The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay Starter Issues

Not really sure whats going on. Yesterday the starter worked fine for my first fire on my new 1949 chevy 3100 swb. All original besides being coverted to 12 volts ( no telling how long its been off the road but has some new parts on it). Then all the sudden it just stop doing anything but i could hear some clicking when pushing the button from under the hood. Today i took it off and bench tested it and it ran fine... put it back in the truck and hit the pedal and it tried to turn flywheel and then just stopped doing anything again but the clicking. Any ideas? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Really looking forward to getting this old truck fired up.

Hy pking75, welcome, remove clean and reattach both the hot and ground cables from the battery to the starter and wherever the ground cable attaches. You can also take your fully charged battery into a shop to have it load tested, hope that helps.

Ordered me a new starter switch today. I know the positive cable is good and negative at battery... I'll check it on the engine.

Have you checked your battery voltage? The clicking you described sounds like the solenoid is trying to engage but lacks the voltage to do so. Just like 3B suggests, poor connections due to corrosion as well as loose connections can cause this to happen as well as low voltage. Hope you get it handled without too much pain!

There is no solenoid on a stomp starter. None. You might have some bad cables. They will corrode up under the insulation. You might have a bad switch on the starter. And the brushes might be hung up or worn. You might, just might have bushings worn so bad the armature can touch the case magnets. And of course the battery might die under a load. All can be fixed and all can be tested. The "click" you hear can be a bad connection, a stuck armature or a bad bendix. However, the stuck armature will cause some damage. And it can be expensive to fix. Pull the starter. Two bolts and maybe, two cables, wire. get it on the bench and look at it. Some have been filled with water from just sitting around. If it will turn and if it will motor on the bench, like you have posted, then look for wear on the switch and then the cables and battery.

This has been fixed battery was weak because generator is shot. Thanks fellas

Thanks for the update with the solution. Best wishes for you and your truck!