Alright guys so I just picked up an 87 300d om603 the other day for fairly cheap. It ran when I first bought it with a rough idle (found to be a vacuum leak) and needed a jump to get it going. Since purchasing i have replaced the glow plugs, egr delete, cleaned the intake manifold, new battery, and fixed all vacuum leaks. I'm am now running into some new issues.

Now after putting the intake manifold back on the engine and replacing the glow plugs I am unable to even crank the engine along with no GP light on the dash. The previous owner had installed an after market push start ignition that is wired into the starter like the ones from autozone so once I turn the key and press the ignition button I only get a single click from the glow plug relay. I can hear the IP turn on and have even had the fan turn on once while attempting to crank it but I cannot figure out why it is not activating the starter.

I have replaced the stripper fuse in the GP relay, checked the GP's for bad connections, tested the GP's, tested the battery. The car ran with a jump before I removed the manifold and changed the GP's and now I get nothing but a clicking the relay. Is it a bad ground? Starter? Glow plug relay? Something electrical? Any help would be great!

Update: I have checked the ghetto ignition switch for a poor ground. It seems the DIY push start has a power wire, ground wire, and a wire conecting to the starter. I plan on checking the connection to the starter tomorrow along with the main ground strap.

 

Is there anything I could have done wrong with the glow plugs that would give symptoms like this?

 

Okay the only wiring for the after market ignition is a power in wire to the switch and a power out to the starter. The switch is getting power and the weird part is that every time I hit the ignition switch it makes the glow plug relay click. That is odd to me because the switch is only connected to the starter.