Many of you have given me advice as I did my first Cat restoration, D23J2333. I believe it is a 1938 vintage. I put in new rings, all new valves, seats and guides, rebuilt steering clutches, new bellows seals in final drive, rebuilt the pony, rebuilt the starter clutch and pinion assy. Totally stripped to bare metal, etching primer and Cat Hiway Yellow paint. Then I tried to start it. Bled it according to books, then went into injection pump, found broken springs, replaced, cleaned out 25 years of rust, etc. Finally got it running, ran for an hour, slowed down and died. No fuel pressure. Disassembled the fuel pump, found rust in the seat, new seals, good cleaning, and back together again. Bled air for a long time, finally it ran like a champ, firing on all 4, smooth as a kitten. Drove it around for about an hour, put in shed, shut off. Then restarted, took only a few seconds of turning to fire the diesel.

Went back this morning, temp of 45 degrees. Tried to start, but the pony clutch had seated in to where when I moved start lever to RUN, it slipped. Had to leave for a parade with my fire truck. Back this afternoon, adjusted the clutch, then started to crank the main. Good fuel pressure, ran pony on start for about a minute, switched to RUN, lots of black smoke coming in puffs, but didn't start. Kept cranking for perhaps 5 minutes, but seemed like an hour. All of a sudden, it just fired up, running great.

So, now to my question. How long should it take at the afternoon temp of about 55 to 60 degrees for a properly running diesel to fire up on the pony? It runs so good, that it seems as if there is no problem with the main engine, but seemes like it takes a long time for the main to fire. Am I just too impatient, or do I need to do some more trouble shooting?

Also, with everything fixed up and new paint job, what do you think it is worth? Excellent undercarriage.

Ron

Congratulations on getting er going. Yes, I recall you having assorted challenges along the way. Those dang pony motors and starts seem to have a mind of there own. Some start very quickly and some don't. A one minute run before going to start seems a little short. Five minutes of cranking does seem a little long for the temperatures your talking about but I've seen some use all that and more.
Just takes time to build the heat.
I wouldn't do anything for awhile and see if it gets better or worse.
I'll pass on the "what's it worth" as sale price seldom matches renovation costs and time spent and I wouldn't want to discourage anyone just based on $$$$

If your tractor does not have the exhaust from the pilot engine going through the inlet manifold it can take a little time to heat them up to run temp. Any photos? Regards Andrew.

Apparently it hadn't run yet today which would have the engine temp somewhat cool (45F overnight).

Black smoke- I would have expected grey smoke (unburned fuel).

Pony speed: If it is somewhat low it will greatly retard the starting time. On my poor condition RD7 I sometimes manually open the throttle butterfly for more pony RPMs for a quicker start.

When to give it fuel: A couple of hints I've been been given are:
1) Crank until the main engine oil pressure rises to its normal reading then add fuel.
2) Crank until the engine head/exhaust manifold feels somewhat warm then add fuel.

Daron

Thanks for the responses. This model does not have the pony exhaust routed through Diesel intake manifold, so only heating of Diesel Engine is hot water from pony and compression heat build up. That is one of the reasons I moved it to RUN earlier, thinking the compression would heat up the combustion chambers sooner. You are right, the smoke is grayish in nature. Definitely unburned fuel as it had a very distinct kerosene lantern smell.

I do have some photos that I will try to post in next day or so. Don't have the grousers on as yet, I removed them to get a good cleaning of the track chain and the grousers themselves. Also makes it so much easier to work on the machine without them in the way, especially the fuel injection and pony clutch portions. In addition, I can drive it around on my asphalt driveway without tearing it up with the grousers, it drives nicely on the tracks. By the way, I put all new bushings and seals in the track rollers. This machine only ran in dirt on a farm, used as a plow tractor, so has never been in sand or gravel, thus the tracks and sprockets are like new, no sign of wear at all. It has only 760 total hours on the meter.

Thanks again for the hints. I suspect that since the exhaust is not going into the Diesel that it just takes a long time to heat up all that cast iron.

Ron

You can save yourself a lot of trouble and un-necessary wear with a can of starting fluid. Get the pony running and the main engine engaged, and watch for the oil pressure to come up on the main engine, then give the air intake just a light breath of the starting fluid and throw the lever to run, y the time you do that the starting fluid will ahve hit the main engine and it will take off. Contrary to popular belief, minimal use of starting fluid will not harm the engine in any way.

Hope this helps

Yes after the oil pressure is up & it spun over a little then throw the compression on it will build up some heat & then if it doesn,t start right away with the fuel on then give her a snort of ether as Chris said & it should fire right up. THe story of how bad starting fluid is has been around for a long time & then operators believe it to be true but if you use it sparingly & turn the engine over a little with the compression on then some heat builds up in the cylinders along with the coolant from the starting engine running it should fire off then.Cat for years had an ether starting aid on engines as an attachment for in colder areas but the can is all that,s needed if the starting aid is not installed on your engine. The only thing with ether is if it,s snuffed too much without starting it can lock up the engine till you release the compression & turn over for a little bit to get it cleared out.

Ron, i got the same problem on my d23j4026..Diesel engine takes time to get going..My unit sat for about 20 yrs prior to restoring this past fall..Seems i still have to give it a shot of either.. For the $$ and time spent on restoring I always lose in the longrun on the re-sell.. Ron, Im in need of an airbrether/assembly for the pony..3 bolt flange at the dash area..Have any extra's or know of any? Thanks Shawn

Hi Shawn,

Don't have a spare air breather for the pony, have a friend with some parts, I will check with him and let you know if he has one.

Ron

Ron, Thank you Shawn