Hi guys, Newbie flathead guy here. 53 customline starts right away when cold, but after a 10 min drive, will not restart for hours (3-6 hours, even overnight) changed the condensor, and the coil, Battery is brand new. Car turns over fine, but will not start, and the positive ground battery terminal get crazy hot. Could it be a worn out starter? Like I said, you can smell fuel, and the car turns over just fine. I'm thinking vapour lock, but the previous owner said it never happened to him. Running the car for 10min in 65 degree weather should not cause this? I'm wondering if the starter is on the way out and drawing too much (hot terminal) and the ignition system doesnt have enough juice? Who knows. I've seen a few threads (searched) and coil, and condensor seem to be the culprit soemtimes.
New battery...........did you have this issue before the "brand new" battery? The 6 volt guys will have to chime in here, that question just poped into my head.......I've never owned/understood positive ground cars.
Coming from the Model A world here...when Barb would not start I found it to be one of three things: 1-the ground cable was shot or would not get enough ground for the smoke to get back to the battery and complete the circuit/ 2-the points had too much of a gap. How that happened I have no idea but they would open up and she would be a pain to start 3-the fuel bowl would take a few minutes to fill up and then she would start on the 3-4 crank. 4-I would have a heater manifold cook condensors and the engine would have to cool down for about 15 minutes or so before she would start up again. That si my 2 cents worth. Mike
About the battery cables.....lots of guys think that they can use modern 4 gauge battery cables on these older cars still using 6 volt systems. 6 volt systems require much heavier 1 gauge battery cables. O'Reilly has some on line or there is a guy on Ebay that makes custom length cables in red or black with 1 gauge copper wire. If your cables are getting hot that is a sure sign that they are too lightweight for a 6 volt system so change them to 1 gauge wire.
Hard starting a 6V car when hot can be a number of things. Undersized cables as was mentioned above. Poor electrical connections - check all connections related to starting to see if they are clean and tight (battery, starter, solenoid). Make sure the grounds are contacting bare metal. Worn out starter - if the starter has a lot of miles it may need a rebuild. They get cranky when hot it it really shows when they get old.
Not sure on the 53 but the older fords had a resister in line to drop voltage to the coil after warm up to save the points. I have a 46 mercury with 44.000 miles. The reason has such low mileage is no one could make it run more than 15 mi. Would run great then after 15 min die and not restart. They had it to several mechanics as well as ford dealer Finally they gave up and parked it. Had have several coils and the usual suspects. Bought it, and got it fired up and ran great for 15 min. Checked voltage to coil and longer the car ran lower the voltage got until lost voltage to coil and died. Found a resister under the dash that was bad. Replaced it and issue cured. I'm willing to bet there is a resister someplace in line. when the car dies check voltage at the coil. Should be 3 volts after the car has ran a while bet your voltage is less than a volt when the car dies. If the is a resister in line and someone put on a resister built in coil would do the same thing. Good luck. The ground cable is getting hot because its not a good clean ground or where you have it attached is not a good ground
Thanks for this. But the car doesn't actually die. Just won't restart. We have narrowed it down to a weak starter.
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