it worked 42 years ago.. why not now?? - Starter

thebanjoman

thebanjoman

Senior Member
Starter was working fine When my father-in-law parked this '29 coupe when he drove it into the barn in 1968, drained the gas, water, and pulled the battery. 42 years has taken its toll. It wasn't in the best of shape when it was parked but it ran.

I've been working on this car for more than 3 years. I've now got a rolling chassis but the body and interior are still another few years away.

My father-in-law has alzheimers and is fading. Our time and finances won't allow us to complete this car while he'll still remember it but I want to give him what joy I can, to see and hear his '29 coupe running, in the near completed chassis.

Even if it 'Doesn't have clothes on.." :D The chassis is complete, wired, and today I tried to start it and Nothing. I built a small 'firewall' out of 2x4s to hang the coil, fuel line, and today I completed all the wiring. I sill have to 'hang' headlights and tail light but the rest should run. All the wiring is new and I completed running it today. I've got a new battery and it has 6.24V according to my meter.

The Starter appears dead, It won't even click. It was mechanically sound and working but time has rendered it inoperable. I took it out of the car and tried to apply 6v directy from a 6v battery charger. I put + on housing and - on copper button to make sure polarity should be correct. Nothing.

What steps can I take to figure out if the starter it really is DOA or does it need to be taken apart and cleaned and checked?

Clues???
 
Did you try turning the starter by hand? If it turns try a different location for the armature to be sure it's not a bad spot on the commutator. If that doesn't help take the band off and see if the springs holding the brushes are still good. You can also see how good the brushes are. Good Luck! Let us know what you find. Tom
 
Starters draw a lot of amps, probably the charger didn't put out enough to energize it. Try a using the battery, holding cables by hand direct to the starter. Negative to the post, pos to the body. (Provide restraint for it torqueing should it come to life). You might want to remove the band first and check for free movement and seating of the brushes, and clean the copper commutaror by holding fine wer-or-dry sandpaper on it while turning it. 42 years can scuzz contact surfaces up quite a bit. If that does nothing it will be time to take it apart, clean, look for loose connections, have the commutator tested for shorts on a groaner, and so on. All parts are available, as are rebuilt starters.
 
Even if using jumper cables with the starter off the car, the cables need to be heavy, not the common cheap ones. The starter draws at least 100 amps, and it takes more amps to start it moving than to keep it moving.

Also, you can always hand crank the engine to start it.
 
Clean the spot on the frame where the ground cable attaches. Went through this with my chassis for the delivery. Rod
 
Also make sure no rust is on the endplate of the starter where it attaches to flywheel hsg. If it was a funcioning starter when parked it may take abit of cleaning, but should work. Rod
 
Rowdy said:
Also make sure no rust is on the endplate of the starter where it attaches to flywheel hsg. If it was a funcioning starter when parked it may take abit of cleaning, but should work. Rod
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pulled the band off the starter, ran some sandpaper across it to where its nice and shiney. Out of the car, with a set of jumper cables I made from welding wire a number of years ago. Big and thick so they should be sufficient. Attached and the starter started spinning.

I Put the starter back in, Same problem.

So now I will go back and pull the starter, make sure it is bare metal touching on the starter endplate and housing.

There should be no rust, more like paint because I did clean/paint the starter housing and the flywheel housing so this may be part of the issue.

Maybe I can get down to the shop tomorrow night to work on this.
 
I agree, check the switch. Is the rod pushing in all the way to engage the switch contacts? I wouldn't worry about the paint on the starter. The 3 lock wahers and bolts should cut through the paint ok. If in doubt just touch volt meter leads to the starter switch body and another good ground on the engine or frame. You should get no volt reading. Do the same with the battery posts and cables to make sure they are clean and making good contact.
 
Since you have various components mounted on wood, is everything grounded back to the battery? On a complete car the metal body serves as a ground path but you will need a ground wire for each item. Use one of your jumper cables to go from the engine block to the positive battery terminal to ensure a good ground path.
 
40 Deluxe said:
Since you have various components mounted on wood, is everything grounded back to the battery? On a complete car the metal body serves as a ground path but you will need a ground wire for each item. Use one of your jumper cables to go from the engine block to the positive battery terminal to ensure a good ground path.
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Grounding appears to be a bigger part of this equation that I originally thought.

As suggested, I took the jumper cables and ran off the + post to a bolt on the bellhousing and you can now hear the starter wanting to energize but it still won't turn over the motor, even with the plugs out.

So I'll have to work at doing a better job of grounding and it should come to life.

Closer, thanks for the advice.
 
Put grownd from battery termanal to frame then frame to one of the starter mouning bolts grownd it directley the motor is not alwasy good enough. (also some times the bushing/bearing behind the back plate can swell from light rust and temperature change and impear the starter from turning. (try this off a 12V battery should spin realy fast iand srong Just bring it out to your modurn car. and put jumps to it positve ground though.
 
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