450b WONT START

[swinemar]

My 450 b hasnt run since last fall. over the winter i replaced the single 12 volt battery with two 12 volt batteries and when i tried to start it today it wouldnt make a kick, even with starting fluid used. Any help would be appreciated.

[Tigerhaze]

When you say it wouldn't kick even with ether, was the starter cranking at all?

If not, are you sure that you wired the two batteries in parallel and not series (i.e. making it 24V instead of 12V)? The starter has to crank over pretty good to get a diesel engine going.

If it was cranking, then gets to another realm of issues but you would have expected something to happen with ether in a diesel, unless a gas engine.

[swinemar]

The engine cranked over but it never made a kick.I sprayed ether in the air intake and still nothing.Is it possible i may have hooked the batteries up wrong ? The engine always started hard enen in warm weather.

[jtrichard]

it has electric shutoff so yes if hooked up bassackwards it wont run but it will crank are the batteries hooked up parallel or in series? if in series then you have 24 volt and you could have fried the pump solenoid

[swinemar]

Problem solved. The engine wasnt cranking over fast enough.

[KenP]

deleted

[Tigerhaze]

Problem solved. The engine wasnt cranking over fast enough.

A slow starter will make a difference on starting the diesels, so glad you found it was an issue.

I didn't mention it previously as Ken did, but ether is hard on indirect diesel injection engines and not recommended. You would be better off making sure glow plugs are working and install a diesel priming pump than to use ether. At best, regular use of ether will make a diesel engine an addict. At worst, catastrophic damage like Ken described could happen.