chevy "hot starter" fix?

Went to Cruise Night at the Mt Shasta car show friday night. Had a good time cruising with other hotrodders. Stopped to talk with some friend and went to start up and nothing, not even a click. Waited a few minutes, she clicked and then started. Got home and shut it off, and tried to start right away and nothing. Waited about 10 minutes, started fine. Block hugger headers run right next to the starter. Any ideas?

 

Could be a couple of issues. Use a heat shield to cover your starter/solenoid or too small of wire gauge, from your ignition/key (Start Feature) to your solenoid on the starter.....

Jump the power lead from the starter to the solenoid when hot, if it starts, then it is your "start" wire from your keyed ignition....Too small of gauge....

 

The heat is swelling the soleniod so it can't move. Tin shield will work.

 

Ron Francis offers a hot starter kit. It is mainly used for Chevy's that have the starter solonoid right on top of the starter. Heat shields usually work also. notice I say usually. That is the reason I don't run headers on my engines. They exit right near the starter, and make things real hot. Good luck .

 

Test the "Start" lead to the solenoid first... It is very simple, costs no money ........ Just my 2 cents, which isn't worth much... Ha Ha

 

Thanks guys. You've suggested kind of what I have been suspecting. I've got three cars with this set-up, all with the same recurring problem. I've seen some heat shield plates and Napa has a heat shield blanket. Anybody tried one of them?

 

I'm in the process of trying to cure the same problem on my '63 C10. I've tried the blanket and aluminum heat shield together. I even attached a piece of asbestos over the heat shield, but the problem remains. I hadn't considered the ignition to solenoid wire size - that will be my next "fix".

 

Did you clean the battery cable ends and terminals? We hear so much about the hot starter syndrome that we are tempted to ***ume it's that problem right away. It still could be, but I once laid on my back in freezing weather changing the starter motor only to have the new one click too. I cleaned the terminals and everything was fine. I bought an unnecessary starter motor. I'd try the cheap easy stuff before I spend my money on something that has not been proven yet.

 

I have used heat shields, and starter blankets (such as Thermotech and others). They help. I no longer have the part number, but I used to have a GM part number for a different solenoid spring that was designed to help with this problem (basically, it was a lighter spring). If anyone has an old Chevy Power manual, it was in there.

Edit: GM part #1958679, but it is unfortunately discontinued

I used the spring and a Ford-style solenoid on a Nova once with very tight header cleanerance (this was 20 years ago), and never had another problem with it. I use header coatings on everything now,and ministarters on a lot of the cars I build, so I haven't had the problem anytime recently.

If the headers are that close, I'd either go to a ministarter or get another set of headers.

 

I had this problem with mine, installed a heat shield, a hot shot, still did not help,................what did help was my wife said check your battery, turned out I had a dead cell , I had been dealing with this problem for a long time, that fixed it.........

 

Another QUIK-FIX is to carry a small water squirter bottle with you, when this re-occurs, just squirt away, wait a few moments & it should start. Notice I said "SHOULD".----------Don

 

Wrap your headers with thermo-wrap.

 

I used the Ford fender mounted solenoid on my '40 ford pick-up and never had a problem. Had ramhorn manifolds on the engine and wrapped the header pipe with thermal wrap.

 

I had a 66 Chevelle, 350 with headers, it didn't like to start when it got hot either. I wired a starter ****on that byp***ed the ignition switch (positive wire to ****on to starter solenoid) so when it wouldn't start I would turn the key on and use the starter ****on to start it. Never had a problem starting it after that.

 

Had a similar issue with mine, found lose wires on the neutral safety switch that was never tightened for some reason by my buddy who did the interior, taht we did a barter deal on for painting his roadster....Rich

 

I have not had a hot start problem with any of my Chevies since I started using the ford solenoids 25 years ago.

 

I have one that does it even in the middle of winter, that I only use to plow my driveway. The other one I have has no problems at all, but it does have a homemade aluminum shield over the selinoid. I'm quite sure that my problem child has timing issues, as in too much initial advance. I've noticed that if I stand on the throttle after I pump it a couple times it will turn over slowly and fire right up. I'll add that I'm running the stock manafolds on both of them. I have considered the heat wrap but don't want the winter salt wrapped around things slowly eating them away.

