41 Ford Coupe won't start if engine is warm.

C

cmmahurin

Senior Member
I need help figuring out why my 41 Ford Coupe will not start when the engine is hot. It has the original engine and it was rebuilt during restoration in the early 1990's. If the engine is cold the car starts as it should. However, if I drive for 15 minutes and turn off the ignition it will not start. I have to wait an hour to 2 hours for the engine to completely cool off before it will start. The temperature gauge reads half way between cool and hot and the car has never overheated.

I have tried several remedies including having the starter gone thru and having the bushings replaced. The car has a new battery. I even tried the 4 clothespin remedy to no avail.

As stated above the engine has been rebuilt. I don't know how much the car was drived after restoration but the engine is detailed very nicely and runs great. It just refuses to start once the engine has warmed up. It acts like it isn't getting enough voltage to turn the engine over. Once it cools it starts fine.

I know that a person can buy a 12 volt battery that switches over to 6 volts once the engine starts. I have avoided investing in one of these expensive batteries thus far and I have hoped to find a solution that didn't involve altering the way the car was built.

Any suggestion would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Mike
 
Your condenser or coil might be the culprit. They can break down when hot, and once they cool down everything is ok. I replaced my condenser and had the coil rebuilt by a guy in Florida. he puts modern technology in them and guarantees them for a few years. The condenser I bought came from NAPA, Echlin, made in USA, not a chinese one.
 
coil and cond or either. get a cond from napa IH-200 and send coil to skip only if a script. He wont do after market ones. ken ct.
 
Hay cnna; You say it turns over slowly when hot. Sounds like poor ground and / or small cables, your 6volts system need good ground, to crank the engine and have something left over for the coil. Get good "LARGE" cables from tractor supply places, and clean the contact point, Forget the two voltage battery, ( how you going to charge the 12 volt side ?? ) ....GOOD GROUND BETWEEN THE BATTERY / ENGINE ..... and your good to go.....OLD....BILL
 
This same thing happened to my 48 Mercury. What I found was a bad starter solenoid, when I try to start it hot it was like a dead battery and I got out to shake wires to see if they were loose and found a very hot lead on the solenoid and I changed it and now it starts like new. Still 6V.
 
i had Sikip rebuild my coil i think it cost me 88 bucks, and that included shipping from
Florida to California. i had a hard time starting my old engine in my 36 pickup. it would do the same thing. there where loose connections on the starter switch, i tightened them up then it cranked up like it was on 12 volts. Don't convert your car to 12 volts or put in a 8 volt battery, fix the problem and you will be money ahead
Brendan
 
Mike, if you have a amperge gauge, try and watch the amperge draw. It could be a tight engine, which I don't think so. That will give you a clue if the starter is drawing alot. also watch you voltage and see were it drops to. The info your giving is that the engine won't turn, am I correct? Good luck Gordon
 
98% of all Ford coils from 32 to 48 won't start when they get hot. Normaly it takes 20 to 30 for them to cool. A bad condensor can act the same way. The only coils Skip don't rebuild for these years are the ones that were "rebuilt" by A&S. these were taken apart and cleaned then put back together with not very good results. The bad part is he filled them with epoxy and they can't be taken apart in a reasonable time and they are subjet to breaking. These can be identified by a date scratched in the bottom. The guy in Florida hasn't charged anyone in 12 years to repair a coil he rebuilt if it fails. You can contact him at skip@fordsrus.com If the engine is tuned properly with a good 6 volt battery with 2/0 cables and clean tight connections these engine start on the first revolution, they don't have to spin. G.M.
 
Both "most likely culprits" have already been suggested, so this is for reinforcement only...get a Skip's coil overhaul for sure - that's number one. My 34 Cabriolet had a similar hot start issue and I solved the problem with significantly heavier, custom made battery cables. I highly recommend you do this, too! I'll bet your hot starts will be thing of the past. Ron Pilger
 
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