Im trying to get my 39 ford flathead project started for the first time. I put a newly rebult starter on it 8 years ago. (yep, Im slow, but I retired and moved to another state) but never cranked it over till now. I have a modern ford solenoid wired into it. With a 12 volt battery, The solenoid rapidly clicks while it is turning over. and it turns slow. With a 6 volt battery it won;t turn over (solenoid still clicks). I havn;t tried replacing the solenoid yet. Is there any shimming issues, or anything that would cause it to bind, with a flathead starter? Thanks in advance.
No shimming I know of, they aren't that precise. They occasionally will kick in wrong & lock up with the flywheel, have to rock the car in gear to get it to free up. I did have one lock up with the flywheel more often, one of the bolts was bent & I suspect it was pulled out of line because of that. Either they have worked good or not at all in my experiences. I would take it off and run it freewheeling, see how it sounds, I suspect it is weak. Brushes & bushings can be changed & the grooves between the communtator sections cleaned. There is a support bracket on the late motors bolts to the pan, I guess it's a good idea to do that add-on for extra support. A fresh motor will have more drag. Was it stored with a bunch of oil in the cyls, causing too much compression? Maybe try spinning it with plugs out.
Your local parts store should have a starter checker that will measure current usage and all. That will tell you if the starter is bad. I may also be full of dust/carbon/etc. Agood celaning and new brushes should be considered. Use an electrical parts cvleaner to preserve the varnish on the windings.
Barry, and friends Thanks for replying. First a little history. I got the engine (59AB) from a friend (back in 2000) that was keeping it for a project he had. It was stored in a shed with a tarp over it. It was supposed to have 30,000 miles on it. I pulled the intake off it and pulled out about 10lbs of acorns stored inside. I pulled the pan off and checked the rods and mains with plastigauge and they were good so I ****oned it back up, and installed in in my truck. Yes I stored it with oil in the cylinders. When I dragged the project out again, last week, I took the plugs out, shot a bit of PB blaster in the cylinders and spun it with the plugs out before I tried it with the plugs in. At first I thought I had a dead coil. (no spark) but I was using the distributor as is. I took it off and cleaned it up and put in fresh points and vola The thing sparks. I bought the engine without a starter so I got one on ebay but it turned out to be the wrong one. It was a special starter for an early ford automatic. ( I still have the automatic armature if anyone needs one) I took the starter to Yesteryear Ford and David replced the armature and rebuilt the starter to standard configeration so it should be good. So now Im working on figuring out whats wrong with the starter. Now that I know what Barry said, I am going to replace the solenoid today and see what difference that makes. If that doesn;t work, I will take it off and have NAPA check it Thanks for your imput. Gary
It could be the wrong starter mounting plate if it came wth the e-bay starter. Ford didnt come out with the auto ****** until 1951. I doubt that it has the wrong flywheel on it as the later flywheels won't work on the 59A. See the following post for clarification: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=183227&highlight=starter Jim
IT FIRES! I change in the solenoid took care of the clicking, and a different battery took care of the cranking over. I poured some gas in the carb and hooked up a ballast resistor to step down the voltage to 6 volts at the coil and it fired up. Its backfiring through the carb so its gotta be retarded spark. (im just guessing at the timing for now) Which way do you move the screw and plate on the side of the distributor to advance the spark? I will hook up a lawn mower gas tank to the fuel pump and see if I can actually get it to run tomorrow. Unfortunately, Im working in a car port and its blowing rain and cold out there right now, commin in side ways. Thanks for your help Gary
I hadn't thought of that, but you may very well be right, I hope running it will free them up. They were all free when I put the intake back on 10 years agoo LOL Its on tomorrows list
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