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Starting engines can be a pain, when not maintained and if you need to start in a hurry, or are otherwise inconvienenced by dealing with the fuel system or ignition system. Some have done the conversion over for many reasons, its one of those matter of preference things. Like I mentioned in the later thread, keep the oil changed, and clean, ignition system in order, magneto hot, and fuel system clean, there are people who re-build the mags if ever needed, just ask around. Keep moisture away from these, cover it up, if the tractor is not under cover, but allow room for air to circulate. Fuel tanks develop rust and it clogs the lines and holes in the carb, clean the sediment bowl and and use a high rising screen so you can get fuel flow if the rust settles down. YOu can refurbish the metal tank, I cleaned mine up by placing crushed stone in it and sloshing it around, then kept it full, there are coatings for these as well. The carburetors are easy to clean and re-build, should be a zenith, kits still available for them. Use solid, wire type conductor spark plug wires and don't use champion plugs, am told they don't perform well, apparently others are much better, I am leaning towards agreeing on that one too. These need a good hot spark to run good. Starting engines are great in the cold weather, benefits are that you turn the diesel engine over with the compression off and no fuel, until oil pressure comes up and the coolant is warmed vs. turning one over cold and trying to get it to fire with an electric starter and batteries, batteries can become discharged, starter can heat up etc. unless it's got a block heater or some means to keep it warm. Converting over to direct electric start, you need to do the work, get the parts, batteries etc and could be $1000, which is what it cost for a D7 3T to be converted years ago around here. Probably some better deals now, but still not inexpensive when said and done. In a cold environment, one would think that it might be tough to get enough time out of the batteries to turn it over enough to fire, especially on one with a worn engine, unless it could be plugged in and heated prior to, then I'd think it would work nicely. Someone I know converted a D7 3T to direct elec. start and on that one I cannot imagine it firing unless kept plugged in when cold, knowing how that ole 4 banger fires, seems like it could be difficult. Mind you, below 40 deg or so it may be more difficult then when above 40, and if it's worn, it will need more heat to fire. On the other hand, my 7 which has very low original hours, diesel seems to run like a new or freshly rebuilt one, when it's warm outside, it will fire without hesitation, starting engine does not need to turn it over much at all, soon as I kick it in, turn on compression/fuel, it's like it has been running and is warmed up. No popping or delay at all, must have good compression. When in the teens or 20's though, one cylinder will pop at a time, after it's been spinning over for several minutes with compression off, no fuel, now I cannot imagine how it would fire with direct start unless it had a block heater or something due to the time I have to spin it over with the starting engine. Different ball game for this era of slow turning diesels when cold. The starting engine gets everything circulating and warm after awhile, so the benefit seems to be less engine wear on start ups and you can turn it over for as long as you need to, for starting and other purposes, say like re-priming the fuel system, keep in mind the starting engine uses the diesels coolant system to cool it on most of these, so you must turn the main over or it will overheat, at least mine is like that, assuming the 9U is similar. If you need to re-build a starting engine, best to do before a catastrophic failure, not cheap as mentioned. I don't mind them at all, depends on ones preference, what climate you are in and how you are set up to deal with it, a worn motor in a cold environment will need all the help it can get it to fire. There is a nice 9U / 8U series starting engine listed on e-bay right now, seems there may be a few around from all the conversions that have been done. Sometimes the engaging mechanism, pinion needs to be adjusted as it may disenagage too soon, and always make sure it disengages on time, or the main can overspeed it, I keep a hand on the throttle lever on mine and the pinion lever as it wants to overspeed it sometimes, just something to be aware of. A lot of these things I picked up on by reading the forums and running the tractor, seems like a lot, but once it's settled in, not hard to remember, and seat time is always fun, just have to use care and be safe.
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