D25u

you have the holy grail a electric start pilot engine. no paffing about with a rope. it looks to be in reasonable condition. chapter 19? does reproduction of some parts and one of the things they do is track wear gauges.

I see that now that the electric start is the most beneficial

Are they not common in Oz, trainzkid?

I thought it was just every day plain old normal stuff hit the switch pull a joke adjust the throttle and the way it goes

most d2/d4 were rope start in this neck of the woods anyway. in a warm climate its not that big a deal. provided every thing is in proper working order and set correctly. i never managed to start the pilot on ours with a rope i would get it to cough and that was it. had to cheat and use a electric motor and a vee belt on the flywheel.
dad could start it with the rope provided he didnt touch any thing other than the kill switch and the fuel tap. clear the cylinders and 3 pulls she would run. i think ours was just worn a bit everywhere which adds up to a lot of wear. well non issue now as it broke and is now in the hands of darryl from victoria. entirely new home brewed starting engine on the way must pull the finger out and finish it. have to build the new carport so we can keep her out the weather first though.

Electric pony start is nice if you have it available. It took me quite some time to source all of the parts to convert one of the D2s here to electric start. Around here, seems anytime there is a pony removed/junked out, the first thing robbed off are the electric start parts. It was miserable trying to find enough parts to get one away from rope starting.
Yes, that is a PLUS having it. Darned rope. I bet that CTS is in his chair chuckling. JM

One good thing about rope start is that it is early warning for the pony's tune condition and/or the operator's technique : )

Rope Start -
Nearly all of the equipment of multiple manufactures, auto and tractor alike, left the factory with a bent piece of steel, either fixed or in the tool box or a straight steel bar. Few exceptions after Diesel era including those with starting engines. Those are quite well known - D-2, D-4, D-5 and the 4R-9U series D-6's. Off hand I can not think of another manufacture or user of a rope started engine bigger than a lawnmower! (D-5's were not common here, I knew of only 4 around the area - never heard anythign good about them, too light in the running gear and some said the engines were not the best either)

Yes, JM -- I love to hear you say how hard and long you searched for Electric Starter for one of those "beloved" horizontal opposed starting engines!
Must be because you were always afraid the rope would get lost? NO SUCH LUCK!

Neil - have to be a very special set of circumstances to have one start easily or even with some effort. Spark/Fuel has to be perfect and then you must consider the location of the starting engine flywheel. If you were very lucky, it was not a Tail Seat model with the flywheel between the starting engine cowling and the fuel tank!
Those starting engines were notorius for starting issues, and if something happened and you "killed" the diesel, they could prove to be more stubborn than a mule at quitting time!
They might start fine when cold, but get the system hot from working and they could be just short of impossible!

One member here on the bb tells me he started a D2 starting engine on the first pull of the rope - and then continues to say he almost suffered a heart attack from the SHOCK!
He also invited me to try that "Magic Rope. So far I am avoiding that issue. I do not need to relive those experiences of "blue air", busted knuckles and the sore backside from the "boss" for not getting things moving faster!

"keep 'em crawlin'"
CTS