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

Wed May 20 11:20:49 PDT 2020

 Mark,
All 730D's are pretty much alike. The Black Dash 720D was only made in 1958  and had several changes from the Green Dash 1957 720D.  There were several changes to the engine between the two years and then from then on the 73o's all had the same engine as the 1958 Black Dash 720. There were some clutch improvements also made between the 1957 and 1958 720D's. However, the most visible difference between the 1957 720D's and the 1958 720D's are of course the Black Dash and the Plastic, more deluxe, steering wheel.  I can go into more detail if needed.  The 1958 Black Dash 720D's mechanically are essential the same as the 1959 and 1960 730D's. The 730 changes were all cosmetic and tied JD over another couple years due to the delay in getting the New Generation tractors ready for sale. So a 1958 720D is essentially the same engine, same drive train, same everything as a 730D except for the tin. There are purist who beleive the 20 Series were the last of the real Two Cylinder tractors. The change in cosmetics on the 30 series violated that older hood look that had been around for 25 years or more. As an owner of a 1958 720D can tell you they are real animals. Also own a 1958 520 and 1958 620. All Black Dashes.  My favorite series of JD tractors. All the Bells and Whistles that one could get in that era. It was during this era of JD tractors that JD overtook I/H in the number of Agricultural tractors built per year in North America.  Yes, JD overtook I/h in tractort Sales with what was supposed to be an obsolete design. The 20 Series was that good and reliable and due to I/H's mistake of increasing HP without increasing thje strength of the drive train in the X60 Series, JD became the leader. I/H upgraded the X60 Series tractor drive trains out in the field but it was too late.  Then when the JD New generation Tractors came out in late 1960, 1961 models, JD never looked back and soon became the leader in Total Agricultural Equipment Sales in the US. I/H never caught back up and during the farm recession in the 80's I/H finally had to merge with Case to survive.  I/H line of tractors were very good but too many management mistakes were made. 

    On Wednesday, May 20, 2020, 04:54:28 AM MST, Mark Johnson <markjohnson100 at centurylink.net> wrote:  

The 4020 has repeatedly been voted "Best Tractor of All Time" in surveys. We never had one, and I never drove one...so my vote goes to the 730D; we had two.

Dean - what is the difference between a "Black Dash" 730D and a "not Black Dash" - our two had different gear ratios, for sure - one of them had a 5th gear that ran about 6-7 mph at rated speed; we always referred to it as the "going to dinner gear" because it got you to the house faster, without running the risk of an upset driving through farm fields in road gear!

Mark J

 On 5/19/2020 10:10 PM, deanvp at att.net wrote:

The only JD Detroit Diesel tractor that comes to mind is a JD 435 which was only sold for about 2 years in the very late 50’s. I don’t know if any were used in combines.   I agree, the JD 4020 is probably one of the best engineered and built JD Tractors ever made.  Well with the exception of the Black Dash JD 720D or 730D!  Might want to throw the Black Dash 820 and 830 into that mix as well. 😊

Dean VP

Snohomish, WA 98290

From: AT <at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com> On Behalf Of Dean Vinson
 Sent: Monday, May 18, 2020 7:04 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.

Thomas, 4020s with Detroit Diesels?   Must have been after-market conversions.   And I’d wonder why.   Although I haven’t (yet) owned a 4020 I include them in my general sense of “hard to find a better engineered, better built…” etc.

Dean Vinson

Saint Paris, Ohio

From: AT [mailto:at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com] On Behalf Of ustonThomas Mehrkam
 Sent: Monday, May 18, 2020 6:48 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.

JD seems to have a following so they must have done something right over the years.  I have never owned one just observed some of the trials of neighbors.  We never had that much trouble on the other brands. Maybe the neighbors were just bad mechanics.

We had a big land owner that raised thousands of acres of rice. They had all JD.  4020's and such. Plus JD combines.  I drove the combines when they were in a pinch for a couple of summers.  I have no problem with the combines and the 4020 tractors.  Except they looked like a steam engine with all that black smoke coming out of the stack.  Boy those Detroit Diesels could scream and blow smoke.

On Sunday, May 17, 2020, 7:40:09 PM CDT, Dean Vinson <dean at vinsonfarm.net> 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 <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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