Farmpro 2425 / Jinma 254 hard starting in the winter.

   / Farmpro 2425 / Jinma 254 hard starting in the winter. #1  

theghoul

Bronze Member
Joined
Jul 4, 2010
Messages
67
Location
Michigan
Tractor
Ford 1920 / Farmpro (Jinma) 2425
Hey guys,

Thanks for all the past advice and help with my Farmpro 2425, but you know the journey never ends.

See this thread about my purchase and adventure: http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/chinese-tractors/221022-look-what-i-got-1700-a.html

Michigan is starting to get pretty cold and I use my farmpro for clearing snow and pulling a hay wagon.

It takes some time for me to get it started on cold days. I changed the ignition switch and perform a 30 second glow plug warm up (between accessory and start) and it still takes time to get going. I do notice the battery meter draining a bit during the glow plug warm up so I hope that's a good indicator that it's heating up, but who knows.

Surprisingly this has been a sturdy and versatile tractor, but this issue is driving me nuts. I don't want to destroy my starter.

Any tips on how to test this to make sure the glow plugs are heating? There is an inline heater installed in a coolant hose, but it blows my receptacle's breaker when I plug it in.

I did search and either I suck at forum searching or I could not find anything to help.

Much obliged.
 
   / Farmpro 2425 / Jinma 254 hard starting in the winter. #2  
My tractor is a 304, so I don't know so much about yours. But your ammeter would show a draw so long as at least one glow plug works. It doesn't mean all of them are working. To know that, you would have to check to be sure..and upon knowing they all work, THEN watch the behavior of the ammeter and always remember that behavior because if it changes, you know something is wrong.

I have an AC/DC clamp on ammeter that I'd try to use. Before I got that, I tried all sorts of strange things..I even tried to see if I could detect a temperature change with an infra-red thermometer. No. :laughing: I never did try to just put a surface temperature probe right on the electrical connector...there is hope there since IR sees a field of view, but a small probe might detect heat conducted from the hot tip to the electrical contact.

Once on a Volkswagen, the manual tabulated the current draws so well, I could check them all at once with my meter. Usually, the current will be quite high, and then drop off considerably when the tip gets good and hot. Remember that too. That can be a clue to you when you have held the switch long enough.

Folks who know more can tell us if the glow plug is supposed to heat anything up. I always think of it as being like a glow plug on one of those little Cox airplane engines. It glows red hot, and sort of replaces a spark plug to get the thing to fire the first time.

I do know diesels are sensitive to weak batteries...if the engine turns slightly slower, it give it enough time to transfer some of it's heat of compression to the cylinder walls and the head, so the charge is no longer hot enough to auto ignite.

I don't know, but 30 seconds continuous, sounds pretty long. Others can chime in with advice on that, I may be wrong. I try not to do over 10 seconds, but that is with my Kubota. On the Jinma, I always use the compression release to get the engine up to speed, and when I release that, it fires right off. But I'm down here is God's country where it never gets really, really cold. :D
 
   / Farmpro 2425 / Jinma 254 hard starting in the winter. #3  
You've almost certainly got an internal short in the hose heater. I recommend you cut the cord. Unless you have a ribbed oil pan, I further recommend an electric pan heater. Inexpensive, easy to install. Easily pays for itself in reduced wear and tear to your starting system. For your capacity, one 250w patch or a pair of 125s is plenty heat. I got mine from Wolverine out in Colorado, but I understand there's an outfit in Wisconsin making them now too.

Regarding the amperage draw. Three good glow plugs should initially pull your amp gauge down near 30, but it will rise as the glow plugs heat. When the needle got to about 12-14 amps, I'd switch the key to START. I'd only glow them for about 20 seconds at a time though. Sometimes took three heat cycles to get the needle up to 13-14 amps. But if your oil is already pre-heated, it should only take one cycle.

//greg//
 
   / Farmpro 2425 / Jinma 254 hard starting in the winter. #4  
Like mentioned above by Greg, the Amp Meter should pull down about 30 Amps and as it warms up decrease towards 20 or so amps. sounds like you may have at least 1 if not more glow plugs burnt out. Normal ON time should be 10~15 seconds at most then either crank to try & start or wait 10 or so seconds where an additional 10 second run prior to cranking. Each glow plug should draw about 10 amps on the 3 cylinder. The are all bus bared together with a wire at one end. The stock/factory wire is way undersized for the task. I ended up bypassing the amp meter and small wires and hooked up a 30 amp circuit breaker in-line with a power relay pulling directly off the battery. the OLD glow plug circuit now fires the relay which powers the glow plugs.

