Thought for sure someone would have seen this already, but couldn't find a similar story in the archives.

Ran an errand, car wouldn't start. Diagnosed as starter... got a push to get going and drove home. So it will run.

Got a new starter. Put it on. Just didn't have the grunt to turn the engine over. Pulled the plugs to reduce compression... then would turn the crank, but not very fast. Took it to Napa and it tested fine. Took the battery in for a load test... it was fine. Inspected wire from battery to starter, seems fine. Can turn the crank by hand

When I crank for a while, I get a very unpleasant electrical smell. I have yet to find a hot wire or smoke. The MPH guage spikes to 0 and the Tach goes to 3500 or so when I crank it. (And I KNOW there is no way its turning at 3500 amps.)

Ground seems fine... but I am suspect... isn't much to inspect there, but I dunno... How do I test that? What else am I missing?

 

can it be jumpstarted?

 

I didn't think they could be push started so you learn something every day.

It surely has to be a bad connection somewhere. If you changed the starter you've eliminated that and presumably you cleaned all the connections.

Have you removed and cleaned the earth strap to the engine ? mine is just at the back of the cam cover to the bulkhead.

When a car is good to start it starts firing almost immediately which helps to spin the engine over quicker. When there is a fault like no spark or no fuel the rngine will crank over slower than usual.

Having said that you say there is a electrical burning smell . Something is getting over-loaded somewhere which can potentially cause a fire . I'd start with all the earths .

Take a jump lead connect it to the engine block and to the chassis see if that improves things

 

No. It has power from the battery... possibly just not enough.

I agree with peanut that it is probably a ground... but the smell has me worried... would a ground fault do that?

 

yes it would most certainly if a live feed is taken to ground through something which is drawing more Amps than the cable is designed to carry the weakest part will get hot and burn . The resistance in the cable caused by the poor earth causes the heat.

The easiest way to eliminate a poor chassis to engine earth is to bypass it with a jump cable connected to the car body and the engine. If the car now cranks you have an earthing problem

 

Not exactly the predicted results. I got 10 gauge wire and some terminal clips to make a jumper. Jumped from the ground post on the back of the solenoid to the frame. Tried to start it, welded the terminal clip to the frame and melted the 10 ga wire right off it. gotta be a wiring problem. not sure where to start.

 

That shouldn't be a ground post on the back of the solenoid. One post is for battery power the other is the lug to send power to the starter motor, note the small braided copper wire that goes to the motor thru the rubber grommet. I think you created a dead short by what you did. I am going thru the exact same thing right now. My rebuilt last 3 months, pulled it and found the short braided wire to the motor just broke in half, no burns at all. Got another rebuilt and now it turns over slow and sounds like it jams up. Got the battery on a charger for the hell of it. All wiring is ok, think it is another crap starter. I am beginning to have second thoughts on these rebuilt POS.

 

The ignition switch supplies 12VDC to the the starter solenoid. If you hear a click then the ignition switch is supplying the 12 volts to the starter solenoid via a red and black wire which is the smaller of the three wires connected to the starter solenoid.
The starter case is grounded via the starter bell housing bolts and the bell housing grounded via a ground black cable connected to a stud at the top of the bell housing, this ground wire is connected to the negative side of the battery. 12VDC is supplied to the starter via the largest cable which is connected to the plus battery terminal. The third wire on the starter (medium size) is connected to the alternator output. I would make sure the the ground cable on top of the bell housing is in good condition it may need to be cleaned. There are 2 ground studs on the top of the bell housing which are hard to see and reach, the heater hose and control valve are in the way it may be easier to disconnect the short heater hose at the engine block and move the heater control valve just enough to see the ground studs ( be carefull there is a vacum control line connected to the heater control valve). Place some rags over the TDC inspection opening in bell housing to keep any fluid or parts falling into the clutch/fly wheel (That would not be good).
Hope this helps

 

Thanks for that blopper. I had noticed that second post, and it the braided wire was pretty mashed up and uninsulated, and it looked like it attached right to the case, so I figured it was case-grounded to the frame (like the alternator on my spitfire) so I assumed it was ground. It's quite possible that the wire is mashed into something and there is a ground happening there.

Will check that. Thanks!

 

ok, took an ohmmeter out and I get 0 resistance between that post and the case of the alternator/frame of the car. I think that tells me that something inside the solenoid is shorted out, eh?

 

Is that zero resistance or no (infinite) resistance? There is a diference. No res. would be an open motor. 0 res. would be a short to ground. Normal should be a small reading close to zero. Also check what Yarf wrote. You may just be better off pulling the starter out and bench test it

 

I didn't say anything about putting a jump cable between the solenoid and earth I said between the chassis and the engine
On a multimeter 0 is a dead short ie zero resistance. 1 is open circuit ie zero continuity (infinite resistance)

Be careful

 

Yeah, I know Blopper... a D'oh moment.

Peanut... 0 resistance. Technically, the ohmeter reads 1. to .000. so there was no resistance... there was a connection between the unwired stud that goes to through the rubber grommet to into the starter and the case. In fact, I took the braided wire off and disconnected it to make sure it wasn't that wire (the one that goes through the grommet) and even with that loose, there was .000 resistance.

 

sorry you've lost me

have a little sniff around the ignition switch to make sure that isn't faulty . You need to use your nose and find where that smell is coming from . it should lead you to the fault

 

The third post on the starter... 1st large one takes power from battery, 2nd small one takes starter signal, 3rd one connects into the starter motor though the braided wire through the grommet, inside.

When I connect an ohm meter from that post to the case of the starter, it is connected... no resistance... 100% connection. There appears to be a short inside the solenoid to the case.