1975 Atkinson restoration

Oilman wrote: Hopefully I'm getting close to the end. Filled her up with water, oil, fuel and powersteering fluid. Primed the fuel, engaged the decompression levers and hit the starter.........nothing. Pulled the cover off the end of the starter and manually engaged it and she spins over fine. Oil pressure light goes out, dropped the decompression levers but no firing. I have pulled off the starter motor and seems that the coil isn't pulling in the armature so the contacts close so I will need to fix that before I can look at trying to bleed the injectors. One of the water manifolds is leaking so now I have the full compliment of leaks - water, air, oil (but not fuel - so far). I was crossing jobs off the list, but now I am adding them back faster than I can cross them off.

Several things come to mind here.

How long is it since the engine last ran?

Are the injection pump racks free?

Did you use the priming levers to feed fuel up to the injectors (Gardners call them 'sprayers', by the way) until you got a 'solid' feel?

Did you press up the excess fuel button on the underside and at the forward end of the frontmost injection pump cover?

Did any smoke come out of the exhaust pipe while cranking the engine over?

Given the issue with the starter motor, I haven't been too serious about trying to start it. I will fix the starter first and then work through starting it as I need to be on the other side of the engine.

Several things come to mind here.

How long is it since the engine last ran? 4 YEARS

Are the injection pump racks free? YES

Did you use the priming levers to feed fuel up to the injectors (Gardners call them 'sprayers', by the way) until you got a 'solid' feel? YES, I TRIED THAT BUT THEY WEREN'T SPRAYING SO I WILL HAVE TO CRACK THE INJECTOR LINES AND SEE IF I CAN GET FUEL.

Did you press up the excess fuel button on the underside and at the forward end of the front most injection pump cover? NO

Did any smoke come out of the exhaust pipe while cranking the engine over?[/quote] NO

Well she may not run, but at least it is back together. I managed to remove the starter motor off my parts truck, and hoping that I can make one good one from two this weekend.

It does look stunning just sitting there waiting to come outside to play.

Oilman wrote: Given the issue with the starter motor, I haven't been too serious about trying to start it. I will fix the starter first and then work through starting it as I need to be on the other side of the engine.

Several things come to mind here.

How long is it since the engine last ran? 4 YEARS

Are the injection pump racks free? YES

Did you use the priming levers to feed fuel up to the injectors (Gardners call them 'sprayers', by the way) until you got a 'solid' feel? YES, I TRIED THAT BUT THEY WEREN'T SPRAYING SO I WILL HAVE TO CRACK THE INJECTOR LINES AND SEE IF I CAN GET FUEL.

Did you press up the excess fuel button on the underside and at the forward end of the front most injection pump cover? NO

Did any smoke come out of the exhaust pipe while cranking the engine over?

NO[/quote]

Replies to:-

Question 3. Make sure that the injection pumps are fully bled through then 'crack' the HP pipe unions and use the priming lever to at least get fuel through the pump. Re-tighten unions and prime up to the sprayers when you should get a 'solid' feel on the levers and possibly a 'squeak' from the sprayers. Suggest give the lift pump a flick or two to make sure that fuel is fully charging the pumps after each lever is used.

Question 4. Press up excess fuel button, making sure that the racks move back.

Question 5. No smoke = no fuel injected.

You are making a lovely job of this Atki, although the 'spider' hubs do appear to be a bit strange to us in the UK.

Oilman, you realise we will need a video of the start up and the engine running please.........

The Gardner in my crane wouldnt prime on the levers ,but the rack was free....what was stuck were the sub plunger units in the upper section of the pump....these are the units with the line across them that shows in the little window ,the levers also work on them.....must have got water in thru the windows,and quite difficult to free,too......Now I squirt a bit of oil into each window to keep them free.

Well I repaired the starter motor last night. Ended up being a poor connection across the solenoid coil as I hadn't scraped the varnish off the wire one end. One problem solved but I still couldn't get it to bleed and I'm the first to admit I know next to nothing about working on diesels. Consulted an old mechanic by phone who advised that it was most likely the stopper was stuck closed or the rack was not moving and he was right, the rack was stuck closed (didn't even know what a rack was until today). Was able to free it up, bleed it and away she went. It hadn't had an oil pressure gauge on it when I got it, and that was showing 35lb (spot on for a Gardner) and she didn't even blow much smoke. Still a lot of little jobs to go and I will try to put up a video sometime.

Oilman wrote: Well I repaired the starter motor last night. Ended up being a poor connection across the solenoid coil as I hadn't scraped the varnish off the wire one end. One problem solved but I still couldn't get it to bleed and I'm the first to admit I know next to nothing about working on diesels. Consulted an old mechanic by phone who advised that it was most likely the stopper was stuck closed or the rack was not moving and he was right, the rack was stuck closed (didn't even know what a rack was until today). Was able to free it up, bleed it and away she went. It hadn't had an oil pressure gauge on it when I got it, and that was showing 35lb (spot on for a Gardner) and she didn't even blow much smoke. Still a lot of little jobs to go and I will try to put up a video sometime.

Sounds like you've got a good-un there! Glad to hear of a success.

Edit. Just a thought as the racks are not visible. However, if you can get the fingers of your left hand over the injection pump and behind No. 1 HP pipe you can feel the light spring that pulls the racks back. If you can then put a finger against the end of the coiled part of the spring and push up the excess fuel button with right-hand finger, you can ease the rack back. Being an export vehicle your engine may have the excess fuel button exposed, but in the UK since about the 1950s Gardners fitted a cover for this with a small flap to insert a screwdriver to push and twist an off-set peg to lift the excess fuel button. This was done to prevent the button being held up while the vehicle was being driven for the (naughty) purpose of giving a bit more power.

Thats gotta put a smile on your dial, well done


Paul