I usually keep a small tender charger plugged in to keep battery at full charge. I use the compression handle sparingly as you are blowing air & fuel thru cooling the glow plugs but a quick crank over to move some oil thru can help.

I use a in-line radiator heater "KATZ" bought thru TSC that I plug in when it is below 30 or so. if it is much lower or I'm in a hurry I use a Heat Lamp and shine it onto the injection pump or toss a tarp on hood and blow the Kero torpedo heater under to hold in some heat.

One thing to note is to NOT put a battery charger on BOOST and hold on the glow plugs as the higher voltage of the booster combined with the pulsing charger circuit will burn them out quick.

Mark
 
   / Farmpro 2425 / Jinma 254 hard starting in the winter. #5  
   / Farmpro 2425 / Jinma 254 hard starting in the winter. #6  
I have seen wiring issues like Spiker described. I did not go the relay route for repair though. You can read about it here.

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/...28-jinma-284-electrical-schematic-2005-a.html

The best thing you could do however is to fix the engine heat system. Either replace the lower rad unit, add oilpan heater pads like Greg suggests or you can fairly easilly add a tank type heater connecting between the rear coolant drain on the block and the plugged fitting up near the upper radiator hose. I think this fitting was originally intended to feed a heater core, but it makes an easy place to connect in the tank type heater. I went this route for a few reasons. I thought it would be easier than fitting one into the lower rad hose. I had some of the 1000W units already. and I think this type circulates coolant thru the entire block better and places it's energy a little more efficiently. Not horribly cold here, but 10-15 minutes of plugin and regardless of the temp outside, it starts like it is in the middle of summer...
 
   / Farmpro 2425 / Jinma 254 hard starting in the winter. #7  
I have a 284 with the same issue. I have a inline heater (lower hose as yours). I need it to be inside, plugged in for 45 minites, then 20 seconds on the glow plugs, open the decompression and it starts. Outside on a cold morning and good luck, it wont start picky issue I agreee. There also is a inline heater on the intake manifold what it is there for is a wonder to me, maybe preheat the air just before it is in the engine?
 
   / Farmpro 2425 / Jinma 254 hard starting in the winter. #8  
A lot of good ideas and advice here. My tractor had two six volt batteries in series, and they were actually a good brand too, but when they gave up, I bought the most substantial battery I could get my hands on. In winter starting, the battery has issues already with the cold, so the glow plug cycle makes an additional challenge. If it fails to start after the glow plug cycle, it seems to just go down hill from there, so might as well add some heat somehow, and while that's happening, refresh the charge on the battery with a charger.
 
   / Farmpro 2425 / Jinma 254 hard starting in the winter. #9  
Diesel fuel for cold weather can make a big difference compared to trying to use summer diesel in the winter. I have a bulk diesel tank and fill it with winter grade diesel in the fall and use it year round.
I agree you need to fix the engine heater. The diesel engine ignites the fuel by the heat of the air in the cylinder during the compression stroke. Anything you can do to increase the cylinder temp and the temp of the air inside the cylinder is going to make a big difference. Some people remove the air filter and use a hair dryer or heat gun to blow warm air into the intake. Another trick is to keep the fuel shut off while cranking to allow the air being compressed inside the cylinder to heat the cylinder and then turn the fuel on while the engine is cranking. This is a lot easier to do on engines which have a cable to shut off the fuel. If you don't have one consider buying a low cost multimeter as it will be a big help in diagnosing problems.
Dave M7040
 
   / Farmpro 2425 / Jinma 254 hard starting in the winter. #10  
Not directly related to this thread, but I had a burglary a few months ago, and they stole all my electrical meters. I replaced one of them with this:

Klein Tools CL2100 AC/DC TRMS Clamp with Temperature - Amazon.com

Because it has a bar graph, min/max/hold, lighting, a magnetic back, and the alligator clips screw onto the leads. This meter would seem to be a glow plug test kit all in one. I have not had a chance to use all the functions, etc, but I do like the characteristics and functionality.
 
 
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