cooked starter

[grizwald]

i still run vac. advance and have the timing set at 11 base and 34 total. we've tried backing it down a bit and it made no difference.

we took the starter apart this weekend and the armature (not sure on that spelling) was warn pretty smooth. the grooves in it were almost gone. we grooved them again with a small file and went through it to see if it will make a difference.

 

[malibumike]

i had the same problem i just hooked up a push button to start my car

 

[gmachinz]

The problem with all these starters is heat-soak. And that builds resistance which creates massive voltage drop while the cranking amps skyrocket to try and start it. This is why you should also use fusible links in the starting circuit to prevent creating a fire. If you are running a high compression motor, the starter has to work that much harder to start it. In my experience, do heat shields work? No. Does header wrap work? Yes, but it induces rust which craps out an otherwise nice set of headers. To solve this problem, spend the money and go with a quality gear reduction style mini-starter. It takes much less power to turn it over and thus is more resistant to heat-soak. Take it one more step and bridge the terminals on your mini-starter and run your starting circuit through a Ford style starter solenoid. Do this and your starter worries will be over BUT-be wary of cheap over-seas made mini starters like ProForm and the like. On my 66 Chevelle, I re-clocked the starter to clear the massive 2&1/4" Stahl headers and the solenoid only clears one runner by almost an 1/8 of an inch. The car is an 11:1 406 with a .688 mechanical roller cam and has no problems starting.

 

[grizwald]

i'm going racing this weekend, so i have no time to fix this issue. but, we'll see how i make out. i hope i can get through the next couple months the way it is....but then i'm buying a mini starter.

 

[boyzbad]

I have been having an issue with my starter as well. I feel it is due to heat soak. I have a Hitachi style on the car. After a few passes in this heat I will just get a click (one) per button press. Sometimes it will start after a few pushes while last night it took 30 minutes of it setting then it was fine (loaded up after that). I have checked all the wires for votlage as well as over riding the cars wiring with a remote switch with the same results. It never has a problem turning over when its hot, the soleniod is just acting up. So will this whole remote soleniod deal solve it or is it worth the trouble wraping the 3 header tubes that are close to the starter. Someone please explain how the remote soleniod will help since it is just adding another one in the system. None of my tubes are close to the soleniod. I was also told it is due to the radiant heat the comes from the headers during a pass (1300* egt). Feel free to chime in I have a race on Saturday and don't know what to do. Also should I slap a new solenoid on the starter anyway.

 

[80montecarlo]

I bought one of those starter wraps that has the velcro and it is silver, works like a hot damn. My master electrician also told me if you are running a battery in the trunk to make sure that the ground wire goes to the block. The reason being is there is to much resistance in our chassis' and that is what was causing me to go through starters every year.

 

[grizwald]

well, i haven't fixed this issue yet. the last time i went racing, i broke the rearend and ended up spending all my pennies on a new one...so the starter issue had to go on the back burner. i'm going for a couple test & tune days this weekend, which means i can take time between rounds to cool it off...but i need this solved within the next month. there's an event i want to go to and i can't be messin' around when they call my class to the staging lanes!!

 

[80montecarlo]

http://www.designengineering.com/products.asp?m=sp&pid=32

 

[grizwald]

i've got heat wrap on my starter now...just not the fancy velcro one. didn't change a thing. i'm starting to think it's a wiring issue of some sort. i'll dig deeper into it next week. as long as it starts when i feel like making a pass this weekend, i'm good.

 

[Doober]

Have you tried wiring up a relay with all-new wiring for the high-current side? That solved my heat-related issues. The starter/solenoid would draw more current when it was hard to start, and the original starter switch/wiring couldn't handle the current draw. I wired up a relay with a 30A fuse, and used the original starter wire as a trigger, voila! Issue was solved.