Dead Starter

V

Viera Model A

New member
Hi Folks. 1930 Standard Roadster. Had it a few months. Came from Hilton Head and Virginia before that. Only know history for 22 years. Car is in pretty good shape and starts and runs well. Had some kind of wobble in the front end at about 40 mph. Moved the wheels front to back to try to pinpoint. After doing that and wanting to go for a ride, car will not start. No sound from the starter. Juice is getting to the bolt on the starter switch, and I've ordered a new switch from Ecklers, which is 20-minutes up the road. I expect to be able to chase this down, but the question is can anyone think of any reason jacking up the car and moving the wheels would have anything whatsoever with the starter?
 
Can the motor be turned over by hand? That will tell you if the starter drive is free. A bent starter shaft will lock up. Put the car in high gear and push backwards to release a locked up starter. Always let the starter come to a complete stop before reapplying the starter.
 
I think the jacking and the starter problem at the same time is coincidental.
If the starter is not hung up on the ring gear, I recently had the armature short to earth, then a couple of days later, the field windings did the same. I know about coincidences!
 
Do the head lights work? Check the ground at the battery and frame. How many volts did you have at the starter? Should be 6.8. If you live in a cold area it could be a weak battery.
Good Luck
 
Don't replace the starter switch unless you can verify the old one is bad. The originals are much better than the replacements.
 
Viera Model A said:
Hi Folks. 1930 Standard Roadster. Had it a few months. Came from Hilton Head and Virginia before that. Only know history for 22 years. Car is in pretty good shape and starts and runs well. Had some kind of wobble in the front end at about 40 mph. Moved the wheels front to back to try to pinpoint. After doing that and wanting to go for a ride, car will not start. No sound from the starter. Juice is getting to the bolt on the starter switch, and I've ordered a new switch from Ecklers, which is 20-minutes up the road. I expect to be able to chase this down, but the question is can anyone think of any reason jacking up the car and moving the wheels would have anything whatsoever with the starter?
Click to expand...
Fix the starter problem??
 
Jacksonlll said:
Put it in third gear and push the car backwards. If it won't go back, push harder.
Click to expand...

If the starter is jammed and pushing backwards doesn’t work, rock it back and forth in 3rd gear pretty vigorously. That has always worked for me. It’s not unusual for the bendix to jam on the ring gear, but it’s always a shock the first time it happens.

Good luck - Jim
 
Sorry for the delay. Blame it on the season. In response to helpful thoughts and questions. I rocked the car back and forth in high gear. Engine turned. I have not done so aggressively as was suggested. Will do so. Headlights work. Another thread suggested (after removing the starter switch) to get a jumper from the negative battery post and touch the brass pad on the starter briefly expecting some reaction. No reaction. I think it could be a bad ground which should not be too difficult to check. Will do so. Headlights don't depend on a ground as they have two wires. More troubleshooting today. Leaning toward coincidence regarding connection between jacking up the car and starting issue. Hard to believe starter worked fine with nothing intermittent/noise/etc., until it didn't, but I guess that's true of many things that break. They work until they don't.
 
I need more info. on this one.
"Headlights don't depend on a ground as they have two wires."
 
Those 2 wires to the horn should both be hot. The horn button completes the circuit to blow the horn. The basic wiring diagram should clear that up.
Kinda looks like the starter is kaput.
Sorry, wrong two wires.
 
Last edited:
"Headlights don't depend on a ground as they have two wires."


One wire is high beam and the other is low beam, still need a ground
through the headlight bucket.
 
Just to close this out. . .the problem is the negative battery cable, which was not making good connection at the battery and probably is corroded internally. Multimeter showed 6.4 volts, but there was, apparently, not enough current passing through to operate or even tickle the starter. Initially, the lights worked, but stopped at some point during my messing around. Speculate it was due to moving/bending the ancient-looking battery cable. Searching for an original-looking one rather than a tacky red parts store generic cable. Many thanks for the info and correction to my knowledge base. Surpised that whomever restored this car didn't replace that cable in the process as a great effort was made on this car. Even the frame looks like it was painted with the body off, and there isn't a lick of rust anywhere.
 
For future reference, the voltage at the terminal on the starter switch should be measured when the switch is pressed. If it goes to near zero then you know there is a ground fault or bad battery connection. If it stays at battery voltage then you know the switch is bad.

Run a second ground to the engine. The engine was grounded through the engine pans that were attached to the frame and engine. These are usually removed on cars and the grounding can be problematic.
 
Viera Model A said:
Searching for an original-looking one rather than a tacky red parts store generic cable.
Click to expand...


Be aware that the battery cables you’ll likely find at the local auto parts stores are for 12 volt batteries. 6 volt batteries need heavier, lower gauge cables.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I suspect any modern replacement cable you find will have the non-battery end connector simply crimped on the cable. I always use my MAPP torch to heat that connector end and flow solder into the connection. I haven’t tried it on the battery end, but I suppose you could if you’re careful with the heat.
Good luck !
Jim
 
If you don’t support the Model A venders now, you will surely miss them when they are gone. Then where you go, Lowes, Home Depot, West Marine? When I first started all we had was JC Whitney and the local junk yards.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top