question RB44 Ether starting system

[SteveJ]

Hi

 

Ive got an RB44 GS. The perkins engine has an Ether cold start system on it. (Its not like I intend to try and start it as its -35C with the breeze here today)

The ether bottle located under the hood and I would like to fill it. The trouble is is that it seems to take a special adapted bottle to fill it. None of the Ether bottles available here in Canada will match. Is it a special military adapter or is it a standard automotive part in the UK?

 

Thanks

[Cold_War_Collection]

Hi

 

Ive got an RB44 GS. The perkins engine has an Ether cold start system on it. (Its not like I intend to try and start it as its -35C with the breeze here today)

The ether bottle located under the hood and I would like to fill it. The trouble is is that it seems to take a special adapted bottle to fill it. None of the Ether bottles available here in Canada will match. Is it a special military adapter or is it a standard automotive part in the UK?

 

Thanks

 

Hi Steve,

 

Ottawa is a bit warmer, but I feel your pain! the UK for many years imported Tractors such as David Brown and Cockshutts, (I'm grew up on a farm, and the next farm over had Diesel David Browns), anyway, these had some sort of Ether start system, so its possible that a vintage tractor supply store might be able to help out?

 

Cheers

 

Nick

 

CWC Ottawa, Canada

[Richard Farrant]

Hi

 

Ive got an RB44 GS. The perkins engine has an Ether cold start system on it. (Its not like I intend to try and start it as its -35C with the breeze here today)

The ether bottle located under the hood and I would like to fill it. The trouble is is that it seems to take a special adapted bottle to fill it. None of the Ether bottles available here in Canada will match. Is it a special military adapter or is it a standard automotive part in the UK?

 

Thanks

 

Steve,

The name of the product is Start Pilot, you have to use a special aerosol which fills when inverted on some vehicles, assume the same on RB44

[Hoseman]

Steve,

The name of the product is Start Pilot, you have to use a special aerosol which fills when inverted on some vehicles, assume the same on RB44

I used to service an old Avelin Barford Loading Shovel that had a built in easy start system the same. That just had a replaceable pressurised aerosol bottle. We used to be able to buy the seperate bottles. Have you a picture of the charging nozzle on your tank? I may be able to identify it for you.

[Richard Farrant]

The NSN for the Ether refill can is 7RB/2910-99-657-6885

 

Makers stock number is shown as BW206613, think this is a Renault trucks number. Try searching for Start Pilot

Edited December 6, 2013 by Richard Farrant

[robin craig]

John Deere has been using a can of the same description and has done for years.

 

They mount them on dozers etc like the 450c range.

 

I would buy the mounting from a tractor / dozer scrap man and paint it green and plumb in place of the UK system if you can't find their cans over here. Only you and I will know its not proper but it will function none the less.

 

Frankly I would go to extraordinary lengths to do anything possible to avoid using ether under any circumstances.

 

Nobody ever uses it properly and many engine re-builders / mechanics will tell you of tales of woe of how it has been used improperly.

 

A good or multiple block heaters or in line coolant heaters with pumps, with the usual caveats, and some kind of battery maintainer would be my preference any time over using ether.

 

It is a last resort product and honestly if you care about your MV and you are using it at those temperatures then you must be driving on salt covered roads anyway, and thereby inviting the rust worm onto your baby.

 

R

[SteveJ]

Not to worry. My baby is securely parked in my back yard on the RV pad double tarped with elec battery blankets on the batteries and a magnetic heater on the block. And yes they use a mixture of salt sand on the roads though the sand in a lot of cases seems more like marble size so you not only get enhanced corrosion but usually need a new front window by spring from rock damage.

 

The chances of me using the ether system is unlikely but I find when I go down a restoration with a new vehicle I have to know everything about the vehicle and have it functioning if possible or it bugs me.

Interestingly had I looked close START PILOT is written on the pump handle in the cab and in the RB44 operators manual but I never recognised it as a brand name and here it is. They use the same system on the unimog. Now just to get ahold of some. Thanks for your help guys.