The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay Odd starting problem

This is a little newer than what normally talked about here but its driving me nuts, maybe someone will have some Ideas. Its a 79 K30 with a 350four speed. It intermittently will not crank, just clicks when you hit the key. Battery is good connections are clean. Here's the cute part if you pull start it , or do the old red neck favorite, and park on a hill and roll start it everything is good for 1 day to a week. Any help would be appriciated, its starting to give me gray hair, and my kids do a good enough job of that already!

Sounds like a dead spot in the armature windings.

You've got worn-out brushes in the starter motor. Try this- - - -have someone hold the ignition switch in the "start" position, and reach underneath and give the starter a good whack with a hammer. I'll bet it starts, at least a few times, before the problem comes back. The "pull-in" winding on the starter solenoid grounds itself through the main starter motor. If the brushes don't get a good contact on the commutator, the "hold-in" winding that goes directly to ground doesn't have enough power to pull the drive gear into mesh and engage the contact on the back of the solenoid. I've seen numerous solenoids changed fopr this problem, whe the real problem is actually in the starter. The "dead winding" problem results in a much harder click, because the solenoid actually engages, but the starter motor doesn't turn.
Jerry

Great explaination Jerry! Looks like I learned something on this one, too. I have done the old hammer trick, never really gave thought to the brushes being worn, but have ran into the dead winding problem quite oftem. Hammer trick works with that, too.

I forgot to mention hitting it with a hammer did make it work. Thanks for the explaination. I'll throw a new starter on when I have time.

Thanks, coleman