A conversation came up in the watering hole the other night about rich valves on old diesels.
This job was usually given to the lowest of the low, to stand in front of the grill, and hold it pulled out, until it started.
We're going back to the '50s or '60s, and we couldn't remember which manufacturer had this facility.
Would 'elf'nsafety allow this nowadays, and how many poor beggars got run over because it was still in gear?
sss
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Never heard of them bt?
thought it was rags soaked in diesel wafted in front of the inlet manifold
or a an extra injector that ran off a wax thermostat,saw one of these on something modern tother week
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bb
You must be a mere stripling.... I was that poor unfortunate who had to hold the start pull-handle in the freezing pre-dawn cold until the knackered old delivery lorry wheezed into life.
Fords had a plastic T-handle in the radiator grille; but on Bedfords you had to open the bonnet [often iced shut] and push in the start enrichment pin on the pump - which then popped out every time it fired but failed to catch!
In really olden times the enrichment cable was in the cab; but the common practice of pulling it out to get extra power climbing hills - and the associated pall of oily black smoke - inspired regulations to have them outside the cab.
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The so-called excess fuel devices used to be quite common, although now, with more thermally efficient combustion chambers and glow plugs there's really very little need for them nowadays.
When my father's trucks had them, we never used them, neither did we use the pre-installed ether devices on the Leylands, if the engines are in reasonable nick, full throttle is enough, even in relativley cold weather. We did used to light fires under the tanks of the AECs when the diesel was waxing though..
Number_Cruncher
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i still hanker after a ford thames trader petrol but a friend says they were the trucks with no brakes
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Jeeez, it must be awful being old & knowing that stuff.
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well woodbines i thought i knew a lot about old trucks but it seems i dont,im sure going to look more carefully next time i go to a show
thanks
SC
NC
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Jeeez it must be awful being old & knowing that stuff.
It is - until you consider the alternative....
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According to a relative in Australia who drove the interstate rigs, many of the big Cummins / D.D. / Cat truck engines had them at least until 2002 when he stopped driving. They used to be operated from inside the cab, but, as mentioned above, drivers used them for power boost so, in the late 1990's, the Government legislated them to be operable only from outside. As relative said to me, any truckie with half a brain soon sorted that one out. I didn't go into detail with him.
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Trader brakes were quite good;it was the predecessor the ET6 which was fitted with mechanical brakes which were excellent when correctly set-up but you needed an expert to do that.Excess fuel devices were usually triggered by a button on the pump and the Thermostart device allowed fuel to drip onto a red-hot coil in the inlet manifold and actually started a small fire to heat the incoming air.We had an engine on the test bed without this connected so one of our fitters started it by setting fire to a rag soaked in petrol and holding it over the manifold-it started and he stamped on the rag to put it out-he'd forgotten he was wearing crepe-soled shoes.
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I remember the Fergie 20 deisel had a KiGass priming pump. I remember that when the tractor came the KiGass tank was missing, so my Pa took a large Swarfega tin, and made up pipes to fit.
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