Starter won't turn

Rod Cole

Well-Known Member
Messages
79
Reaction score
20
Location
Maine
Thought today would be a good day for my first ride this year. This is a '74 3.0 CS I started it a couple times this winter & kept the battery charged. Today I turned the key, listened for the fuel pump to get pressure up, and turned the rest of the way to crank position. No crank at all, don't believe I heard the solenoid click & very strangely the tach went up to about 2000 which really worries me. Just kinda wonder where to start (pun) looking~
 

sfdon

Well-Known Member
Site Donor $
Site Donor $$
Messages
8,451
Reaction score
4,843
Location
sfbay area
Check connections at solenoid.
Had any varmints visiting?
 

Rod Cole

Well-Known Member
Messages
79
Reaction score
20
Location
Maine
I haven't had a chance to look deeper into the issue, too much going on most of the time & I've been retired for almost 20 years. With that said, I did hook up a second, known good battery with jumpers but that won't prove a good ground. I'll be checking the solenoid & the only varmints are mice & chipmunks with the occasional red squirrel
 

Rod Cole

Well-Known Member
Messages
79
Reaction score
20
Location
Maine
I guess I have this sorted and I kind of feel the fool! It's just a bad battery. This car has the triple Weber set-up, so, to pull the starter I had to remove the rear carb. After looking over all the wiring and checking it for a short I hot wired the starter to my spare good battery & it works fine. So, this morning I put it all back together again, and using my spare battery, fired it right up!! A question here is; why, having used a good battery with jumper cables the car did not even click. I put a volt meter on it & when I turned the key it dropped to 5 volt. Then after doing all that work for nothing, I take out the bad battery, install the one I used with the cables and it cranks. Can a bad battery suck all the volts out of a jumper battery? Also, what's any good to buy today, any recommendations ???
 

Ohmess

I wanna DRIVE!
Site Donor $
Messages
4,937
Reaction score
2,766
Location
Aiken, SC
Well, further to my earlier comment, you may have improved the battery ground in the process of swapping the battery.

I have a Duracell red top in my car. And Bosch makes a battery that looks much more correct in our cars that many folks here have.
 

Rod Cole

Well-Known Member
Messages
79
Reaction score
20
Location
Maine
Well, further to my earlier comment, you may have improved the battery ground in the process of swapping the battery.

I have a Duracell red top in my car. And Bosch makes a battery that looks much more correct in our cars that many folks here have.
This (improved ground) could be very true, in hind sight, the way I hooked up the jumpers if the ground was at fault the second battery made no difference!! My new issue came up from removing one of the side-drafts. While working on removing the carb I felt very upset at the overall dirty condition of the carbs, manifold, and for that matter the whole under hood area. It doesn't look like a small job!!!!!
 
Top