Bendix or other ??

H

helbigphil

Junior Member
1931 Phaeton. original 6V system. i have owned the car for about a year. up until recently it would turn over enough to start. it never felt like the starter had a lot of strength, but it worked enough to always start the car. after a few months of sitting, i now get maybe one revolution when trying to start.

New Optima battery & rebuilt starter later, i am still getting the same thing. i did re-installed the Bendix drive from the original starter. Bendix looked fine, no cracks & didn't appear to be majorly worn. removed started and hooked directly to battery on bench and the starter spun like mad. re-install and same thing. maybe 1 turn of engine.

How do you know if the spring on the Bendix drive is 'gone' ? i can throw more money for a new Bendix/spring (i know its not much), but kinda of sick of spending. any suggestions would be great!
thanks in advance for your comments.
 
I agree with Brentwood.

Take off all your grounds and grind the location points perfectly clean. Apply dielectric grease to the frame points where the cables attach and to the battery posts and cables.

Then run that other ground cable from the frame to the bell housing or trans.
 
Stop throwing money at the Bendix drive and go with a USA made modern drive unit. By the way, the Bendix springs inherently crack at the inside edge of one of the coils, so there is no easy inspectable warning. If you must use the Bendix drive, see the 2nd slide.
 

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Measure the voltage at the starter switch when turning the engine over. Measure with respect to ground at the starter (mounting bolts or other good ground point). Now do the same at the battery. If they are different then you have some resistance somewhere. It could be the ground as others have suggested. Is there a ground cable to the transmission or other part of the engine/transmission?

It could be the starter switch. Try jumping directly to the starter contact with the switch removed using the battery cable.

Of course it could also be the starter. Just because it works without a load does not mean that it is good. If all the tests above are good then look inside the starter to see if the commutator and brushes are good. The commutator should be bright copper and the brushes should move easily in their holders.
 
My car had a ~4.5 GA ground cable (measured by diameter), so it was no wonder it was hard to start. A new proper size cable and an extra ground from the motor to the frame made it all better.
 
Final update. Just cleaning up all battery cable grounds/contacts did not result in anything. i then start following the circuit path. eventually, one bad contact between the start button and the solenoid proved to be the voltage killer. after cleaning up all connections i could find, she turned over harder & faster than ever. Obviously, the new optima with much higher cranking amps then previous battery and connection cleaning was long over due.

now it's off to the next issue, thanks again everyone.
 
I’m not certain if I am right or not but I recently was messing around with a ‘51 Ford (still 6V) and the Optima it had seemed to have a higher voltage than the usual batteries do. I keep hearing that they crank so well because of their cranking amps but I think that maybe there is more to it.
 
helbigphil said:
Final update. Just cleaning up all battery cable grounds/contacts did not result in anything. i then start following the circuit path. eventually, one bad contact between the start button and the solenoid proved to be the voltage killer. after cleaning up all connections i could find, she turned over harder & faster than ever. Obviously, the new optima with much higher cranking amps then previous battery and connection cleaning was long over due.

now it's off to the next issue, thanks again everyone.
Click to expand...

Just one casual note, there is NO solenoid in an original starting system.
 
I noticed that too. Model As were all set up with a foot operated switch that just have direct copper contacts to pass the amperage. 2 gauge wire is likely the smallest conductor size to use for a battery to starter cable. The battery to frame needs the same or an original type ground strap to frame set up. It doesn't hurt to run another ground strap or cable to the transmission housing for a good drive train to frame bond.

Starters can wear out parts. Bushings wear down, brush springs break, wiring deteriorates, and armatures short & wear out too. There isn't much clearance between the armature and the field pole shoes. If the bushings wear out and the armature rubs then it will drag so bad it barely turns.
 
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