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Slow cranking starter blues

70jimmy

70jimmy

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O.K. History: Just put in a 350 SBC bored .060 over, heads redone, new valve springs, lifters, cam etc. It is carbed and has HEI. Drove jimmy in garage swapped motors and some parts put back together and slow cranking starter. I have put 3 starters on and still same problem. I havent even had it running yet.

Ran some tests with voltmeter: Negative lead on voltmeter to negative battery post and positive on meter to S terminal on solenoid. A little over 9 volts when cranking.

Negative on meter to engine (ground) and positive on meter to solenoid strap on starter motor. 12 volts when cranking.

Negative on meter to negative battery post and positive meter lead to starter body. less than one volt when cranking.

battery is around 13 volts before and after tests.

Positive battery cable at starter is battery voltage 13 or so

battery wire at dizzy cap is 12 volts

wires replaced that come out of fuse block and go to dizzy and starter

fuses replaced in fusible links and checked with voltmeter OK

Distributor gone thru and all working properly many things replaced.

Any ideas???? Thanks

I have checked the wiring diagrams and all seems proper.

Does anybody have any leads from the negative cable that go anywhere??

I do have grounds from body to frame, frame to motor.
 
take your battery to have it tested. I had a bad battery that would show 12volts, but wouldn't crank the motor. I had it tested and it failed.
 
Take a close look at the cables coming from the battery to the starter. They could be corroded under the insulation and appear OK from the outside. I've had this occur on my truck before.

Dan..
 
Dang, Duane, you still can't get the fuse lit on the Cherry Bomb???

Try bypassing ALL the truck wiring.
Run jumper cables from battery to starter, both pos and neg
Use a remote starter button set up

If it spins properly with the wiring bypassed:

Unhook the ground jumper cable and try to start.
If it spins slowly, then you have a bad ground.

If it spins properly, then re-attach ground cable and unhook hot cable.
If it now spins slowly, then you have a bad hot connection, or bad cable.

I have run into slow rollers on a fresh rebuild, but that was high comp motors. I once had to run 24V to a HOT 383 to get it turn fast enough to fire up.

I hope it is something as simple as a battery.
 
yeah, depending on your compression, you may want to hook a battery charger on HI setting and see how that helps...
 
opfor2: Brand new cables and wire to starter.

3 on the tree: Sounds like good stuff to try. Just hoping it isn't an issue with the new motor!!!

Confedneck: Yep high torque starter is in the works. I have heard of people putting a starter for a newer chevy on that supposedly has more torque????? I know wummit and jegs have hi torques. Now just to find more money!!

resurrected_jimmy and no regrets: Valve train well lubed and proper cam lube used on install. Engine pre lubed a couple times also.

Confedneck: Yep charged the battery for several hours and no difference.

After dinner I am gonna go check the amps when cranking and if that is low I might swap another battery out of my (gulp) Exploder and see if that helps.

Thanks for all the replies. I sure hope I don't have to jerk this motor out and re do it again!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
listen, easiest way to do this, hook up that battery charger on hi, and try and start it, with it charging, see if that helps... but your starter might just not have the ass it needs...

our local parts stores sell high torque starters, usually a machine shop will too...
 
Update: Checked cranking amps and it is just over 300 and doesn't vary.

I let the battery charger charge for a while and then tried it with charger hooked up and on 6 amp setting (highest) No change

I hooked jumper cables from the explorer to the jimmy battery and no change.:mad:

Off to try more stuff.
 
I agree with making sure the heavy cable between the battery and starter is in good shape. And heavy enough - the regular smallblock starter draws quite a bit of juice. Which brings be to the second point: Regular (i.e. non-gear reduction) starters suck. They sucked in 1955 and they still suck. They suffer from heat soak as well as every other ailment imaginable. I found out that the starters used on late model (i.e. 97 up) 4.3 V6's are gear reduction and can easily turn over a smallblock (it's only 33% more of an engine, after all). S10 warehouse has em cheap - I paid $30 for mine :deal:. I put it on my daily-driven K5 in June after my "regular" starter left me stranded a couple of times. I haven't had a bit of trouble since. I've seen these starters go 200k miles, so a low mileage used onbe should last a good long time :thumb:
 
Good rule of thumb: Minimum 1 cranking amp per cubic inch. If your battery has a bad cell, it could be draining the Ford battery. I would try a known good battery, instead of the one in the Bomb.
 
70jimmy said:
Thanks Max good info, and within the budget!!!!!:wink1:
Click to expand...

Oh, I forgot to mention that the bolts holding your current starter on will be too long for the V6 starter. Just go down to your local friendly hardware store with the new starter in hand and score yourself some proper length bolts :D.
 
MaxPF said:
Oh, I forgot to mention that the bolts holding your current starter on will be too long for the V6 starter. Just go down to your local friendly hardware store with the new starter in hand and score yourself some proper length bolts :D.
Click to expand...

Is it wired the same?
 
Something nobody has brought up yet........

You stated that you haven't even run this particular motor yet. Is there a possibilty that you have the sucker timed WAY too advanced? That can cause hard starts.

Just a thought, brother.
 
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