Hi everyone,

I just picked up a 1945 D4 5T. Lots of good about the machine and some not so good. It has been sitting a long long time. At the least 20 and possibly 30 plus years. The PO was very meticulous about storage and some aspects of caring for his machinery so it was well covered under large trees and a few layers of vapour barrier and corrugated tin over the bulk of the tractor. It has been there long enough the vapour barrier is crumbling. Both engines turn free no problem. It wouldn't fire at first so we cleaned the contacts in the mag and now it has a sharp white spark. The pony fuel was shut off and judging by how he was with his machinery I would find it likely he ran the pony out of fuel as general practice. With fresh gas we can hardly get a faint occasional cough. Same goes after new plugs, a splash of gas through the plug holes, a splash of gas or waft of ether down the intake, choke on or off, throttle all positions- we've pulled on the rope a good 30 times I'm sure and less than a half dozen faint coughs. Any thoughts? Could it be just plain old low compression or should we check other? I will try to round up a gauge and see what we have. If I remember 50psi is acceptable?

Much thanks

I know it sounds silly, but you should try swapping the spark plug wires on the magneto. It’s happened to me more than once.

"paule1950" wrote:

I know it sounds silly, but you should try swapping the spark plug wires on the magneto. It’s happened to me more than once.

Great suggestion. I only encountered crossed plug wires once, in addition to the blue/white spark I got was a blue/red face from tugging on the rope often! It helps to open one drain cock to make less work of the rope as well. The distinct “pop” of the cylinder is a nice sign of life.
We all expect to see and hear it running soon! JM

Yes good suggestion but we have tried but the plug wire length determines that it only goes one way on this old gal. About to put on a spare carb and see if that makes a diff. This carb isnt rebuilt and is surely crusty but it did run a pony a few months ago.

I’ve poured gas down it’s throat to make them sing before. A little cleaning and blowing out fuel lines never hurts either. Good luck.👍🏼🍀

check the compression---may have stuck valves

"dpendzic" wrote:

check the compression---may have stuck valves

Yes thank you for the ideas. This seems entirely possible so will look into it. We ended up giving it a pull and it fired right up. That tracks were fairly stiff and it had settled into the ground a good 6" but thankfully they had a Komatsu D31S track loader on site that made short work of it. I first checked that rack, sprayed a little oil on it and worked it to make sure it was free, rolled it slowly first on decompression and watched the oil pressure come up for some rime, compression, then fuel and it took right off no problem. Woken from 20-30yr slumber! Will get a kit and properly rebuild the carb and check compression soon.

While we were puttering away a fellow came up and introduced himself as a HD mechanic that had worked on old pony start cats. He cautioned us strongly against pull starting the Cat, stating that we would break an axle. I had not heard of this issue. I tried to thank him for his advice and said we were going to try it anyway and he gave us a reaction that basically said "you idiots do what you want but you're going to break the tractor". Is there truth to this? I know I've heard of many many many instances of pull starting being done and dont know of any issues. Anyone want to clear this up?

Better be careful Nathan, 1 Cat can be justified because i have this job or that job to do with it but 2 is getting dangerously close to becoming a "COLLECTOR ".
Looks like a good score and close to home and running is a huge bonus.
Hopefully the border will open soon because now I'm wanting to come and see your projects.
My 5t was the first d4 I acquired and I have done a lot of work with it.
Keep on collecting 😆

if you had the diesel running already and rolled it with the other machine I don't see what harm will happen if you pull start it