starting a cat grader for the first time in six years, any tips?

Besides checking the level of the oil in the various compartments of the grader, before you start it up, loosen each drain plug and see if there's water in any of them. If any comes out, drain it until you get oil coming out and then you can usually run it enough to warm it up so it drains completely without damaging anything. If it's too bad, just drain it and refill before running. Engine oil filter is NAPA 1161 (need 2)

The main engine has motor oil in the injection pump housing and there's also oil in the pony motor pinion clutch that needs checking. I would drain the fuel filter housing completely and if you get a lot of gunge out of it, just go ahead and replace the filters and wash the housing out completely. Depending on how much fuel is in the tank, unless there's a very serious problem with the fuel, you probably can afford to replace the filters a couple of times and still be ahead $-wise. I would drain the tank a bit and get whatever water and debris you can get out before it goes through the transfer pump and gets caught in the filters. NAPA 3164 is a single filter (need 4) or get them from CAT where you can also get the gaskets that go on top and bottom of the filter holding plate. Probably you can re-use the gaskets if you are careful when you remove the cover and filter plate and do not tear them. When you get the new filters installed on the filter plate, fill the housing with clean diesel and then drop the new filters in and button it up. This will save a lot of time getting all the air out of the bleed screw on the top front of the housing and all the fuel will still get filtered since it has to go into the filters and up through the hole in the middle, through the holding plate and get above the plate before it goes to the injection pump housing.

The pony motor oil can be diluted with gasoline if the previous operators did not follow the recommendation to always stop the pony motor by shutting off the gasoline valve instead of cutting the mag switch. Always a good idea to keep that pony motor oil in tip top shape, those things are expensive and will come apart if run with diluted oil.

There is a drain plug in the bottom of the carburetor bowl that can be removed pretty easily and allow a little gasoline to flow through the lines and flush out any rust etc. many of the pony gas tanks need cleaning and relining to have a reliable start.

Good luck!

I always recommend if at all possible rotating the engine assembly by hand. Stuck valves/lifters or water in a piston bore can do alot of easily preventable damage if you try to pull start or rotate too fast.

Matt

Of course it was running when parked, they all were!!

Thanks for the info ccjersey thats exactly the kind of stuff I need to know, I really appreciate you typing that out for me👍

I hadn't thought of turning the motor over by hand SpragueM, sounds like good advice.

Of course it was running when parked, they all were!![quote][/quote]

Very true😆 the only reason I believed it this time is because I saw it running and working. I bought it from my Moms uncle and he used it to build my Grandparents driveway about six years ago and then parked it and hasn't touched it since.

One thing ccjersey didn't touch on was to check the precleaner, air filter and exhaust sytem. I noticed where you are and those pesky squirrels, chipmunks and other little critters can get into really small spaces. I've even seen critter nests inside diesel engine heads and blocks and if they've decided to set up house in the engine, it could get rather ugly when you go to fire it up. Yes, DO turn the engine by hand a few times before you light it up. .

Ok, I've started getting my grader ready to start, can anyone tell me what size socket I need for the large inverted hex oil drain plugs on the diesel engine and transaxle?

Also My operators manual shows a filler "spout" on the injector pump, but mine has some sort of drain that points down and then connects to the crankcase, I thought I read something about newer engines being fed oil from the engine oil pump and then draining back into the crankcase effectively eliminating the need to check/change the injector pump oil, is that what I have here?

Here's a picture of my injection pump:[attachment=6368]pump drain.jpg[/attachment]

Thanks

Never saw an injection pump housing arrangement like that! Looks like they just have a small amount of oil flowing into it and let it spill over to control the level.

The other good way to make a plug wrench is take a 3/4" bolt at least a few inches long, screw a nut on it and weld it on tight. Then you can use a 1 1/8" socket on one end and stick the other into the plug. This takes up less room in the tool box and allows you to use whatever kind of "handle" you want.

Thanks for the reply's, I'm going to try and make myself a tool out of a bolt and nut I just hope I have a large enough bolt laying around.

I'll try and get a better picture of the injection pump today, anyone else seen this setup before?

Thanks