cold starting D15 gas

[Larry Stinson]

I need help starting this cold girl any suggestions
 

[Larry Stinson]

have a gas D15 great running ol' girl she is kept
under a carport when not being used. I live up in North Idaho. Cold
country. She does not like to start in the cold. I have a block heater.
When I try to start, I pull the choke out & open the throttle almost
full. I get a 3 or 4 seconds of run, then stalls out and appears to
flood. When I try to restart she wont fire unless I pull a couple of
plugs a brush them off. I replace the points, plugs, cap, rotor etc this
past summer. Any advise would be wonderful. Thanks
 

[JMS/.MN]

You are flooding it. Most tractors, you give the throttle about 3-4 'notches'- never anywhere near full throttle. Summer, usually don't need choke, cold weather you do.
 

[Larry Stinson]

Ive tried every level of throttle. it will only fire up on almost full throttle. It will be 16 tomorrow morning I'll give your suggestion a try. Thanks
 

[wolfman]

Try this: When you shut it down, back off throttle to slightly more than idle. Next day when you want to start it - don't touch the throttle as that opens the govenor which will stall a cold gasser. Turn on the key, crank it and at first fire be ready to pull choke. Only touch the throttle if you're prepared to rechoke. After it runs a few seconds, then you can open it up to higher rpm. Don't forget, when you shut it down for the day to set the throttle where you want it tomorrow. ACs are about the best cold weather starters out there; there is a good chance you won't even have to choke it.
 

[teddy52food]

I don't have a D15 but this is how I teach my kids to start my IHC C & B & H. Leave the ign off & close the choke. Gas on. Turn it over 2 compressions. 3 if it is cold. 4 if it is 20 below. Then open the choke about half way, turn on the ign & hit the starter. It will fire up & stay running. May need a little more choke at -20.Check for oil pressure & charging. Let it warm up and gradually open the choke . These tractors are still 6 volt . The kids start them to haul wood all winter without me. I keep good points & plugs in them.
 

[chalmersbob(Pa)]

I start all of my AC's with 1 notch of throttle. Some need a little choke, some don't want any. My D15 doesn't want any choke and no throttle.
My friend has an 8N ford and an IH cub and he always complains about getting them started. I can walk up to them and with no throttle and just a little choke, they start. He uses too much throttle. LOL Bob
 

[buickanddeere]

Install a block heater.
Measure coil voltage while cranking. If the battery lacks capacity or if there is a high resistance cable or connection. There will not be enough voltage to jump the plug gap.
A gasser only needs to turn over and have a fat spark. It"s not like a diesel that needs to be rotated to at least 1/2 it"s idle rpms to make enough compression heat to fire.
Use 10W-30 synthetic in the crankcase. Push the clutch down when cranking.
 

[rufus80]

When was the last time it was tuned up? I have a D15 series2 gas and it starts one the first crank in any weather.
 

[Larry Stinson]

She didn"t fire up this morning like I was hoping. So I left the block heater on for 4 hrs or so. And tried again. 2 notches of throttle. No choke at first then 1/2 choke fired up. So I need better engine heater or add another one. I will be ordering a new coil too that"s the only thing I didn"t replace when she was tuned up last summer. Thanks again fellas for all the help with "Allis"
 

[Bob Huntress]

Larry, are you simply asking how many of us would reach for the either? Let me save you the suspense. At some point, yes, I'll grab the either. If your problem happens to be an extremely cold day, much beyond what you usally start the tractor in, fine, ether saved the day. We all live happily ever after. If you generally have a problem starting in cold weather, someone mentioned a block heater. They're great, but if it's a show tractor, having the plug sticking out the side my distract from the viewing. I live here in West Tennessee. To show how cold it doesn't get, last night I posted how frustrating it was to go through all the work of bricking up a corner and getting a woodstove, only to have 74 degrees last night. I use 20w50 in everything old, but if it got cold here much, I would use lighter oil. Especially multiweight oil gets thicker in colder weather. Another thing I would do is possibly keep the battery on a trickle charge overnight. It takes more amps to turn the same engine when it is very cold. If you park the tractor in a heated shop, warm intake air also makes starting go a bit better.
 

[Paul from MI]

I think I would do as B&D says and test the actual voltage at the coil WHILE you are cranking. Bad battery connections or small battery cables or a bad battery will cause low voltage at the coil and weak spark, therefore hard starting. It's an easy test and rules out many issues.
 

[Too Far Gone]

replace condensor too.A weak one will weaken spark easily
 

[Bill(Wis)]

Spark has to have blue snot authority. Nothing less. If that spark is orange, it ain't going to start until it warms up. Condensor, points, coil, plugs. Heavy cable connections to battery. Clean, bright, tight. It'll be good to 40 below. If it gets colder than that, you'll start to have other problems. Gassers don't need block heaters if they're properly maintained but if you want to install one, go ahead. I'm assuming that the tractor was running OK until it got cold?
 

[Larry Stinson]

Couldn"t get her going this morning. Not even that cold 32. Put the block heater on. Waited. Still couldn"t get her started. Took the fuel line off blew it out with carb cleaner. Drained out the carb. sprayed carb cleaner into the carb. Put the hose back. So for the hell of it I took off again the positive battery terminal. Cleaned the hell out it. Put it all back & boom away she went. I dont know if it was sheer luck or the terminal was dirty. I"ll see what happens tomorrow morning.