 

Summit sells a remote starter solenoid kit - anybody ever try that?

 

I had the same problem...I purchased Header wrap and ran it down the tube to under the floor, and never had another problem. Decreased the noise a little, and helped the interior temp some.

I had a more intermittant hot start problem with a Damn Accel Distributor. It would heat soak when you shut the engine off, and would not create a spark. I sent it back (It had been back previously for a ground problem) and they asked if I would like a New Mallory back. No problems with the Mallory!

 

I had this issue with my Jeep for quite a while. Kept swapping starters thinking that was the problem. Ended up replacing the who knows how old (I got it used) red top optima with a new one, and havent had a problem since. Might want to get your battery tested.

 

If you do the Ford solenoid trick, make sure you use at least 12-10 guage wire from the stock GM battery cable terminal to the starter switch terminal. I did the remote solenoid trick on my ride and kept burning up the switching wire till I went REAL big guage. 14 guage just wont handle the extra amperage for very long.

 

SUCCESS !!

I finally cured my ongoing problem with not being able to start the hot engine (327) in my '63 C-10. It turned out to be lousy grounds on the battery-to-ground connection, as well as the frame-to-engine block strap connection. The previous owner never s****ed the paint away and the connections were poor. Must have been just enough amperage to turn over a cold engine, but not enough for a hot one. ****er starts every time now!

 

I struggled with GM starters for years. Tried the Ford solenoid and sometimes it helped.

Finally went to a mini starter and haven't had a problem since. its not old school but I do get started most of the time.

 

i had a 74 chevy pickup with block huggers and it would do this, it had a heat shield, and a ford relay as well. on very hot days it would crank a bit slower but it would always crank atleast.

 

I guess thaty somebody is me. I worked for the Border Patrol in the mid '70's in El Centro, Ca. That's about 12 feet from the gates of HELL in the summer. We had 3/4 and 1 ton 454 Suburbans and when the weather got hot they would NOT start after shut down unless the sat for hours. We called the GM training center in Burbank and their fix was to use aFord starter relay, remove and reroute all the battery wiring that was on the Gm starter to the Ford relay including the start wire, and run a starter cable to the Gm soleniod and make a jumper from the heavy duty pole to the start pole on the solenoid. We thought it was odd that Genuine GM guys would recommend a Ford solution but followed their advice. It worked very well and we never had a hard start/no start/ Chevy starter grunt again. That was 35+ years ago and I still do that to every Gm car I have owned since, stock or modified, and I too have never had a hard start condition in any weather or temp. i have done dozens of friends cars that have used wraps, high torque starters and every other method and by rewiring and using a stock GM starter everything worked well. If you will notice Fords, Lincolns, and Mercurys of the early '70's with 429's and 460's used a GM starter and wired it up the same way from the factory, I like to use the the stamped jumper that was stock on the ford unit because it fits and looks professional. GM's reasoning was (remember it was their reasoning and not mine) that eddy current would cause a field around the solenoid plunger and cause it to swell and draw heavy current when hot. By removing all electrical connections to the solenoid except when cranking, the plunger would not swell enough to drag or bind and cause the slow/no crank. Since it has worked so many times for me I will continue to use their fix. If any of you don't agree with me, complain to GM Burbank, I'm just a 48 year of service mechanic that followed their instructions and found out they were right. Incidently, I get no end of double takes when I open the hood of my '68 El Camino (with headers) and people see that Ford starter relay on the p***enger fender well.

 

I started using the Ford solenoids on my stock cars, had an issue on my '65 Belair and slapped one on that, end of hot-start problems!

Bob

 

The Ford solenoid and the jumper will work every time.

 

Read through about the first 10-12 replies, all good ones...all might work 50/50...but, if you switch to a mini starter, I'll put the odds of being problem free at 99.99%...

 

I use a Delco Remey hi-torque mini starter. Forget the header wrap unless you want to be regularly buying new headers, the wrap traps moisture and results in the headers rusting out.

 

Mini starter 110.00 plus shipping
Ford solenoid plus cable 25 tops