Old and in the Way - L245DT Progress

John RHR

Member

Equipment
L 245 DT (emeritus) L3902
Oct 11, 2013
43
28
18
Lake County, Calif
Well folks, the latest in getting "Zilla" going... Thanks to connections here, I've picked up a couple of good tires, but progress has been hampered by "The Ick".... One of my students came up and sneezed in my face early last week, laughing that I was going to get real sick. He was right. This is day #7 of being knocked on my ass. That being said, the kindness of my FIL has helped things along a bit.

I pulled off the bent up seat for us to repair and straighten, and he took off the left rear tire and rim. We tried breaking the bead on the tire by driving "Hank" -his old 9N over it a few times, no luck. We took the tire up to the shop and I told him I'd sawzall a chunk out of the tire so we could get in and cut the bead with a cut off wheel, and then I went to the store to get some nostrums as now the wife was getting cruddy. Gthhhh.... I come back and he's gone after that tire like Darth Vader at a wookie convention! He's 86 years old! Don't know what he puts in his Maypo, but...

So we get the tire off, strip the tube and see why it was so hard to break apart. The inside of the rim is severely rusted. Not where the tire bead sits, thankfully, but underneath where the tube rides. So, I'm going to go after that with an angle grinder and a wire wheel. The tube that came with the used tire seems to hold air just fine, so after we repair some dents in the flange of the inside of the rim, it's off to the tire shop for assembly. The right side tire and the fronts are all okay, so for now, I am going to leave them alone. I'm thinking a garter under the tube might be a good idea also. I am going to paint the inside of the rim, once I've got it clean... Rustoleum or ????

I have several orphan wires and wire loom sections that I am bird dogging. If anyone had any pictures of the seat and clutch start safety switch set ups, I'd really like to see them. I do at least want to get a clutch safety in place, and it would be nice to see how the looms were originally run under the hood to the alt, starter, and glow plugs, as well as the safety for the seat and lollipop lights on the fenders.

I still haven't gotten this thing to start. I have been getting some puffs of black smoke and farts, but am not really sure if the glow plugs are working. How much current should they draw collectively? Earlier I had a spec of 1.5 ohms resistance per, but with three plugs,- wouldn't that only be .5 ohm? My knowledge starts to get a little fuzzy at this point, so any input on diagnosis for glow plugs is appreciated. I thought they were getting warm earlier, but I'm not so sure. The glow indicator on the dash is open, so I will need to get a new one. The plugs felt like they were getting warm, but not as near as hot as on my FIL's old Massey Ferguson... so I'm not sure.

Per the impassioned pleas of others here, I have decided NOT to use the crankcase flush - I'll just do a couple of short cycle oil changes with good oil and filters.

That's the report from the front. Hope to have more good news and progress. Thanks in advance for any input!

John
 

MagKarl

New member

Equipment
L245DT
Aug 2, 2010
663
0
0
Olympia, WA
My L245DT only has one safety switch, that's on the clutch pedal. None on the seat. The wiring harness on mine has many unused wires meant for extra accessories mine doesn't have, yours may be similar.

Glow plugs, turn the starter switch CCW and hold for ~1 minute before trying to start. I use a little bit of foot throttle and let up soon as it lights off. Then I set the hand throttle to maybe 1000RPM to warm up if needed.

My glow plugs are wired in series, I'm guessing the R value you have is for each, so total would be the sum. You can test each one individually but must disconnect the wires.
 

D2Cat

Well-known member
Lifetime Member

Equipment
L305DT, B7100HST, TG1860, TG1860D, L4240
Mar 27, 2014
12,901
4,267
113
40 miles south of Kansas City

Nebulous

New member
Feb 19, 2016
10
0
0
Paso Robles CA
John, I have been trying to track down a battery killing problem on my 245DT. I have replaced the voltage regulator, alternator and ignition switch. None of these has solved my problem, thus I have an inventory of probably perfectly functional electrical parts. Let me know if you need any of them.
Good Luck
Jim