Fordson Major Diesel - starting problems

[ernie66]

Hi - recently got my Fordson Major (1958) and now we have hit the cold weather am having starting problems. Starter motor turns over very slowly, have removed, cleaned and reconnected all connections from battery through to the starter motor - this improved things but did not eliminate problem.

The starter motor always turns over but not always fast enough to start - especially in cold weather even with the excess fuel button depressed (how much throttle is recommended when starting??) . Have looked to see if any bad connections when turning it over and one thing I noticed was the solenoid terminal with the main cable leading to the starter motor gets VERY hot and sometimes smokes. Does this point to a faulty solenoid or a faulty starter motor ??


Any advice would be welcome.

thanks

[henk]

Ernie,

Hot means a bad connection.
Check for connetions with paint or corrosion on your solenoid.
Check your voltage while starting. It should not get lower than 9.5 V. If so you have a bad battery.

[Emiel]

Hi Ernie,

Henk is right, hot is no good.

Start with full throttle, as soon as it runs put the throthle close. Make sure she doesn't rev up to much after start. To much revs too fast kills the engine.

Rgds

Emiel

[county654]

Hi Ernie,
I don`t know were you are located, but we had new tractrors here that could not be started at -10° C . We installed an electric heater to the cooling system, that makes live much easier even for the engine.
If your problems only ocure in winter time you might think about such heaters. They cost about 150 €.

[oehrick]

I've yet to sort my injectors and pump timing out Ernie and my starter is a shade sluggish - cleaning up all the heavy current lead connections helped but if I need her in sub zero temps I have a small blowtorch (they sell 'em to cooks for browning sugar on puddens) which I run over the injector feed pipes and gland nuts and this little bit of added heat seems to make the difference and gives me a start, fully charged battery is also a must.

[Pavel]

Greetings Ernie, and lads, from the sunburnt country where, in my part of it, the temp. is just dropping from 37.5C in the water bag -- not nice, not nice at all. Whilst we burn our little pinkies, you in the UK suffer frostbitten mitts if attempting to work on outdoor metal machines with its necessary electrical wiring circuits. That makes it a little difficult to be certain that the work in progress doesn't progress as well as is hoped for. I would therefore urge you to take up Henk's suggestion and use a volt meter as a fail safe method of checking out the supply circuit to the starter. But:-
Just as important is the earth return path. Connect one of the volt meter probes to the body of the starter and the other end to the earthing post of the battery -- then get the other pair of hands to operate the starter lever. Any reading above 0-25v indicates a bad connection in the circuit -- starter, chassis/engine and battery, with the obvious remedy. It is also worth bearing in mind that the battery may have lost some of it's CCA [Cold Cranking Amps] capacity through age; and starter motors do get tired after a number of years in service.

Pavel

[Kim]

I have found that a hot air gun directed down the intake stack while cranking helps a great deal as you are introducing very hot air to the combustion chambers this way.

[ernie66]

Hi All - looks like bad connection was the main problem. Stripped everything down, replaced an iffy looking terminal end, wire brushed and emery papered all the contacts and its much better now, turns over much faster, starts after a few turns - and no hot wires!!

Thanks for the help

By the way, anyone had to weigh down the back end ? Have a heavy front loader fitted and in wet and slippy conditions I loose traction ie get wheel spin which isn't too surprising as all the weight is at the front not over the rear wheels. I know the recommendation is to partially fill the rear tyres with water but I would prefer to stick a heavy block on the back if feasible.

thanks

[oehrick]

Good news on the start

old water tank or oil drum with bar through for the tpl filled with stone or ballast makes a good counterweight

[Dandy Dave]

Yup. Seen that Before. Dandy Dave!

[Kim]

For general information purposes, a 55 gallon steel drum full of concrete weighs about 1200 lbs.