Hi 196200, is that old banger giving you a tough time again???, moving the speed control past its set position by tricking the motor into thinking its running is not the answer , it should be started in the correct manner ,the oil pressure limiter is best left to do its job, on those little D4's a common fault is found with the fuel hand priming pump, if your pump has 2 small bolts holding it in place (2 odd bolts, fool proof ??) start looking at this , If your injection pump is a sleeve metering job ,( big flat plate on the side ) check inside for water, also make sure all your heater plugs are glowing 5 amps draw per plug = 20 amp drop on amp meter, if this old tub still play's up bring it over on your next trip and leave it with me for a few years?????,
tctractors.

Hi Tony
I'm out of the home base on a business trip to Tampa Bay Florida. I could be at home where it's ~10 deg F and really blowing hard. As far as the tractor goes, it's starting/running like its supposed to as long as it does not sit for weeks between uses. I noticed that there was no fuel (as I did not see any white smoke) until after I cranked the engine for a while. I did not know if it was caused by the throttle limiter being set too "lean" or if there just was no fuel making it to the injectors. I thought why not crank it until oil pressure gets up and then increase the throttle past it's initial "oil pressure limited setting". I have not had any problems getting started using the "right" procedure until this last time to use the tractor. I wondered whether it just was not getting fuel or if perhaps there was condensation in the lines like you suggest. How about I get back to St. Louis and see what happens this time when I try to start it. By the way, I do use a fuel additive to try to keep the fuel from collecting water but have not done it recently. After this last starting "escapade", I did put some fuel additive in the tank again.
I'll take a good look at what kind of injection pump I have and let you know what I find from a water perspective. Maybe I need to fund yourself and the Hooded Claw a trip to the US and trade that for some Land Rover type spanner work! Take care and please don't spill your buckets of black smoke in your home. Your garage is very nice, but nowhere near as desirable as being allowed into your converted police station.
By the way, did you keep any of the jail doors?

The proper way to get started is turn it over till it shows fuel pressure on the gauge & then with the throttle on take a 3/4" wrench & open up each fuel line one at a time & bleed a little fuel out & then tighten up & go to the next one.If it is a hard starter get a can of starting fluid & give it a couple short snorts in the air cleaner & it should start then if you got fuel to bleed out the lines as I suggested above.

Thanks for the input. I will check to make sure that fuel is at the injectors and if it's not, then the question is why am I losing the pressure (when it sits for 1 month between jobs). I guess I have never let it sit that long between jobs in the past and possibly it's normal that you have to crank a bit longer before fuel pressure is up and the injectors have fuel. I use the glo plugs to pre-heat and it has always started without any ether as long as you saw white smoke signals. Thnaks for the good advice.

The Prison Cell doors have long gone , but I still have a pair of hand cuffs somewhere???, on the D4 you shoud have no trouble sorting the bad starting issue, the fuel tank is a good bit higher than the motor, (filling does help some) the hand priming pump is most often the weak link , if your injector pump is the sleave metering job (flat plate on side) at the top just below the injector lines is a vent plug 11/16 AF spanner fits this little item ,fuel should flow like a "busted fridge" out of this port, it is also posible to just slacken off the injector lines and pump the hand primer to get fuel to exit from them ,please don't crank the engine over to trick the control limiter, that is not the way to start the old banger.
It would not take me long to pack a clean pair of "Reach me Downs" to pop over to the 196200 play pen,
always happy tctractors.

I'm Back,

It's finally not 10 def F and there's no ice/wind blowing. What did I do you ask? I replaced the plunger after I took it out and saw that the little rubber ring was pitted and possibly not sealing well. I took the advice from you professionals and started the tractor at ~40 deg F in the follwing manner.

After I hand primed with the pump after changing the plunger and gasket I heated with the glow plugs for ~ 2 mins. I cracked the throttle as far as it would open with no oil pressure. I then cranked for ~ 5 seconds and saw white smoke and it started right up. It built up oil pressure and then I opended the throttle. While cranking the fuel pressure was nearly into the green but not quite. At low idle it did not budge but it went into the green ~1/8 inch at half throttle and stayed there at full throttle. I had changed the fuel filter ~ 1 year ago and cleaned the primary filter too. Now that I know the correct starting procedure and have fuel (the white smoke), it appears that my problem is solved. Is the green fuel pressure good enough (at 1/8 inch into the green) or should I do more filter cleaning/changing.

While in the vicinity I did change the primary AIR filter and cleaned the breather assembly. My question is should I try to clean the air filter with the paper and mesh screen or just toss it. A new CAT filter was only $43 so not too bad. The plunger at $26 was not too bad either.

Thanks everybody in tractor land!

Yes you can clean a dry filter if it,s not damaged in any way. Take an air blow gun & blow the heavy dirt off the outside & then blow from the inside toward the outside last till it,s completely clean. Don,t go over board with air pressure to damage the paper. We blowed them out at the dealer all the time if they were in good shape.With these Shop Vacs that have a dry element in them you can do the same as I do it all the time with the one at my church that I do maintenance work a couple times a week in fact I just cleaned it yesterday.The Vac has an air blowing side on it that I use.

Watch the age of your paper filter elements. Cat and Donaldson don't date them for nothing. The paper and its coating, deteriorates with age, and ends up letting fine dust through.

I had a 930 that I was running on ag work, in fine black dust, and was concerned when it suddenly started to use oil.
Pulled the outer paper element, and found that the fine black dust had gone right through it, and the inner element was nearly full of dust.
Pulled the inner, and found that the fine black dust had gone right through the inner, too, and filled the engine intake with dust.

Stripped the engine down, and it was shot. Substantial bore wear as well as general engine wear, caused by the black dust ingestion.
Went down to the Cat dealer, screaming about some kind of warranty (they were genuine Cat elements, about 5 yrs old, and had been previously cleaned properly several times) .. and the first thing the parts man did, was take a look at the date tag on the filters, and hand them back to me, stating .."Sorry, we don't guarantee elements more than 12 months old .. "

The black dust had just gone right through the paper on these elements. There were no holes of any sort, as we carefully checked every cleaned filter with a light inside it, prior to re-use.
This was a real eye-opener to me, after having owned a dozen Cats, and was running 6 or 7 at that time, and had previously never had a problem with the paper filters.

After that, I got real leery of filter age, and threw them out after 12 months. $40 or $50 outlay is a whole lot cheaper than a total engine rebuild.
I often see people selling filters on eBay, and people flocking to buy them.
They are for sale for only one reason .. they are past their use-by date, age wise, and have been discarded because of that reason.
Anyone who thinks they have a real win, by saving $5 or $10 by buying a filter off eBay (any filter) that is 5 or 8 years old, is only fooling themselves.

OZ you are right elements should be checked after you clean them to make sure the paper is in good shape & the date. There was a Co. that rebuilt elements by installing new paper in them & they were like new.They used to come around our shop peddling them & they did seem to hold up good & were slightly cheaper.I don,t know if they are around anymore or not.

Thanks for the feedback. I tossed the air filter as it was a NAPA filter of unknown purchase date from the last owner. I do clean them by blowing them out throughout the year just to keep the dirt from building up and am careful when I do it to keep from ripping the filter. I just wasn't sure if there was a more thorough "washing procedure" to use. Thanks again.