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Posted By Discussion Topic: Won't start     Steve 40 ford 02-18-2017 @ 1:54 PM reply profile send p.m. Member Posts: 17 Joined: Dec 2015 I have 1940 deluxe 85hp flat head v8. Start seloind just clicks. Replace start seloind 2 of them and new starter cable to starter also had starter rebuild and battery tested good and after all that still just clicks. Right now i have starter pulled out with cable hooked up and grounded still just clicks. Help anyone have any ideas alanwoodieman 02-18-2017 @ 3:53 PM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 868 Joined: Oct 2009 sounds like not enough amps going to starter, bad ground? do you have a ground cable running from battery directly to starter mounting bolt? GK1918 02-19-2017 @ 5:22 AM reply profile send p.m. New Member Posts: 126 Joined: Aug 2016 Put a test light on the out (put) starter cable. Push starter button, if test light goes on its not solonoid put test light on starter cable push button-light goes on all is good TO the starter. That narrowed it down to starter. Remove starter make sure both end plates as well as the housing is clean -sand paper all four surfaces. 9 out of ten its been painted or dirty. The end plate that has the brushes must be clean to the field housing for a good ground thats how it works. The ground depends on clean surfaces and clean thru bolts . OK sam "A big problem always has a simple solution" Hugo Young founder of the Flxible Co. 40 Coupe 02-19-2017 @ 7:20 AM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 1674 Joined: Oct 2009 Charge the battery then take it to one of the auto parts stores and they can check it for proper output, or connect a voltmeter to the battery and try the starter watch the voltmeter if voltage drops to nearly zero while trying to turn the motor battery is bad. TomO 02-19-2017 @ 9:51 AM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 7250 Joined: Oct 2009 If your battery will not operate the starter with it out of the car, either your battery cable are not heavy enough to carry the current, the starter is locked up, the solenoid is bad or the battery is weak. Have the battery load tested to check its capacity. Use short jumper cables ( 6 gauge or larger, the numbers get smaller as the cable gets larger. IE: 8 gauge cable is smaller than 6 gauge), connect the NEG cable from the battery to the starter terminal and touch the cable that comes from the POS terminal to the engine, the engine should turn over. If the starter turns over, either your cables are not heavy enough, or the solenoid is bad. You can use a voltmeter to isolate the problem. Set the meter to read 10 volt 0r less. Connect the COM or black lead to the NEG battery post and the POS or red lead to the input side of the solenoid, push the starter button and read the meter. the meter should read less than 0.2 volts. higher readings indicate a bad battery cable.Replace the battery cable and recheck. Move meter red lead to other side of solenoid and push the starter button, the reading should be less than 0.2 volts. Higher reading here would indicate a bad solenoid. replace the solenoid and recheck. Move the red lead to the starter motor terminal and repeat the test. The reading should 0.1 volts or less higher than the reading taken at the output of the solenoid. Check out the grounding side of the circuit by connecting the red lead to the POS terminal of the battery and the black lead to the case of the starter and repeat the test. The reading should be 0.1 or less. Poor grounding can be caused by paint on the starter mounting surface or either of the grounding cables being bad. You can check the cables by seeing if they are hot. They can get hot enough to burn you, so be careful. Tom Steve 40 ford 02-20-2017 @ 9:34 AM reply profile send p.m. Member Posts: 17 Joined: Dec 2015 Thanks for the suggestion I will try them out this week. supereal 02-25-2017 @ 2:14 PM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 6819 Joined: Oct 2009 I just helped a friend in San Francisco with the same problem. I suggested either the battery was weak or undercharged, or corrosion had entered the cable ends. We see a lot of that. Sure enough, the problem was one end of the cable between the battery and the solenoid. They had cleaned the battery post, but it hadn't been fully tightened.

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