[AT] Diesel Starting Safety Reminder

RW rep4oem at attglobal.net
Tue Feb 24 06:35:45 PST 2004


Cecil,
Your comments about diesel engines only needing Compression,
fuel, and heat, reminds me of a hair raising experience.  It was
when I was almost 18, I had just started working on highway
construction, operating a Euclid belly dump earth mover.  The machine
needed to be transported from the job site, over the state highways
during a normal weekday, to the shop for repairs.  It was all new
to me, but the foreman sent me on my way with this big rig, driving it
120 miles away to the main office shop.  (Not allowed today!)

On my way, while going up a steep hill, it stalled and started to roll
backwards.  I hit the brakes, realizing that I had been told they never
work and do not depend on them.  They DID NOT work!  I started to
get excited at this point!  Grabbed the Emergency break. It did not
work with metal to metal either!  I started slamming the manual trans.
shifter into any gear I could find, rapidly!  It was exciting, for a few scary
moments, before I caught REVERSE, and the engine started!  I was now
moving FORWARD up the hill.  When I went to shift in to a faster gear,
I realized the transmission was in reverse gear and I could not change
gears until I got on level ground.  I then started to get confused and didn't
understand how I was going forward?  Well, as you can imagine, the
engine was running BACKWARDS and therefore, when in reverse gear,
the machine moved forward!  But I did not care!  I was just so happy I had
not jack knifed or rolled backwards over any cars or people, that it did not
matter!  My heart was pumping so hard, my ears were defended by the
drum beat of the heart!

(The lesson; the engine does not care which direction it runs! Thank God!)

As soon as I got through that town to the north side of the city limits, I
pulled off to the side of the road and shut her down and took a big, big,
"sigh of relief" like never before.   A great thrill to look back on, now that
time has pasted!  After about a 20 minute rest and mental re-adjustment,
I started the rig up, and with another hour and a half to go, headed for the
shop. The engine started normally and I now had the normal transmission
to work with.  So, down the road I went a bouncing at 50 miles an hour or so.

An experience you would never need or want, just to learn about diesel 
engines!!
Remember...Big Rigs, hauling big loads, normally burn up breaks quickly, so 
stay
out of their way!  DO NOT ASSUME they HAVE BREAKS!   ASSUME they DO NOT!
Have a safe day.

Hope some of you are smiling and thinking about more of your own
interesting experiences?

Randy W.
========================================================

At 07:12 AM 2/24/04 -0500, you wrote:

>         Any diesel engine will start when it turns over if it is
>warm enough, has compression, and fuel. It is the principal that
>makes all diesel engines run and on most of them, has nothing to
>do with anything electrical. I, also, cannot imagine leaving a
>diesel engine tractor in a position to start on it's own. The cost
>of a fuel shut-off is so small in comparison to the danger of one
>running off on it's own that it should not be a consideration. The
>Allis Chalmers 160 we used to own had a fuel shut-off that stuck
>out and always rusted in the rain. I still left it out but did
>not like it either so I know what you mean.
>
>         I try to be careful with my tractors too. And the trucks.
>At least the trucks use an electrical solenoid to activate the
>fuel supply and will not start unless the key is on. Even so, I
>always make sure the transmission is in "Park" before I shut the
>engine off.  Neither one of my trucks will start unless the
>transmission is in "Park" so are not a problem.
>
>         On my JD diesel crawler, I have a routine for shut-off. I
>drop the blade and make sure it is all the way down, put the
>transmission into neutral and swing the cast iron lock up and over
>the shift lever that keeps it in neutral. Then I idle the engine
>for a half minute or so, shut off the key switch and finally, pull
>the throttle all the way back into the fuel cut-off position. Yes,
>it runs just fine with the key in the "off" position as all the key
>does is activate the charging circuits, the lights, and when held
>all the way over, the starter.
>
>         Just a note as to how easy it is to screw up when starting
>a tractor, I took a little Allis Chalmers G tractor to a shop last
>fall to be painted. It has always started just fine but when I got
>it there, it refused to run. It would start and pop but not run.
>I left it and the guy said he would take care of it. I came back the
>next day and he told me he had it fixed and wanted to show me how
>easy it starts and runs so I wouldn't worry about it. Before I could
>say a word, he pulled the switch out and hit the starter. We were
>both standing alongside by the rear wheels. It started when the
>first cylinder came up and hit me with one rear wheel and him with
>the other. Because the throttle was in idle position, it stalled.
>In all the time I have owned this tractor, I have never started it
>without shaking hands with the shift lever as on that transmission
>it is very difficult to tell if it is in gear or not. If this had
>been a full size farm tractor, it could have run over both of us.
>If this can happen to someone like myself who was practically born
>and raised on a tractor and has been extra careful all his life, it
>can happen to anyone. We were both a little shaken by this and he
>was very embarassed to say the least. No harm done but very close
>to a disaster.
>
>Cecil
>--
>The nicest thing about telling the truth is you never have to wonder
>what you said.
>
>Cecil E Monson
>Lucille Hand-Monson
>Mountainville, New York   Just a little east of the North Pole
>
>Allis Chalmers tractors and equipment
>
>Free advice
>
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