Truck wont crank, suggestions?

L

lvin4jc

New member
Ok, talking about a '51 F-1 here. I'm just a carb away from being on the street with this truck and that carb is in the mail. So to get ready I thought i'd try to get it to crank. I charged up the battery but the prev. owner really hacked up the wiring harness all over the place. So I thought i'd eliminte as much as possible and start from there. It is a reverse polarity system with a positive ground.

So I hooked up the positive (ground) cable and hooked up the starter cable directly from the starter to the negative (hot) terminal, nothing happened. Shouldn't it have cranked?

When I stick a battery tester on the terminals it reads good, I can hook up either cable to the battery and it still reads as good, but when I hook up both cables it reads bad, suggestions?
 
Nobody knows? Am I forgetting something that's keeping it from cranking? I took off the ground cable and polished it all up, the positive cable is new. But the starter is covered in grease, could it not be getting a good ground from the block?
 
The previous owner hacked up the wiring harness all over the place, Hmm, all i can say is that you are now the owner and you feel as though you are a carb away from being out on the street. It sounds as if you are a carb and a quality wiring harness job away from the street. Unless you own a towing company you will come out way ahead redoing the wiring, marking it and knowing whats going on,to say nothing about the chance of a fire starting.
 
THe starter should spin with a direct connection from battery. I'd pull the starter and bench test it, and while I'm under the hood, I'd be sure the engine turns freely by putting a socket on the crank bolt.
 
If your battery tester just measures voltage, and when you hook up the cables that are wired directly to ground, and the starter post (a very dangerous thing to do) there should be a very big spark that can melt thye battery post, or treminal --in the process creating a big spark, which has the possibility of causing the hydrogen gas generated by normal battery operation to explode spraying acid to many things nearby.

It could very well be that your battery is bad, or dead if the voltage goes away with load. ---it could also have an internal connection problem,

When testing for problems with a volt meter you have to remember that a circuit that has no load can show voltage and make you think there is a connection, then when there is a load on the circuit the voltage will go away due to resistance in a connection. A connection that gets hot is a sure sign of resistance in that connection.

I think you need to start with having the battery load tested.
 
As suggested, see if the engine itself will spin freely. If you're never had this engine spinning it could be froze just from sitting. Also, the starter could be jammed in the flywheel gears and you have to pull the starter to loosen it. Be careful when pulling the starter, the two bolts holding it to the flywheel housing are the only thing holding it together. If you yank on the body of the starter it will come apart and they can be fun to put back together. When you have the starter out thread a ¼" nut on each bolt to hold it together while it's out of the truck.

In your first post you said you connected the cables to the battery, did you make sure the ground cable from the engine was attached and both ends clean? These 6 volt systems are very touchy about good grounds. If there is no ground between the starter and battery. Also, the stud and cable on the starter has to be clean, it doesn't take much dirt or corrosion to break the connection.

One more thing, why doesn't everyone list their location? When problems like this arise it would come in handy to know your general location. You don't need to give us directions to your house but if we knew your general location some one might be close enough to take a run over and see if we could help. I know I would. You just have to go into the "User CP" and enter it into box in "Edit Your Details" option.
 
do you have a ground from the block to the frame??...and is your new battery cable a 6V cable, as 6V needs a heavier cable than 12V....heavier cables make for better starting, etc....Mike
 
Get a socket on the front of the engine and make sure it turns over freely first, then retry with the starter. No go, pull starter and bench test it. Not uncommon for brushes to stick in the starter and prevent cranking.
 
Make sure you can turn the motor over my hand one whole revolution to make sure you don't have something bent first then check the starter. I've seen several guys start a motor that they turned by hand but not all the way around only to find out ther had a stuck valve.
 
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