The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay Won't start -- only clicks...

Just installed a freshly-rebuilt starter and new battery. The truck hadn't been cranked in a month or so and the first four tries just turned over and over and didn't fire. Then the fifth try was just a "click" and now that's all it will do.

Could the alternator be toast? What else could be the problem?

Thanks

It sounds like your just-rebuilt starter might need a rehab. Does it have a solenoid, or is it the old stomp-start model? There are two windings in the solenoid, a "pull-in" winding to get the gear engaged, and a "hold-in" winding to keep it engaged once the starter is turning. The pull-in winding grounds itself through the starter brushes, and if the brush circuit gets interrupted, there will only be a click from the hold-in winding because it lacks the strength to complete the starting process. You've either got a bad solenoid winding, a bad brush set, and/or a poor ground. Check all your connections, hot and ground, and make sure the pull-in, and hold-in windings are in good condition.
Jerry

It has a solenoid. How would I be able to tell if either part of the solenoid is bad? Burned or melted windings?

Thanks

Did you get this starter recently from an auto parts store? If so, taking things apart will probably void the warranty.
Definitely sounds like your starter took a crap. Check your grounds like H.L. said and check the voltage on that new battery just so you have a warm and fuzzy and no doubts.
Take that starter back and have 'em check it or just give you another. Usually, starters come with some documentation saying something to the effect of, 'make sure your battery is fully charged before attempting to start motor with new starter. Too little voltage from undercharged battery can result in "starter death".'
-David

It wasn't a new starter. The hometown automotive electrical guy rebuilt the original starter.

It sure turned over well when I hooked up the new battery. I'll check it though for that warm and fuzzy feeling!

Thanks, folks, for the help. I won't be able to check into matters until later today...

you can check the starter by putting it in a vice and use jumper cables to bump it. shine up the area of where your ground is located,,,is yor enine grounded to the frame?
good luck with that

The engine is not grounded to the frame. I've been reading that that causes all sorts of electrical problems.

Right now, the negative of the battery goes to the engine and that's it.

I'm not sure what you're reading, but you may want to recheck it. If the engine is not grounded to the frame it can cause electrical problems. The battery ground can go on the frame or the engine, but you must have good connection between the two. Most loads(device using electrical current) have only one wire going to them. The return path for the electrical current is through a common ground. Usually the frame. In your case, the return ground path for something like your headlights would be from the headlight; to the sheetmetal; to the shift linkage or clutch linkage or maybe the speedo cable to the engine and from the negative cable, finally back to the battery.
New batteries usually don't have much of a charge. If it ran before you put the new starter on then just charge the battery and prime the carb.

Richard is right. You need a connection from the motor to the frame or you will have trouble with every electrical device that is not mounted on the motor.

Battery to motor is not the conventional way to ground the motor, but it should work fine. Either way you still need to make sure the motor and frame have a big fat electrical connection like a ground strap.

I read something the other day that said if you go from neg battery to starter mounting bolt you will increase your starting power by 30 percent. Dont know if this is true or not but makes sense.

Thanks to everyone for the info and I'm sorry for taking so long to get back. I don't seem to have the time I want to be able to work on my truck!

I checked the starter while hooked directly to a battery and got the same results--only a click and no gear turning. It wouldn't spin at all but the solenoid is working. I'm on the hunt for a rebuilt model now... Thanks

Silly question: Did you recharge the battery?

tap it w/ a hammer - sounds like it might be jammed - also on a 59, motor grounded or not, your neg batt cable should be attached to the firewall just behind/under the battery where there is a raised boss w/ a threaded hole - OEM works best!!

Bill

I did use a freshly charged battery and tapped the starter all over with a hammer while juicing it. It wouldn't budge.

I also added the ground wire from the post to the firewall. I'm waiting to find out how much a rebuild costs in town. I may be rolling in a few days...

Thanks

If I ground from the battery to the firewall, is the ground to the motor necessary? The battery ground cable I have has the fat cable and one small one. I rigged up another small wire to the firewall, but am wondering if I should just move the wire from the motor to the firewall instead. Thanks

that cable w/ the small wire is the hot side cable from a newer vehicle, and the smaller wire is used to supply power to something - 'wires' as ground are useless - needs to be a proper battery cable for battery terminals, and the emgine ground should be something like the flat braided stuff from a starter mount bolt to the frame or cab like on my 58 283 [redX] - where mine mounts is the raised area I mentioned above, and my battery ground bolts to the firewall right behind the top outside corner of the batt - insures all gauges work properly, as well as gen/alt

Bill

Oops. I think I got mixed up. The braided wire currently runs to the motor and the small wire runs to the firewall.

I'll work on getting the braided wire to the firewall...

Thanks

As I recall from years ago, that is how these old starters start to fail. Usually you get 1 click to every 3 good starts and then the ratio deteriorates! Eventually you end up with just clicks. The old hammer taps usually help out for a while.

I was just reading thru this thread & now I think I may have to take some action on my 58 Apache.

My battery is grounded to the engine via the ground cable bolted to the intake. There is no ground cable from the battery to the frame or from the engine to the frame. Everything worked OK as far as I can tell before I yanked the engine & I was planning on grounding the battery right back where I unbolted it from until I read this thread. Frankly, I hadn't thought about it at all!

But if I understand the info in this thread correctly, I should either:

A) ground the battery directly to the frame somehow; or,

B) ground the battery to the engine as it was before as long as I run a ground strap from the block to the frame.

Is this correct? Should I change the set up?

Isn't the battery grounded thru the engine to the fram via other connections , for instance exhaust pipe hangers?

actually Bob, you want the battery and engine both grounded to the cab, where your switches and gauges are - the frame ground is usually taken care of by the various mount points, tho' sometimes it helps w/ the tail lights to have the box grounded to the frame cuz there's usually rubber shims and the bolts go thru the wood - a ground connection on either intake or exhaust doesn't usually last well due to corrosion and heat cycling - put it under one of the starter mount bolts, right where it's needed most - as pointed out above, there's a threaded hole nearby that the factory intended for that purpose [and one behind the top outside of the battery] - both batt/cab and cab/starter only require about 8" straps

Bill

I ran my battery neg. post to the starter mounting bolt and also to the firewall ... then to the frame.

Good grounds are everything!

Got word from the starter rebuildler yesterday. He's replacing the armature. Hope to get it today and get on the road!

I hope its something simple like this.
I had this problem on a different Vehicle 1960VW bug.
I did all sorts of things and finally I decided to replace that connecter to the starter solenoid, the wire was bent and unraveled.
I cut the old connector off and replaced it and the sun of a gun fired right up.

I saw it when I first worked on it but kept ignoring it because it was connected. The person who originally installed the wire connector stripped the wire two long for the connector exposing to much wire allowing it to come unraveled and letting it get corroded.

Do you have good battery cables?
Good battery Ground strap? Dissconect the strap and wire brush the contact area on the fire wall.
I always wire brush all my connections on a project, fuse box, straps, cables,terminals, replace fuses, Just to eliminate any goofy simple problems. It easier than pulling a starter.

Got the rebuilt starter and I'm rollin'. Thanks to everyone for the help. I definitely have more solid grounds now and hope that wards off many strange problems down the road!