The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay fried starter

My starter fried the other day, was arcing by the switch, and I saw some smoke come out. I took the thing out and had a guy go through it, and replace some stuff. I put it back on today, and she did the exact same thing. The HOT, and Ground wires were really hot, as was the battery itself. The guy that worked on it, had me install a cheap battery disconnect that is right on the pos. side of the batt. I did this before the problems with the starter. Could that possibly be a problem? It is the original starter from 51. I don't think it has been converted to a 12 volt starter, and the rest of the truck has been.

olememphis51,

It's not unheard of for the starter switch itself to short out to the case of the starter. This is a mechanical problem with a worn out switch and doesn't involve the dynamics of actually starting the truck. Anytime a device shorts to ground without doing work, a horrific amount of current flows and this causes heat.

It sounds like your starter guy focused on the starter itself and didn't give the little switch mounted on top a clean bill of health. If the starter is worn out or the engine resists turning over, the starter case will heat as it works hard to spin the motor. You will usually see some smoke and smell the grease as it burns out of the hot starter.

A bum switch will fry but you won't get a hot starter case or usually smell crud inside the hot starter cooking. Take a close look at the little switch on top of the starter...the one with the big battery lug on it. It comes off quite easily.

Stuart

Well, I went out and tried the starter by pushing the switch with my finger, and she ran great, no smoke, sparks, or nothing, but when I went inside the cab, and pushed the foot stomp, it was sounding like it was bound up, and not able to turn the motor over. I don't know what it's called, but the part with the gear on it, that slides to mesh with the fly wheel, could that be binding, or can that part go bad by itself?

atomarc, The guy did say the little copper contact piece under the switch was fried, and he was going to flip it around, because the other side was ok. Have you ever heard of doing this? Thankyou for your reply.

olememphis51,

It's fairly common to flip the copper contact in a solenoid starter so my guess is that a stomp style switch would be no different.

If you pushed the starter switch down with your finger and the starter spun, it was doing so under no load. Mashing the pedal in the cab engages the starter drive with the flywheel and closes that little switch. This demands full battery power to spin the engine.

Your battery could be failing or your starter could be failing under a load. It wouldn't be common for the starter drive (little gear) to bind things up. It's more common for them to break internally and spin free. If the disconnect switch your friend had you install isn't large enough, the starter could starve for battery power. This could make it heat up as it tries to turn the engine over.

With a fully charged battery, I would bypass the disconnect switch and see what happens. If your starter was looked at by someone competent, it should be alright. Good luck and keep us posted on this problem.

Stuart