The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay re-wired but no start?

I have a 51 3800 with a 56 235 in her backed by a 4 speed. Now much about this truck is a mystery to me cause the guy i bought it from didnt know jack. It ran with a little motivation( starter fluid) when i bought it. One day it stopped running. So i decided to replace the wiring harness, battery, distributor, coil, cap, wires and plugs. Got it all back to gether and when i cranked it, it would run for a few seconds. i rebuilt the carb cause accelerator pump was bad and thought i would be good to go, but still same problem, no start. Now my starter is barely cranking and and grinding, after trying to jump start it yesterday. Do you think i fried my starter, or do you think who ever changed the original engine to the 56 235 used the stock starter? Im lost if anyone can help, i would appreciate it.

First, the '56 starter would have been 12 volt and the '51 starter would have been 6 volt. If the '51 starter were used on the '56 engine the '51 flywheel would have to have been used. That's a posibility.

You don't say if your system is 6 or 12 volts but assuming it is 12 volt and you do have a 6 volt starter and you continuously cranked it with 12 volts, it is probably bad.

Are you absolutly sure it was electrical in the first place? There's a fine line between fuel related symptoms and electrical related symptoms, the whole starter fluid persuasion bit sounds like a fuel related problem. What kind of shape is the battery in? Is it 6 or 12 volt?

I second that question. If the wire was original it probably needed to be re-wired anyway, but I would have hot-wired it to be sure I was dealing with an electrical problem and not a fuel problem.

And at this point I'd still hot-wire it to eliminate any electrical problems before I spent a lot of time trying to identify an electrical problem that might not exist.

sorry guys, it was upgraded to 12v system. The first thing i did was go through the fuel system checked lines, new filter, carb rebuild, so i think it has to come down to an electrical problem. The last time i tried to start it, the starter was barely cranking over with a fully charged battery behind it and the starter motor was getting very hot. So i am thinking about ordering a starter 12volt conversion kit from chevy duty, has any one used that kit, or is there any other companies that sell a similar kit? Im new at this, this is my first restore on my own, im really hoping to bring this stovebolt to life again and not sell out for a 350, thanks for your patience.

Did you replace the ground strap when you rewired?

There should be a ground from the battery to the frame, and another from the frame to the motor. Make sure each of those connections are clean steel-to-steel.

A starter issue can certainly keep the motor from starting but should not cause it to die once it is running.

Start and run for a few moments does not sound like an electrical problem unless there is a fault in the ignition resistor circuit.

After you sort out the starter check that there is power on the coil side of the ignition resistor when the ignition is turned on. You don't want to leave the ignition on for more than a few moments when the motor is not running because doing so can burn the points.

How much continuous cranking did you do with that starter? If it was a lot and that's still the 6v starter, you may have fried it. I'm still guessing that even after you get the starter motor figured out, there may still be something else. Did you ever get it to run after you rebuilt the carb? Was your fuel pump pumping strong or not? I'd say your first priority is to get the starter motor figured out and then you can cross that off the list. Also while you're ironing this problem out, I'd pull the plugs to reduce strain on the starter, and help save your battery.