The Fordson Tractor Pages Forum

O.K now that I've run this Dexta of mine for a days I have the following questions:

What is the best cold weather start procedure? mine doesn't have a prime bulb anymore, looks blocked off with something. how are you guys in the very cold north getting them started? just turn it over till it fires or is there a trick? I have thought about using hot air gun down the intake but I haven't tried it yet as its not that cold here yet.

I notice that the Dexta is very light on the front end and I keep finding my front wheels just about to float a lot. How much weight is recommended to keep them on the ground but not kill steering? Yes, I live in the mountains so I'm almost never on completely flat ground.

Are there any tell tales signs that a motor has been rebuilt? mine shows 4765hrs on a broken tach but motor runs like a champ. But i notice silver freeze plugs and a few other bolts look to have been removed and replaces at some point but as far as I can tell it has been painted at least 4 times so it's hard to tell, how long to Dexta's seem to go before rebuild?

Hi Taggart,
Just the preheater helps alot even if the primer doesn't work.
You can install a block heater or recirculating coolant heater.
There are also electric, magnetic oil heaters available for the bottom of the oil pan (outside) and long dipstick heaters that go in place of the uhh....well.....dipstick.
Electric battery blankets and battery chargers help put more energy to the starter.
Have seen a syringe used to offer a bit of diesel into the manifold where the primer would normally spray! (A bit hard to hold the heater button down, push the starter lever and inject diesel all at the same time and still not get run over!)
As the air heated with the hot air gun has to go down the intake, hit the cold oil and then back up it might be better to heat the oil in the filter first.
When it's really cold out comes the propane torch under the oil pan and a tarp over the engine but... uhhh....like last winter I found out that another make of machine has plastic fuel lines that don't like a lot of heat and start to leak fuel onto the torch and things warm up rather quickly .
Have had to drain the coolant, take it home and heat it and then put it back in when caught too far away from an electrical outlet.

Found a heated shop now works the best.

When we used the Dexta for feeding large round bales we put fluid in the front tires so it wasn't neccessary to steer with the brakes awwwwll the time.

Ahhh yesteryear,
Les

Also> We have over 10K hours on a '62 Super Dexta that has had only the valves and injectors done twice and injector pump in once.

If it were mine, I would get the heater and primer working even if you used a different method to the primer in the tap. The engine really needs a flame in the intake manifold to get it going and this is what dripping diesel onto the red hot coil gave you.

If you want your engine to last DO NOT USE ETHER to start her.

You might have found a petrol Dexta may have been better in your situation. No problem on cold starting and 4" longer which really does improve stability.

Thanks guys, I own a number of diesels so i know to never use ether and I am familiar with strange cold weather startup methods. I just was curious if the Dexta liked one method over others.

Petrol Dexta? No thanks, Petrol is used when I want to go fast and make HP Diesel is used when I need to work and want power! I have used heavy equipment all my life just not in a farming context. so I'm just getting my bearings on using a farm tractor to actually farm with

Both of my other tractors have loaders so I was a bit surprised at how often my front wheels left the ground with a load of wood on a pallet on the back. of course my clutch work is smoothing out to counter this. but even moving around the pasture the front seems light a lot. I guess water mix in front wheels is a start. is anyone else running front weights and if so how much?

I now know why everyone likes this tractors, it seems the more I work it and work on it the more I like it!

Were export tractors already set to (-) Neg earth ground or has someone already converted this one? it still has the original generator on it.

Taggart wrote:Both of my other tractors have loaders so I was a bit surprised at how often my front wheels left the ground with a load of wood on a pallet on the back. of course my clutch work is smoothing out to counter this. but even moving around the pasture the front seems light a lot. I guess water mix in front wheels is a start. is anyone else running front weights and if so how much?

Front wheel weights were available from Ford. They fit inside the front wheel discs - hence the 4 square holes. They weight 70lb (31.8kg) per side. Quite alot of folk use them for ploughing.
Glad you like your Dexta.