Thread: For Don Shilady

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36 Sedan and NTFDAY,

Thanks for your suggestions. I have put tiny star washers on both sides of the connections on the starter switch and that was the first thing I checked. The safety switch on the shifter looked OK as well so I figured the starter or the solenoid suffered from the heat near the right header down pipe. Today my racer guru Bruce Orlandi cut small nicks into the wire between the ignition switch and the starter at various places and found that a shrink wrap patch in the shifter safety switch wire simply stopped conducting at one point due to a loose connection or corrosion or whatever. The whole wire was replaced and the larger starter was replaced with a smaller Chinese ministarter. The ministarter was covered with adhesive reflecting fiberglass and the first 17" of the down pipe was wrapped with fiberglass insulation tape to protect the starter. So far the new set up starts easily but it will take a few test runs to burn in the fiberglass tape. If the tape leads to rust damage of the down pipe it will only be necessary to replace that first 17" of the right side exhaust system. NTFDAY I note you have a 1976 Corvette and wonder if you have a heat shield on the starter since my SBC is from a '76 Corvette.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder