Items to identify on the dash of my wheel loader.

petermcg, Mar 31, 5:37am
The first thing, I think I know what its for, but dont know how it works, it sticks out from the Dash and is connected to the air filter, with a hose. I think it warns when filter is blocked but how? Second one is round with holes like a pepper shaker. Might be something to do with glowing.

NZTools, Mar 31, 5:54am
The blocked filter indicator, if working correctly will show a red.line across the sight glass when the filter is blocked. A good suck on the pipe should be enough to test it. My crystal ball isnt working well enough to tell what the second item is sorry.

bigfatmat1, Mar 31, 5:58am
The second item is a glow plug indicator. Most of them in something that old are disconnected used on manual glow systems. Don't need them or been changed to automatic

mechnificent, Mar 31, 7:01am
Inside the pepper shaker there is a fat resistor wire that glows dull red when the glow plugs are going. You often have to shield it from the light with your hand to see the wire glowing.

skin1235, Mar 31, 7:36am
handy ciggy lighter too when your one runs out miles from home

petermcg, Apr 1, 6:12am
OK thanks for all that, I might disconnect the pepper shaker, it seems a bit weird when a light would have done, I presume I can do this without intefering with the operation of the glow plugs, that is done by turning the key back for a few seconds,, and I will have a play with the filter sensor, I would say it is jammed up by now if the air filter is any thing to go by.

bigfatmat1, Apr 1, 6:29am
A light is not the same. It glows the same as glow plugs so you can see when they are hot a light would only tell you there is power there.

skin1235, Apr 1, 7:30am
usual issue was cracks on the plastic pipe - brittle with age, gauge shows white all the time
it simply measures vacuum in the air cleaner engine side, should show white when engine stopped, green when engine running hard and red when air cleaner is becoming clogged - very common system on a lot of severe dust operations vehicles

mechnificent, Apr 1, 10:07am
That fat resistor wire in the pepper shaker is the resistor for the glow plugs. It restricts the current in the glow plug or plugs to stop them burning out. If it's working it should start to glow after about eight or ten seconds, but it barely glows dull red so you need to cover it and peer in there carefully.

petermcg, Apr 2, 7:04am
It sounds like I should leave that pepper shaker in tact then, the glowing is working OK at the moment.

poppajn, Apr 2, 7:36am
You'd worry me operating my loader, sound's like you haven't read the manual or learnt about you're machine beforehand.

bill1451, Apr 2, 7:55am
o you know where the dipstick is, and where the various grease points are.

skin1235, Apr 2, 8:08am
it won't work if the glow plugs are dead, and will not allow the glowplugs to work if replaced with a bulb, yep leave it alone, maybe unscrew the pepper shaker cover and blow the dust and dead spiders out of it

petermcg, Mar 31, 1:07pm
Its an old Mitsubishi WS3,mid 70s to mid 80s wheel Loader and there is not much info around about them, I am restoring its appearance, paint, lights, seat , gauges, also changing all oils and filters, apart from not knowing what some items are for, I could not find the filter locations for a long while, and were having trouble locating new filters.