New to the ACMOC registered yesterday and sent my dues today. I've owned a D4 tracksvator for 30 years. Smooth tracks w 1/3 yard bucket. Would run it once or twice a year usually around my small farm. Keep it running and did normal fiddling with it.

However, due to the death of my mother four years ago and my father requiring daily care I have not been able to start my machine for four years. Its been stored in a pole building this entire time. My dad died in August of this year.

Two weeks ago I started the pony started and was purring along. I released the start lever on the compression release and engaged the starter pinion and pulled the clutch back to engage it. Motor turned and gained rpm, gave the aircleaner a shot of ether and flicked off the compression release to the run position. Diesel sputtered and ran briefly them quit firing. I tried several more attemts but nothing worked. Fuel pressure guage was in the white or no run position.

I ve got a maintence book so I emptied the fuel tank, drained the fuel injector housing and bought a new fuel fillter. Book sez open top and bottom vents on the fuel housing and the four fuel injector relief valves. Then to start the pony and turn the engine over w the throttle closed and compression release in the start position.

For you "Reasonable Knowledgeable People" is there a desired sequence for closing the vents? ie bottom housing vent first after no air bubbles, then top vent, then indivdual injector vents?

Anything else I should check? Any tips? Anybody else been there done that??

You are on to it!

If you still have no gauge pressure look at the fuel bypass valve on the bottom of the fuel filter housing where the fuel line comes in. Should be held on with 2 bolts and if you remove the bolts, fuel from the tank should flow out in a good stream if the tank valve is still open. there's a spring in there that can rust away and break, and a button on top of it that can get crud on it and prevent it building good pressure. fortunately it will still run well if that is the only reason for the low gauge pressure. In other words there's plenty of fuel available, it just isn't at the normal pressure. If the filters are stopped up, the pressure is low, AND there's a shortage of fuel delivered so performance suffers.

Hello Guys

Not to hijack this thread, but how does the fuel guage work, my filters were changed but the guage stays stubbonly in the white ( the tractor runs well) - is it likely the guage has a fault, or could there be something else at play . . .

Thanks - Foster

PS I admire you for having the guts to look after your folks right through

NZ, pick up a calibrated gauge of not more than 40 lbs. & hook it temporary into the system even where the gauge is now & see what pressure you have. The original gauges only have run position etc. so with the calibrated gauge you should get maybe 15 lbs. idle & maybe as much as 25 lbs. more or less at high idle when things are normal with the system. CC gave you some useful info. to follow too.

I just changed my fuel filters the other day on my D47U and I first fill the filter housing with clean diesel, install the filters, and then bolt it up. I open the round knurled vent and open the vent at the top of the housing. When I start turning over the engine, the fuel will start flowing out the vents and then I close the top and then the side vent several times until I get good flow. If fuel pressure does not come up all the way, I then go to the injector housing and bleed it. In the past, I have had ice form and block the fuel from flowing and other disasters but I have had the best luck with opening just the filter housing vents and then moving to the injectors rather than opening all the vents. Hope you get it going.

Doug you are right on with the way you do a bleed job & filter change so if all would follow this procedure it will work out best.

I agree with your basic idea, except filling the housing with fuel. It should be filled from the fuel tank of the tractor, hopefully filled before trying to bleed the system. Not a good idea to pour fuel out of a can into the fuel filter housing or in later models into the fuel filter itself. We can do it, but we take a chance of introducing small buggers into the system past the filters. I used to precharge filter housings, but I don't anymore. Pony motor will turn the main engine enough to build pressure in the fuel filter housing. Bleed air off the top at the bleed screw then work your way along the injector lines at the injectors. As mentioned, it helps a lot if the fuel tank is full. Our Cat pre cup engines start much easier with a mix of Power Service in the fuel. In cold weather the main engine will start with 20 seconds of preheat with Power Service, it takes more than 3 minutes without PS and the engine misses and smokes white. This is around 15 degrees F.

Dave if you fill the filter base before hand the fuel anyway has to go through the elements before it goes to the pump housing so the danger of getting unfiltered fuel to the system is about "O" so I can,t see where there is any worry about dirt getting in unless the cover etc. is not cleaned up before it,s put back together.We always did it this way at the dealer & the many years I did engines & others there too never saw one engine that ever caused a problem if it was done in a proper clean manner.

If the tractor has been sitting for this long, check to see if you have algae growing in your fuel from moisture. My 7U had some get started before I bought. I treated it to kill it and a glob of black snot plugged the fuel line coming from the tank to the transfer pump. It took a while to find that. Good luck.

How much starting fluid is enough? How high is high?

Use a small amount, just enough to get it to fire, but not to knock. If the air filter is off, you will have to be more careful/use less because it gets into the cylinders quicker. Just a sniff to start with while it's turning over at full throttle on the pony. If that amount doesn't do the trick, wait 10 seconds for it to clear out with the engine turning over and then use more the next time.

Also warm the main up for a while turning with throttle off, compression on (lever in) and then open the throttle on the injection pump and see if you suddenly get thick white smoke out the exhaust. If you do, you have fuel, you just need more heat/compression or a little ether so it will start up with less heat/compression. ether is used on top of diesel from the injection pumps, so open the throttle enough to get thick white smoke before you add the ether.