Thread: Starter Dragging. Still!

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Originally Posted by DennyW

Your absolutely correct nfday. I retract all I said. Except the farmer part...

No disrespect to farmers intended and I was just talking about where I live. I grew up on a farm/ranch myself.
NFTDAY, sorry for correcting you on the word usage, didn't mean it the way it sounded and it had nothing to do with the problem.

Denny, I know being right and not being challenged or corrected on any level is very important to you so I offer no further comments on my sources for the nomenclature.
I have offered all I can with the advice to do the routine testing so I bow out of this conversation.

Originally Posted by NTFDAY

Since he has tried at least three different starters, IMHO, that eliminates the starter as the problem. IMO that leaves four areas of concern.
1. A weak battery or a weak cell in the battery which can be verified by a load test on the battery.
2. Too small gauge positive battery cable. IMHO anything under 6 gauge is too small especially if we're talking a run of much more than two feet since as the length of the cable increases so does its impedance which will cause an undesired voltage drop.
3. An ignition switch that is close to being worn out.
4. The starter solenoid. If the contacts are burned it will cause it to stick and will also produce an undesirable voltage drop.
Personally, I would start at the starter solenoid.

1. I have had the battery tested and a load test done on the battery while in the car. All check out OK last summer.

2. I have what I say is a NORMAL sized + battery cable from the battery in the trunk, down along the frame and to the starter. This is in a 32 ford? Think I should go larger since I am running the length of the car?

3. Ignition switch- I will have to check into this. It is a tilt column/switch out of a GM Van.

4. I don't think it would be the starter solenoid since I have tried 3 starters and they made no difference......I could not be so lucky!

Has any one thought of recommending to double check the tooth count on the flexplate/flywheel? He mentioned "that noise". What did the noise sound like? Gears not meshing? Growling? Drive over run? Drive bouncing off the flexplate? Somewhere, the geometry doesn't fit.

Have you tried starting the car with a jumper wire to see if the starter hangs up then???? If it doesn't, could be a faulty or sticky switch......

Originally Posted by Dave Severson

Have you tried starting the car with a jumper wire to see if the starter hangs up then???? If it doesn't, could be a faulty or sticky switch......

Sounds good to me and simple enough to try! How do I rig up the jumper wire?

Thanks for all the suggestions.

Originally Posted by bucs012

Sounds good to me and simple enough to try! How do I rig up the jumper wire?

Thanks for all the suggestions.

As Jerry said, put the key in the on position, then jump from the large terminal to the S terminal on the starter...Use a heavy gauge wire so you don't burn your fingers.

well I'm an old farm boy(soon to be 68) Bendix starter springs replaced the need for hand cranks----

In this particular case I see several areas of concern and also ones that are common in trunk mounted batteries, fiberglass cars/boats, Chev engines/starters, systems with poor grounds, systems with electric fans, and various other owner/builder/buyer acquired problems

First the starter issue itself----on a chev motor/starter they must be mounted with gennie chev knurled starter bolts, and if it is set up for it the brace on the end should be used.

On the trunk mounted battery-----because of the length of the run, use larger cable( I use welding cable) , also run a ground wire from the battery to the block, starter, bell housing , alternator mount---if you do not do this you will continually have electrical issues

If it starts normal when you snap release the switch, you either need a new switch or adapt a new starting procedure

to bypass all this--- hook up a battery directly to the starter only and use a jumper wire to start---use the ignition switch in the on position so the engine will start, but use a separate battery /remote switch to operate the starter for diagnostics--

If you do not have chev starter bolts with a good knurl, go get some---you will only need the length as there are several various lengths

Clean all frame/body ground points

Park on a hill so you can push start it by rolling downhill

Luck to ya

Jerry

the fact that you can eliminate the problem with a key switch technique, makes me seriously question the start switch.

have you checked the ignition switch on your steering column to make sure it,s set up properly. sounds like it,s out of adjustment . craig

I have a 400c.i. GM small block with the exact same issue (grinding noise after the engine catches unless I snap the key off very quickly). I actually fixed something that wasn't broken: I installed a brand new starter (Speedway King Chrome w/offset holes) when the electrical problem turned out to be the alternator. I had the alternator rebuilt and then installed the starter I had just bought because, well, I had just bought it. The old GM starter was actually working fine and didn't need to be replaced, but I didn't know that until after the alternator was fixed.

When I first installed the new starter without shims, it made the noise, so I spent several hours shimming the damn thing until it's within a thousandth or two of the recommended .125" gap. I also bought new starter bolts and made sure that the rear brace is tight. Same noise.

Any more ideas? The old starter had too much gap (about .150-.160"), but was smooth and quiet. I could declare defeat and put the old starter back in, but I just bought the new one. Did I mention that?

By the way, I have to thank the person in a related thread who posted this link: http://macc.chevelles.net/starter.htm. It really helped with the shimming process.

I forgot to add that I also performed the jumper test, but nothing changed.

Did you double check the angle of the starter?
The starter drive teeth have to be square to the flywheel/flexplate teeth.
If they're not square to each other, the air gap spacing won't mean a thing.
Also make sure the new starter is the correct tooth pattern for the amount of teeth on the flexplate.

The bolt holes don't allow any wiggle room, so it's as square as the machining will allow. As I understand it, the angled bolt starters are for the 168 tooth flexplate, while the inline bolt starters are for the 153 tooth flexplate. I couldn't find 153 tooth angled bolt starters, nor 168 tooth inline bolt starters.