I bought an International B-275 Diesel that was my grandfathers since the 70's and he is now passed. He was a mechanic for over 50 years and owned his own business. He was one of the old timers that really knew how to work on about everything. Right before he died he rebuilt the engine on a John Deere 410B backhoe.
Anyways, I grew up on his farm and as long as I can remember the glow plug system on his B-275 never worked and he ALWAYS used ether to start it. I just bought 15 acres and have been working at getting this tractor in good mechanical condition and one of the things on the list was getting the glow plug system working. I didn't know what to expect as far as if the wiring was even there or anything about the system other than it has never worked in my remembrance.
I ordered 4 new Champion CH28 glow plugs to start there and put them in last night. Literally, I held down the switch, waited until the indicator glowed red (indicator resistor worked which was a good thing), and hit the starter and she fired right up on a cold start. It NEVER would start cold prior to this without ether.
There are several things to take away from this. 1) My granddad knew using ether was probably not good for the engine being he was a mechanic but everything he did to his own equipment was to get it going in the moment and never "took it into the shop" to really fix things. 2) I got all 4 glow plugs off ebay for $19. Think about how many cans of ether at $3-$5 a can was used over the last 30 years when all it needed was $19 of glow plugs.
I am glad that long term use of ether has not damaged this engine. I read on here that on some occasions if ether was used for long term once you get the glow plugs working the engine might not start without ether. Luckily this is not the case here and she fires right up!
Anyways, I grew up on his farm and as long as I can remember the glow plug system on his B-275 never worked and he ALWAYS used ether to start it. I just bought 15 acres and have been working at getting this tractor in good mechanical condition and one of the things on the list was getting the glow plug system working. I didn't know what to expect as far as if the wiring was even there or anything about the system other than it has never worked in my remembrance.
I ordered 4 new Champion CH28 glow plugs to start there and put them in last night. Literally, I held down the switch, waited until the indicator glowed red (indicator resistor worked which was a good thing), and hit the starter and she fired right up on a cold start. It NEVER would start cold prior to this without ether.
There are several things to take away from this. 1) My granddad knew using ether was probably not good for the engine being he was a mechanic but everything he did to his own equipment was to get it going in the moment and never "took it into the shop" to really fix things. 2) I got all 4 glow plugs off ebay for $19. Think about how many cans of ether at $3-$5 a can was used over the last 30 years when all it needed was $19 of glow plugs.
I am glad that long term use of ether has not damaged this engine. I read on here that on some occasions if ether was used for long term once you get the glow plugs working the engine might not start without ether. Luckily this is not the case here and she fires right up!
