D4 7U Electric Start Conversion about finished

Looks great - What did you use for a drill and how long did it take? Bob

Looks great - What did you use for a drill and how long did it take? Bob

I forgot to mention how long it took. Well the big hole probably took about an hour of on again off again drilling. It's cast iron so it actually cuts pretty easy and a good holesaw from Lowes did the trick. I was squirting it with cutting fluid every once and awhile. Once the teeth get below the surface you have to peck at it. It's a little over an inch thick. I'll try to remember to measure the slug that came out of mine. One trick I can absolutely say to do is to take the drill bit out of the holesaw and replace it with a .250 diameter dowel pin so that it's not trying to cut your pilot hole sideways on you. It helps to keep the whole thing centered.

I must really give credit to Old Magnet on this. I started looking at various conversion methods and when I was finally able to get a good link for his dimensions the race had begun. I searched eBay for a 42MT, then the nose cone and then the correct cut and tooth count drive gear. Slowly but surely we've gotten to almost a completed conversion. Really I'd say the conversion part is complete as I was able to turn it over with the starter tonight but there's more wiring to do now to get the key switch and gauges installed along with re-mounting the air cleaner and hydraulic blocks. For anyone who's looking at doing this all I can say is that it's entirely possible, just look at what everyone else has done and make yourself an accurate jig to drill the holes. As long as you get the center hole for the holesaw accurate and maybe one of the three starter mounting holes you can actually use the nose cone with drill bushings to locate the other holes. I know this because one of our jig holes was out of place and we ended up bolting it in place with the other two bolts to drill the remaining one. Here's the link for Old Magnet's site with the D4 starter conversion stuff.

https://sites.google.com/site/oldmagcat/home/cat-d4-d6-starters-conversions

Is there a template to do that or just careful measurements?

Wonder if you could rig up to use a magdrill or rotobroach to do this. Kinda cramped in there so I suspect not but maybe some way to clamp some metal in the right place. I had to do some frame drilling on a truck and went out and found the best bits I could and used lots of oil. Still not easy to drill. Congrats on what looks like an almost done project. My D4 has a new owner but this last few weeks this was pretty close to needing to happen with pony no start issues.

The template is on the website Old Magnet runs, I'll post the link again at the bottom of this reply. It locates off the three tapped side holes that are already there. We made a 90 degree drill jig to bolt on with the three side holes. I too thought about using a mag base drill but truth be told it really wasn't that hard with an 18v DeWalt drill. My pony motor had no spark when I bought the machine and the mag was going to be almost $400 to get a rebuilt one. The more I thought about it the more I gravitated toward the electric start conversion and so far dollar wise I'm just under the $400 price for the mag and won't have near the headache of the pony. The pony was a good idea back in it's day but now for this size machine it's really not needed unless you're wanting to keep it 100% period correct. My HT4 has had so many modifications done to it over the years that I'm just going to use it for what it was intended, digging holes and pushing trees.

https://sites.google.com/site/oldmagcat/home/cat-d4-d6-starters-conversions

In case anyone else is wondering, here's the link to the block heater. It was in stock at the somewhat local Tractor Supply, I checked their inventory online before driving to pick it up.

https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/kats-engine-heaters-circulating-tank-heater-2-000w

In case anyone else is wondering, here's the link to the block heater. It was in stock at the somewhat local Tractor Supply, I checked their inventory online before driving to pick it up.

https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/kats-engine-heaters-circulating-tank-heater-2-000w

[quote="harperjmichael"]In case anyone else is wondering, here's the link to the block heater. It was in stock at the somewhat local Tractor Supply, I checked their inventory online before driving to pick it up.

https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/kats-engine-heaters-circulating-tank-heater-2-000w[/quote]

do these open the thermostat?