New Iseki owner, some general info to get it started please

[jcowling]

Good morning guys, and gals! I just bought an Iseki TS1910 2WD tractor from a lady, whos brother passed away and owned it. I would like to start by saying that I am mechanically inclined and flip cars and boats quite a bit. Tractors are new to me, but I understand the Diesel engine and drive a diesel.
First off, I am not sure of what all 4 key positions are. Also, the switch on the left used to hold to the right and crank, if I hold to the left, should it energize my glow plugs? I see the spring indicator, but it didn't heat up. Where is this circuit powered from?

I hooked up jumper cables and got it to crank, very slowly. A little starter fluid where my "kill damper" is, never fired. I figured with compression and something combustible, it would fire. Maybe starter fluid is more of a flammable and therefore didn't combust? I found that I had loose connections under the dash as well. I have two red wires (look to be not factory) that run from under dash, up to the headlight and a few other random spots. I jiggled these to get it to crank in the first place. A little more jiggling, and now the two red lights on dash and everything is dead. I'll be pulling it apart today to see what the issue is there.

I'm really trying to see if there is any kind of kill switch electrically on it? The clutch has a switch, but it looks to be bypassed. Two wires going to it are connected together and wires that used to be plugged into the other side are sitting there. I feel like since it has just the damped you pull closed to kill, starving it for air...there shouldn't be any other electrical kill switches, once it's cranking, which I'm assuming the clutch switch would kill. Please, any info you may have would be awesome!!!

Thanks everyone!

 

[davrow]

I don't have an Iseki, so can't help... but welcome to the forum.

I thought you weren't allowed to use starter fluid on diesels (explosive compression can destroy pistons)? Old wives tale?

 

[jcowling]

I知 just thinking about that now. I got it cranking now. Bad cables and battery connections. I知 thinking starter fluid needs s spark to ignite as a flammable. Ether may be a combustible and would donut. I知 going to grab some later. I知 on my lunch break lol.

 

[fxrs55]

What position do you have the throttle in when cranking engine?
The 4 position key switch on my TX1300F is off / on / headlights low beam / headlights high beam.

 

[Ilikeurtractor]

Starting fluid will definitely ignite in a diesel engine in good operating condition. The problem is it can ignite too early in the compression stroke which can cause connecting rods to bend, potential piston crown damage (burn-through), or other problems as the piston continues to compress the ignited high-pressure mixture while the flywheel tries to keep things going in the proper direction. Controlling the amount of starting fluid can be tricky also and plays a significant role in the problems mentioned. Ideally you want the minimum amount of starting fluid to raise the cylinder temperature enough to ignite the diesel fuel when it gets injected.

If you decide to use starting fluid you absolutely *CANNOT* use the glow plugs in addition. When the starting fluid hits the glow plugs it will ignite which can be anytime the intake valve is open and you can get a backfire out the intake filter potentially damaging that system. The way most of these tractors are wired is the glow plugs are active when the engine is cranking so the best thing to do is disconnect the power going to the glow plugs if you want to do this. Yes, if you don't do a preheat the glow plugs will take a while to warm up while just cranking but you're taking your chances until they do. From a theoretical standpoint there should be no time when starting fluid will start then engine when glow plugs won't. Starting fluid can work much faster but shouldn't mean the difference of starting or not. I've started these tractors on glow plugs alone (no block heater) down to 6 degrees F. It takes a lot of cranking (and a jump from another vehicle helps) as you need to get the combustion chamber warmed up but it will happen if the engine is in good condition and the fuel has not gelled.

 

[jcowling]

What position do you have the throttle in when cranking engine?
The 4 position key switch on my TX1300F is off / on / headlights low beam / headlights high beam.

I got it started yesterday. A ton of cranking and a little starter fluid, and air in the system. It ran well, but after a little bit, it started leaking a decent amount of oil out of the breather on the valve manifold, so I shut it down. Now I'm wondering where to go from there. Probably blowby, I'm not going to put much money into it, so I have it listed on FB with the tiller for $1500. How hard would it be to adjust the valves and maybe clear it up a little bit. I don't have the clearances though. Any chance you would have the valve clearances I need? Thank you