Whenever I smell ether it takes me back to an experience I had in the Coast Guard back in the late 60's. I had just arrived at my first duty station, the San Francisco air station, after almost a year of electronics schools. On Saturday I found myself part of the boat crew with a yeomen apprentice (a paper pusher also just from school) and the base's bowsun mate(sp). We all walked out to the boathouse and got on the 30 footer. The bowsun flips back the engine cover to expose a big Cummings diesel. Then he hands a can of ether to the yeoman and tells him to give it spray after he has cranked it up a bit. The engine cranks a few turns and then it fires off. Then it seems to go to max rpm and I am wonder why he doesn't idle the engine down. There a lot of yelling and arm waving but the noise in the boathouse was too loud to hear anything. I was behind the engine cover so I couldn't see what was happening with the yeoman. You may have guessed he was still spraying the ether and the bowsun's pulling back on the throttle didn't do much to slow down the engine. Finally he came back and got the can away from the kid. Somehow I was as guilty as the person with the ether just because I was there. It was hard to hide for the rest of the day on that small boat.

The engine ran okay that day but it could have been a real disaster.

Rich

I know I'am new here and have no "CAT" experance yet(I'am working on that, have a RD4 that I'am working on getting running) but a old diesel mechanic told me once not to use ether but that WD-40 was the best thang to use because it helped "lube" the cylinder walls. Has any one else ever heard of using WD-40. I had to use it once on a Cummins and it worked pretty good.

WD 40 is better than nothing. If it's cold and it's got to go before the battery dies, you need starting fluid. JD sells almost pure ether, some others have less ether and other things added in maybe to make it more idiot proof.

D42tjim..............try some diesel fuel additive with a cleaner in it. Double up on the dose and work the engine for a day or longer.
Injectors nozzles get dirty and slobber and dribble instead of spray a fine spray. This will cause hard starting. Engine will run this way after starting, but it is not running up to snuff.
As said above low compression will cause hard starting too, but try the additive before taking the engine apart.
My .02 cents worth
Good luck.........................C u..................Claney

First off just about every Diesel John Deere tractor made since 1960 seemed to have an electric system or the mechanical tube that ran from the dash into the intake. They even put them on the high crop tractors, go figure on that one.

I used to use WD-40, the older stuff used Propane as a propellant, just as cans of starting fluid, execpt starting fluid has more like 50% propane.

Yes, when I lived in Southwest NYS and worked in the Bradford Penn oilfields. I too heard and saw many things. "opinions" I can tell you that we have given CATs a snort to get them started and even used a little gasoline down the air cleaner when Ether wasn't available. There are OLD CATS that need ether but there are also OLD CATS that leak so much crankcase oil into the cylinders they are still able to start on there own. Go Figure! Dad would be doing a well service and he would start the D2 ponyget it up just over and idle cranking the main, then go off and take care of other stuff for 20 minutes. Go back, speed it up and flip to "Run" and away it would always go! Buda engines sometimes had the blowtorch still with them in the power houses. Most didn't which was probably because the building was field gas heated. Detroit diesels on skidders always needed ether. Cletracs used ether if you didn't heat the manifold with a torch. Early 60's John Deere ag tractors had glow plugs, later ones had the Ether bottle. Case Construction Equipment had ether bottles. We used to very rarely use ether on the JD's because of the knock, preferring to wear out the starter while using the glow plugs. Electric starters are cheaper than engines!
I type so slow.............

Ok, my best ether story...a customer called me early in the spring, still cold & said he couldn't get the 4430 JD to start...said it just smoked white & knocked a little, even w/ether. This had the electric ether aid...I went out & sure enough, it did just like he said-a shot of ether would sorta kill it instead of firing it off. I finally pulled the can out & shot some on my hand, & it was WATER! We squirted a puddle of it on the floor, & it would put out a match...genuine JD 99.9% pure ether, so said the label...he took it back & got warranty on it from JD, the farm had a whole case & that was the only one w/water. The JD guys said they had never heard of it before. Some a-hole's idea of a joke, I guess...
Ron in CO...

How long do you let it run on compression before trying to start it? Turning it over on "start" doesnt do anything but let the engine turn easier and circulate the oil. Running it on compression builds up heat in the cylinder area and warming the prechambers. So many guys like to flip it to run and fog mosquitos and make a bad impression on a old Cat.

Yea it builds fuel pressure too and circulates warm coolant throught the diesel also.