It is now harvest time or something. We see a lot of agricultural machines in any case. And that tractors nowadays just run 60 km / h? We had never thought about it that way.
Tractors used to be different. A Lanz Bulldog had the simplest diesel you can imagine. A single-cylinder glow-head diesel. And pre-heat? You do that with a burner ...
A Lanz Bulldog single-cylinder hot-head diesel has two large flywheels with the governor on one side and the clutch on the other. The flywheels keep the engine running, although that 'speed' is very relative with a machine whose work strokes can almost be counted. So let's just say "running". Starting these tractors is something modern farmers no longer have time for: first a gas or petrol burner is placed under the glow plug to heat the “pear” red-hot, in the meantime various lubrication activities can be carried out, including topping up the oil pump.
During preheating, the oil pump must be turned several times to properly fill the lubrication lines with oil to avoid a 'dry start'. When the “pear” has turned red hot, the throttle lever may be in the middle position, after which the hand crank must be pumped once or twice at the diesel pump to get diesel into the glow plug. Then the flywheel has to be turned slowly from left to right a few times to get oxygen to the diesel so that a mixture is created that is approximately good for ignition.
A Lanz Bulldog is not a critical drinker. The machine runs on just about anything that is slightly easier to ignite than Rinse Appelstroop.
Finally, the flywheel must be given a firm crank. Due to the compression and the red-hot fired “pear”, the diesel mixture then ignites. The first blows gave the Bulldog its signature 'bark'. Then it runs with the rhythm of a quiet metronome at no load.
After starting it must still be checked whether the motor is rotating in the correct direction. This is done by means of an arrow on the flywheel or a mechanical meter in the tractor cabin. If it turns out that the engine turns the wrong way, you put the throttle back all the way and wait until the single-cylinder almost switches off. At that moment you turn the throttle completely off again and you see the flywheel go left and right and eventually in the right direction.
In the past, certainly not everything was better.
But terribly endearing
Not very susceptible to theft and bank robbers, they are not really in demand either.