[AT] Starter installation trick on the later two cylinder JD Tractors.

Mon May 18 05:03:54 PDT 2020

Amen to that...I spent my youth on a 620, an A, two different 730D's, 
and my Little Johnny H. While I also enjoyed the turbocharged roar of a 
couple different big Allis tractors, it was hard for me to come up with 
a better experience than plowing with a 730 with wide front end. Drop 
the right front wheel into the furrow, drop the power lift against the 
stop, put the throttle wide open, and enjoy...while there were times on 
southern Indiana soils where full-throttle wasn't necessary with 4 14" 
bottoms, it never hurt anything. The 730 was the only tractor we had 
that could run all day without going to the house for fuel - not always 
an advantage when you need a break :-)

The two-cylinder tractors also were much kinder to my hearing...the 
turbo whine from the 210 invariably gave me headaches. My dad and I used 
to go round and round about that - he had spent enough time on the farm 
and in industry that his hearing rolled off at about 10 kHz, so he never 
heard the high-pitched stuff that bothered me!

Mark J

On 5/17/2020 7:40 PM, Dean Vinson wrote:
>
> I like pretty much all the old tractor makes, and have a red one, 
> green one, and a newer (~1980) blue one, and all three get pretty 
> regular use.   The green one is a 620, same model Dean VP was 
> describing.    Difficult starter access aside, my guess is you’d have 
> to hunt pretty hard to find a better engineered, better built, more 
> reliable, tougher-down-to-the-last-breath series of tractors.
>
> Not that I’d kick an Oliver 77 out of bed, so to speak.
>
> Dean Vinson
>
> Saint Paris Ohio
>
> *From:*AT [mailto:at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com] *On Behalf Of 
> *ustonThomas Mehrkam
> *Sent:* Sunday, May 17, 2020 10:38 AM
> *To:* Antique Tractor Email Discussion Group 
> <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
> *Subject:* Re: [AT] Starter installation trick on the later two 
> cylinder JD Tractors.
>
> Why do you guys LOVE those pain in the ass John Deer tractors so 
> much.  I have owned international, Massey Harris, Massey Ferguson, 
> Oliver and Miniapalious Moline tractors. All were acceptable. All of 
> those tractors still run. :-}
>
> There was always a lot of Cussing, Wrench Throwing, Pulling etc from 
> the JD owners. :-}
>
> Now I did it and insulted your Religion. :-}
>
> On Sunday, May 17, 2020, 2:46:43 AM CDT, deanvp at att.net 
> <mailto:deanvp at att.net> <deanvp at att.net <mailto:deanvp at att.net>> wrote:
>
> I just went through a few days of hassle that caused me to 
> remove/reinstall
>
> the starter on my 1958 JD 620 high Clearance tractor. There is an
>
> abbreviation for this procedure called a complete PITA unless you know a
>
> trick I knew at one time and had completely forgotten about. My situation
>
> was compounded by a 10" shorter battery cable than what is supposed to be
>
> installed. Mine was 54", the std is 64" that makes it a triple PITA.  I am
>
> referring to all the late Two Cylinder tractors, letter and numbered 
> series,
>
> that have the starter inside a cast cavity in the underside of the main
>
> case. The battery cable is fed to an anodized copper semi-ridged 
> ribbon the
>
> connects to the starter switch mounted on the starter. To use the proper
>
> terminology on a JD 620 it is called a cranking motor. To pull the started
>
> one is supposed to disconnect the battery cable from this copper ribbon
>
> before trying to remove the starter.  Well folks unless all the 
> planets are
>
> in alignment and the nut that needs to be loosened is oriented such 
> that you
>
> can get to it between the flywheel and the main case there is no way 
> in hell
>
> that is going to happen.  Well, unless as JD very casually mentions 
> that the
>
> flywheel may need to be removed. That is not a casual decision.  So if you
>
> have to remove the starter with the cable still attached, the battery 
> cable
>
> needs to be worked forward and downward to provide enough slack to 
> slide the
>
> starter out of the cavity so one can get to the nut that holds the battery
>
> cable to the copper ribbon.  That in itself can be difficult. But now lets
>
> say you are ready to reinstall the starter with the cable attached 
> removing
>
> the slack at the starter in inserted into the round hole in the main
>
> casting. Here come the trick that will save you all kinds of grief and 
> time.
>
> As you slide the starter cone into the hole you will all of a sudden hit a
>
> dead stop and are unable to get the starter further into the hole.
>
> What you will discover is either the copper ribbon and bolt/nut tied 
> to the
>
> battery cable is hitting the casting or the lever that actuates the button
>
> on the starter switch is hitting the cavity hole casting or both. The
>
> cable/copper ribbon and the starter switch lever go through an oblong
>
> horizontal hole above the hole the starter goes into. So one comes to the
>
> conclusion that somehow the battery cable/copper ribbon is bent to go
>
> through that hole and then somehow pry the switch lever up high enough to
>
> get thought the upper hole.  I can assure you that just plain doesn't 
> work.
>
> BTW, this is all hidden behind the flywheel. But what completely fools you
>
> is the starter can be raised another 1/2" or more in its hole because the
>
> whole cone isn't in yet and the lever simply slides over the interference
>
> and all is cool, I will guarantee you will convince yourself that the
>
> starter can't go higher because it is in a tight hole. Wrong it will go
>
> higher. I used a floor jack to get the starter up close to the cavity and
>
> tiled the starter to get it started in the hole and then carefully 
> found the
>
> center of gravity of the starter and lifted that whole sucker up the extra
>
> half inch or so and boom the lever and cable/copper ribbon fall into place
>
> by taking the slack out. Once I did it the right way I realized I had been
>
> here before but probably 20 years ago. And then all the lights started
>
> blinking. This trick will save you hours of frustration and heartache.
>
> I also changed the cable to a longer version even longer than standard
>
> version. I went to 72" rather than the std 64"  I wanted more wiggle room.
>
> I never could really firmly establish whether the original cable size  was
>
> 2/0 or 1/0 from the factory but since there are places where the cable 
> goes
>
> though that are tight fits the OD of the cable cannot be much over 0.5" I
>
> went out cable hunting at all the local Auto Parts stores as well as Napa.
>
> I found out there is a bunch of different cables out there with varying
>
> thickness of insulation. None fit my requirement until I found some 1/0
>
> Welding cable. That fit four requirements. High current carrying 
> capability,
>
> OD wasn't too big, the cable was reasonably flexible and it was less
>
> expensive than anything else I had looked at. Now where do you get that
>
> stuff? Of course at a welding supply store except the closest one for 
> me is
>
> a bit of a hike so I went to a "Batteries Plus" dealer. Sure enough had
>
> exactly what I needed. Cable cut to length.
>
> So I hope this might save you some time and grief you when you work on the
>
> late letter series and numbered series Two Cylinder JD starter issues.
>
> BTW, the thing that caused me to remove the starter to begin with was a
>
> complete misdiagnosis on my part.  !@#$%^&*(  Starter went dead. Made the
>
> assumption the starter switch had gone bad because I knew I had a good
>
> battery and 12 Volts at the starter switch.  The real problem was I had a
>
> resistive ground between the battery cable and the battery box and then to
>
> top it off an even more resistive ground (15K ohms) between the 
> battery box
>
> and the rest of the tractor.  Now why did this all seem to happen when I
>
> thought I was going to go to a plowing day .    I Power Washed the tractor
>
> which I hadn't done in a long time. Rust developed immediately where it
>
> doesn't belong.  So the moral of this story is to never wash your tractor.
>
> Dean VP
>
> Snohomish, WA 98290
>
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