Hard Starting 656 (long)

Recently bought an IH 656 Hydro Diesel. Shortly thereafter broke my leg falling off my roof and have been laid up for a while. Starting to get around a little and can use the 656 since its hydro and I don’t really need my left leg.
Problem I’m having is it seems to be getting harder to start. I know its indirect injection so suspected the glowplugs first. Here’s what I've don thus far.

Checked all the plugs one at a time with an ohmmeter and all were about 1.7 ohms.

Added a used IH Glowplug Meter from an 806 and replaced all the wiring with 8 gauge THHN from the starter solenoid (where the battery cables attach) through the switch & meter to the junction block at the glowplugs. Replaced the wires between the glowplugs with 10 gauge THHN.

After this when pushing the glowplug button, the newly installed gauge barely makes it to the middle of the 3 dots. Thought that funny so checked each plug individually through same gauge. Got no movement whatsoever in the needle unless at least 3 plugs were hooked up. Again seemed strange

Checked each plug individually through another generic ammeter and each plug draws approximately 8 amps. Remove 2 of the plugs & verified that the plugs did indeed glow red.

I assume now that the used gauge I installed either is the wrong one or isn’t working correctly.

Tractor still is very hard to start at 60 degrees even with a couple full minutes of glowplugs first. Once started tractor seems to run fine. Takes a couple minutes for the smoke to clear up and then runs great!

What’s my next step?

Tim

There are at least four more things that will cause
that poor starting, injector issues with pattern,
opening pressure, injection pressure (pump) and
engine compression. Any one of these, and or a
combination of these can be at fault. Jim

Plug the block heater in for a couple of hours and see how it acts.

Perhaps the old gal is just getting tired. Hard starting cold is the first sign of low compression.

Allan

Not a 656 but i have a 460D that i had trouble starting. pulled the starter and the wizzard found it was rebuilt prev with one segement of the armature unsoldered! No parts available so wizzard resoldered and i used very large new battry cables.Tractor started without using the Wife and F-250 Ford!! Happy Bud and Old Stinky.

(quoted from post at 22:49:44 10/08/11) Plug the block heater in for a couple of hours and see how it acts.

Perhaps the old gal is just getting tired. Hard starting cold is the first sign of low compression.

Allan

Click to expand...

Took your advice Allan, and plugged the block heater in for about an hour even though it was close to 70 today. After one minute of glowplugs it fired almost immediately and ran with almost no smoke. So I guess I can do that. Surprised it made that much difference at this temperature. Wonder what it will be like when it gets below zero this winter though?
Probably wouldn’t hurt to remove the injectors and have the local diesel shop check them.
Thanks
Tim

Cousin's 85 Mack Econodyne six cylinder was the most cold natured diesel I ever run. Unless it was summertime the block heater had to be used. It would start down to zero degrees if it was in the barn and the block heater was plugged in overnight. After it warmed up ran like a champ all day long.

Yep,

She's gettin' a little weak in the knees.

As long as ya got that engine heater goin' tho, tractor doesn't care if it's 20 below or 100° out. :>)

Allan

When it gets to the point that it doesn't wanna start even when warm, then you'll have to stop and do something about it.

But hey! That could be 5 or more years down the road, depending on usage.

Allan