M35A2 starter and "5 ton" starter the same???

[emmado22]

All,

I heard a rumor today that the M35A2 starter is interchangeable with a 5 ton starter Dunno if it was 800 or 900 series.... Possibly the 900A2 series...... All one needs to do is flip the end cap over the gear that engages the flywheel....

Any ideas???

 

[doghead]

It's true! The mounting "nose" just needs to be indexed to the correct position to be used for either application. These starters fit alot of other stuff. My local Cat dealer has them on the shelf.

 

[doghead]

Them Darn air starters will really make you jump in the morning. Like, when your just standing in the parking lot talking to you buddys and sipping a coffee! VVVRRREEEEOOOOHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

 

[acetomatoco]

Air starters take a lot of air and if you don't have capacity in your tanks and no leaks over night you will not start... especially if your manifold heater is not working in cold weather.. Be sure to count teeth on any starter you use...I believe there are 11, 12 and 13 tooth lookalikes out there... drives can be changed and heads indexed to fit a number of applications...ACE

 

[jeli]

Park close to the shop on cold mornings if you leave it outside. The good thing is you could have a gas powered air compressor in the back instead of jumper cables.

If this starter style is that common you'd think you could find a 12V version and do a complete conversion using a used starter. I know big starters aren't cheap but used/rebuildable can't be that bad. The reason I ask is I'd rather run multiple batteries in series than mess with a 24V system broke down on the road. I wouldn't think of doing this to a 250 in a 5 ton but a multi fuel is only 478 cu in.

 

[acetomatoco]

Lotta work when the original system works good to 20 below....just need good batteries...not the WalMart kind I use...The 4 batt series parallel setup from the 800 will crank a deuce in any weather... ACE

 

[houdel]

Air starters sure sound cool on startup! First time I heard one start (as a relative youngster) it scared the crap out of me! But as mentioned, you need a GOOD supply of air when you start or you are really screwed. They need a healthy supply of air to get an engine started. Don't know how well they work in cold weather when the engine needs a lot of cranking to get started. Kind of hard to jump start too!

 

[wreckerman893]

You "jump start" an air start vehicle with another like vehicle. You hook the glad hands up and transfer air to the one that needs air.
Many years ago a lot of the big freight lines (Roadway, Yellow, P.I.E.) used tractors with air start.
That's why a lot of drivers never turned their trucks off if they leaked.
Most of them that I remember were day cabs (no sleeper) and had a huge air tank (about the size of a 40 gallon water tank) mounted on the rear of the cab. This tank held enough air for several normal starting attemts.
The fly in the ointment was if the truck was having starting issues. Since it didn't have an electrical starter if you were out of air (and had no air source) you were out of luck.
I think they still use air starters on a lot of stationary diesel engines.

 

[houdel]

I love air starters, they sound do cool when cranking up. Of course, if you have only one Deuce (or one big Green MV with air power), then you are generally screwed with an air starter. Yes, they sound really cool when starting, but without a really GOOD supply of air, especially in cold weather, they just won't get the job done unless you have a really good source of auxillary air power!

 

[n1vbn]

The nice thing about the modern air starter system is they use less air than the old systems we remember as kids. The old system required 100 pounds of air for 3 attempts at starting the engine. The new system works with as little as 60 pounds of air. I drove an air start truck for 5 years and never needed another truck for starting when I exhausted the starter air supply, I just dragged out my 50 foot air line and hooked up to the starter reservoir (separate from the truck system) then hooked up to the front left steer tire. One civilian tire generally carries 85 to 105 pounds of air and will crank an engine over for over 30 seconds.

Once the engine starts ya just leave the hose hooked up to refill the tire.

Lets see ya jump start a electric starter with a tire.