starting

[Lavoy]

They are easier to get out if you cut them into small enough pieces!?!?!?!?!?
Lavoy

[Tigerhaze]

Don't tempt me Lavoy!

[Dave T]

I started a 420 Utility tractor, that I used to rake hay with, on a 12v battery for about 6 years before the starter went away. I then had the starter rebuilt for 12v and it has been that way for about 10 years. No problems with the ring gear or bendix. As I recall it was not much more to rebuild to 12v than 6v. Also to you 8v guys, some voltage regulators can be adjusted up to charge an 8v battery.

[JD440ICD2006]

I converted my 730 Diesel pony start to 12 volts in 2002. Not only have I had no problems, I still have the same 12 volt battery that I put in new. I typically do not get 8 years out of a battery.
That one is a little more complicated as they do not make 12 volt original coils so you have to feed 6 volts to them.

I am currently converting my 440 IC to 12 volts. Have the generator completed, working on the starter now.

It is personal preference but 12 volt conversions done properly will not cause any harm.

[Ray III]

I guess I'm lucky or something, I never get any grief starting on 6 volts. It just starts. The new battery cables helped a lot though.

For the winter I have 5W20 oil in the engine, the book calls for that or 0W20, don't remember which.

[Stan Disbrow]

Hi,

Gad! I'm going to stop chatting about crawler starting problems with you guys! Every time I do, I seem to cause some sort of starting issue with my 420c!

I went out there Saturday afternoon and - no go. I needed to peel the berms alongside the long driveway we have. You know, like before the rain we're getting today came in and more water ran down the wheel tracks....

Well, it was a lengthy troubleshoot, and I'll spare most of the gory details. the symptom was a few pops, if any, and then it quit. Of course, I ground the 6v battery down trying.

Anyway, after changing out to a new 6v battery (that I didn't need to buy) I figured out that the real issue was a weak, or sometimes no, spark. The root cause was the danged ancient ignition switch. Sometimes it does not make, and other times it makes but acts more like a resistor....

Of course, I found this out after (a) draining and replacing the fuel, (b) messing with the points, (c) putting in a new battery, and (d) messing with the coil!

Of course, I had no new ILBD switch on hand. So, I installed a bypass toggle switch in the cover plate that sits over the hole where the old hour meter used to be.

Sheesh!

Also of course, by the time I had it all figured out and fixed, there was too little light left in the day to do any work. Fortunately, yesterday was also nice so the job got done.

Anyway, the toggle switch is a temporary measure until I get a new ILBD switch. Right. We all know how permanent temporary measures are!

Oh, well. I now have a good 6v battery for a spare. I have two other 6v 2-cylinder machines, so that's not actually a bad thing.

later!

Stan

[Gil]

A toggle switch? Boy that's fancy. Why didn't you just twist the two wires together?

[Stan Disbrow]

Hi,

Well, I did sort-of do that as part of the troubleshooting. I used a clip cord! Oh, wait. That's fancy, too.....

Actually, the twisted wires would have been fine, but I have this thing about bare wire ends. I actually used soldered-on wire terminals and heat shrink tubing over the switch lugs. Not to mention that the wire has silicone insulation which is much more heat and oil resistant than PVC.

How's that for fancy??

Later!

Stan

[Lavoy]

GEE, I was thinking I would have been fancy if I put a wire nut over the bare twisted together wires!
Lavoy

[Stan Disbrow]

Hi,

Yep. Pretty fancy. A yellow wire-nut, right? Nothing is fancier than a color coordinated wire nut!

Actually, I was rather mad at the whole mess. Part of soldering and heat shrink is me being an anal electrical engineer, of course, but part is not.

Some of it was me being realistic in thinking that this temporary measure is likely to be rather permanent. This way, I don't have to fool with pulling the dash back out, nor do I have to contend with ancient wires with brittle insulation. The light section still works OK, and if it should be flaky I can *see* when that's happening and fiddle with the switch until it works.

Much of it was me being mad, as I now know that several issues I've had in the past year were probably due to the times when the switch contacts were behaving more like a resistor. Like fouling plugs from time-to-time and other times when it didn't really want to start....

So, I said: 'so there!' to the thing by using new wires from the starter terminal (and hence the battery) to the switch and then from the switch to the coil. I made sure that there were no places left for connection issues, other than inside the new switch, and also that the wires will not be an issue either!

The switch and wires are leftovers from when I was racing. I bought rolls of really robust wire and a box full of top-end toggle switches and whatnot. That's a place where you don't want a 5 cent part biting you in the arse - or you'll wind up in real trouble!

Anyway, she's a good old crawler and worthy of the 200 mile-per-hour parts even if she never goes over 3 MPH!

later!

Stan

[JWB Contracting]

We have a 540 Deere skidder that we use for clearing pipeline right of ways. We put a ripper on the back, which serves as a good anchor for winching out stuck equipment and use a snatch block to double the pulling power.

Have pulled out much larger equipment including D8's.

[rvbarkley]

Fought unreliable starting on my MC for several years. Finaly replaced the ign. switch and it's started like a champ ever since, 6 V battery and all. One of these days gotta get the charging system working. (been keeping the battery up w/charger last couple of years) (Iknow...need to fix it)
Last week, 20 degrees F. popped right off so I could clear the drive of 10" of snow....fun...fun...fun.

[Stan Disbrow]

Hi,

Oh, yes!

I just wrote a PhD dissertation on Ancient Electrical Systems Part-II over in the thread '420c Amp Meter':

http://www.jdcrawlers.com/messageboard/ ... php?t=4679

I ended with a joke about the next in the series, the Part-I, Three Brush system as used on the MC.

Then, I came to this thread and it looks like we need that one here!!

Do I also need to write one on the Deere 24 volt series to start but then 12v parallel to run, system as well?

No. They didn't sell any of those 4010 Diesel Crawlers, did they?



later!

Stan