I've been having lots of fun driving my 1950 3600 around but it is having problems. A few weeks ago, I drove it to a truck show about 150 miles away. It ran fine and started every time I needed it to except for on the return trip. I had probably put on 400 miles or so by then and I stopped to get something to eat and when I tried to start to continue the trip home, it would not catch. Eventually I killed the battery but fortunately, the parking lot was slightly inclined and I was able to get it fired up (immediately I might add) when I started it rolling down the grade and popped the clutch. Got home and found that the fan belt was a bit loose after I had bought a new positive battery cable for it. Yesterday I tried to go to another truck show about 100+ miles away. I was about 40 minutes from the show and had to stop rid myself of the used coffee and when I tried to get it started again, it would not go and again I killed the battery. I tried the pop the clutch thing again but I didn't have much of a hill and ran out of that quickly. I continued on in my friends truck and then we returned in the early afternoon to mess with mine. We jumped it using his 12V truck (mine is 6v) and it started rather quickly. We drove a short distance and then decided to pull over for lunch but this time I found a nice long steep hill park on. After lunch it would not start again with the starter so I started it rolling down the hill and popped the clutch. Started right up and I drove for about an hour and a half to get home.
This morning I tried to start it and it would only crank over a few times but not start before the battery gave up. Battery is about month or less old. So now I have the charger on it and tightened the fan belt even more. I know the generator works as the headlights get brighter when the engine revs. I have also noticed that charger shows a current draw of about xxamps. It never seems to go lower than even after 5+ hours of charging.
So I guess I have two problems to fix.
1. Why will it not start easily with the starter but quickly with the pop the clutch method?
2. Is my battery really charging? With the ignition in the off position, I took a meter and tried all the exposed lugs I could find to see if something was shorting out with no luck. Only place I found any voltage was at the fuse block for the stop light and I think that is supposed to be hot even when the key is off.
Thanks for any ideas or suggestions!
