The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Starting a 216 out of the truck

Just brought home a 216 engine. It turns freely by hand. I hooked the
battery to the starter and it would not engage. Here is what I did. I
put jumper cables on the battery, hooked the negative end to the frame
of the engine and the other to the starter button. Nothing. I took the
button off and touched the hot end directly to the bump on the starter:
nothing. I want to crank the engine to make sure it runs good before I
put it in my truck. Any one know the correct way to crank an engine
over out of the truck?????
John

could the starter possibly be for a vehicle with a positive ground? Please wait for more opinions before trying to start it by swapping the cables around.

What year did this come from?


You could also try removing the starter and turning it by hand if possible, maybe dirty contacts.

I agree with drummin52 regarding taking the starter off, seeing if it turns by hand, and then bench-testing it. Should be able to remove and test it in about 15 minutes.

John,

I might not understand your post completely. While jumper cables can be a fast method of wiring, many times they are either undersized, or have very poor connection at the clamps.

Having said that, I not sure on your button comment, unless this is a solenoid equipped rig, which would seem strange for a 216.

A traditional stomp style starter would need to have a good connection with battery positive at the large lug on the little switch on top. There is some linkage that needs to be depressed to engage the flywheel ring gear to the starter PLUS close the switch to provide battery power to spin the starter.

If somehow you have a solenoid starter, the battery connection is the same, and one of the small wire terminals must be powered to engage the solenoid. You can use a screwdriver jumped between the large BATT lug and this small, protruding terminal. That should spin the starter.

My guess is that the jumper cables aren't making adequate connection and the whole thing isn't working. Wiggle the alligator clamps and make sure they are seeing good clean contact and make you ground right to the engine/starter.

Your volunteer battery must have clean shiny cables and have a real good charge too.

Stuart

When you are saying it doesn't engage, do you mean the starter won't crank the engine, or the engine won't fire?

I assume you know that you need to work the foot stomp linkage to push the starter gear into engagement with the ring gear. I also assume that you know that you need to hook up the ignition coil for it to spark. The starter switches can go bad. You should at least get a clunk with the jumper cables, but they can be too light, especially with a 6 volt battery. However, I was able to crank over my 302 with heavy jumper cables just fine.

Considering your topic was "starting a 216 out of the truck".
Back in the "old days" when we wanted to test an engine out of the vehicle we would throw some old tires on the floor and set the engine on them to start it. Worked for us.
Bottom Draggers Car Club
Texarkana Texas
Circa 1959

bringing this posting back up to the top since I have the exact same problem...

Today I was trying to start my 1955 235ci (12V) with a foot-stomp starter, although it's still in the chassis. I don't have a wiring harness installed yet so I did a similar thing as John and connected the negative cable from the batter to the engine block and the positive battery cable to the switch on the starter - nothing. The pedal would engage the starter gear with the flywheel, but it appeared as no power was getting to the starter to make it spin (no hum, no movement at all). I tried a few different spots for a ground and cleaned all the areas I tried. I also pulled off the starter button like John and touched the positive battery wire directly to the contact on top of the starter (usually hidden under the switch) - nothing. Tomorrow I will pull the starter out and bench test it, but is there anything I'm overlooking before I do this? Also, if I find that the starter doesn't work in the bench test what is the best way to pull it apart and what should I clean? Years ago (6 years +/-) this was a working starter and was able to start the engine fine, since then I've removed it to clean and then paint the outside of the starter, maybe dirt or something got in it? The engine does spin freely and I can spin it by hand.

Any suggestions? Thanks in advance!

I would check to make sure that the ground is good. Use an ohmmeter to check continuity between the starter case and engine block. Try attaching the negative battery cable to the lower bolt that attaches the starter to the bellhousing.

If your jumper cables are too small they should just get hot. They can get REALLY HOT, so be careful. The lack of any reaction from the starter motor seems to indicate a discontinuity. Does a foot switch starter spin when the ignition switch is off?

Assuming that it does, you should be able to hook the negative jumper to either starter mounting (to bellhousing) bolt and the positive jumper to the normal terminal, and the starter should bump with the footswitch pushed in. This is for Chevy's only. Early GMCs used positive ground so you would have to reverse the jumper cables.

Even with the cables hooked up backwards the starter motor should spin backwards, but that isn't good for it.

Check for resistance between the place you want to hook the negative terminal and the positive battery connection terminal with the footswitch pushed. It should be close to zero Ohms. If it iesn't, try the inner terminal. If you still don't have a low resistance, there is an open, or some other kind of high resistance in the starter motor. It might be corrosion or arc marks between the brushes and the armature.