was swapping glow plugs this afternoon and the tip of the final plug snapped off while tightening it down. All the others hand tightened to a certain point, then needed a wrench to finish the job. This one hit a snag about half way down and after a half to full turn with the wrench, I could hear grinding. I backed it out and the tip was gone. No idea what it got caught up on that would cause it to break, but now I'm stumped on how get it out. I think the tips are ceramic so my magnet wouldn't work. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Broken Plug:
http://imgur.com/JOLVTbC

bigkat1249 · Post by **bigkat1249** » Sun Jul 30, 2017 9:07 pm

Welp. Found the culprit. One of the tiny split lock washers on the plate popped off without me seeing and made it's way into hole. It was just large enough to not fall all the way through. I was able to retrieve it with a little digging and an extendable magnet, but lost some shards of the broken tip in the process. Had to install an old plug to make sure it started up but plan on replacing with a new one when it shows up next week.

http://i.imgur.com/3WVYzdVl.jpg?2

Post by **Growlerbearnz** » Tue Aug 01, 2017 4:03 am

Ouch! Glad you got it sorted though. One of the pistons in my engine has a few nicks from an entire glow plug tip being eaten by the engine, I imagine a few small shards wont do too much harm.

Nice picture of the offending washer too. Sums up the situation neatly.

bigkat1249 · Post by **bigkat1249** » Tue Aug 08, 2017 6:00 am

Phew! Good to know Growler. I was nervous this would start a chain reaction of issues, but so far so good.