fixed overheating coil and now the starter blew up

H

hueyhoolihan

Well-known member
yep, ...had a thread on my overheating coil that i had "solved". the idea was to remove my 6v two-bolt distributor and it's adapter plate and re-install my stromberg electronic distributor. so i did that yesterday and it started right up and would restart. so problems solved, right? well...no.

as mentioned, i did two immediate restarts after a test drive with the Stromberg distributor and the car re-started well. ...twice... on the third attempt the engine failed to turn over at all for about one second and then the starter just whirred without the engine turning over at all. it sounded like the bendix was failing to engage the ring gear on the flywheel. several subsequent attempts to start immediately afterwards provided similar results.

i suppose a couple of ring gear teeth could have sheared off, or the bendix's teeth could also have been damaged, and it's possible the bendix is now, for some reason, failing to extend (or retract) to its proper length.

i'm hoping that the problem is with the starter as replacing a broken ring gear is something i'd rather not have done. :(

so to narrow down the possibilities as to what's the problem, i'll throw it in gear and push the car a few feet to move the ring gear and give it another try today. if it works correctly, i'll be thinking i have a bad ring gear. if not, it's probably a bad bendix. smh

what a frustrating experience it's been (a year now) getting this beautiful car, probably a car show "originality class" car, running properly after a steady diet of disuse, for the most part, for a couple of decades.
 
so maybe some good news and i can look forward to simply replacing the bendix, eh? ...this will be the second time, so should (ahem...) go smoothly. :)
 
J Franklin said:
One of the the Bendix bolts could have broken or fell out. If so fish it out of the housing.
Click to expand...

ya know, that may b likely, as the last time the starter did turn the engine over, it did it once and then halted dead in it's tracks for a moment like maybe the flywheel got hung up on something like a piece of metal between it and the transmission case or something and made a nasty noise. and then the pinion gear failed to engage again and the starter motor would only whirrrrr, on and on.

thanks, i'll be looking for something like that.
 
19Fordy said:
Was the little starter support bracket to the oil pan installed?
Click to expand...

haha, yes it was....thank goodness.

i remember well lying under the car, trying to hold that massive starter up with one hand and trying and failing, time after time to insert one of those long skinny bolts in one end and line it up so as to get it started to thread into the bell housing with the other.

and then, when just about to call it a day, noticing that lovely tab. it saved the day. the job was done in two shakes of a lamb's tail. in a twisted way i'm sort of looking forward to a repeat performance. just to experience again, how easy it can be when,.. you know...you know what you're doing!
 
J Franklin said:
One of the the Bendix bolts could have broken or fell out. If so fish it out of the housing.
Click to expand...

...pretty much nailed it!

and after i removed the starter today, i did fish around inside the hole it left in the bell housing and found nothing. i'll do a proper job of it when i install the new one.

and my first impression of the bendix was that it was broken in some way. that was good news, although i didn't actually see anything broken. the spring did not appear to be broken, but didn't seem to be attached to anything very well either. eventually i determined that there is a collar placed over the motor's shaft and the collar is prevented from turning on the shaft by a woodruff key. ...fair enough. but...

the collar is tapped for two 1/2 headed bolts and only one was present. and the other threaded hole in the collar was completely empty!!!! and no sign of having anything in it that may have broken off. i assume they are there to secure the spring to the collar. here's what may have happened although it doesn't explain everything....

when i bought the car it had a brand new 12v starter and bendix in it. in fact i found the receipt for it in the trunk of the car along with the starter that had been removed. i immediately tested the one i found in the trunk and it spun right up and it appeared to be working.

eventually i discovered the starter in the car when i purchased it was a 12v starter and the battery was not a 12v battery, which meant that the starter could never and didn't ever turn over the engine properly for it to start. so i replaced that brand new 12v starter with the one that i found in the trunk and it fixed my starting problem!

time passes...

and then the other day, after many many successful starts during the past year, something let loose in it. and now i have removed it and found one of the two bolts is missing. i think the bolts are there to secure the spring to the collar but am not entirely sure.

i assume that second bolt (it's not the one at the bottom of the shaft but the one further up it) may have never been in the bendix that was on the 6v starter i found in the trunk, at all when i bought the car. after all, to test whether it was working or not i simply applied six volts to it and it spun and the bendix turned the pinion gear. it's entirely possible that the bolt had been removed for some reason that i am unaware of. but what i can't understand is how it worked at all without one of the bolts that secures the spring to the collar. BTW, the other bolt appears to be slightly bent so it's suffered some severs torque.

anyway, it's out, and i've ordered a brand new 6v 1941 ford (probably aftermarket) starter from Dennis Carpenter and we'll see what happens when i install it.

the good news today was the extraction of the starter didn't even necessitate me jacking up the car. as it's ride height is original and i could slide under and get at the two bolts i needed to without too much difficulty as it sits on the ground. i was a little surprised.
 
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glennpm said:
If the starter still spins with 6V, you only need the benefit
Click to expand...

i whole-heartedly agree, and thank you for your concern WRT my financial health!

forty years ago, i would probably just buy a new bendix, but no more. the entire starter is an unknown...and even the thought of having to remove it again because i didn't install a new bendix correctly (which at my age is entirely possible), or the brushes or windings failed is more than worth a couple of hundred dollars. for me, that's only two trips to the supermarket. ha
 
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