duragg Posted October 28, 2011 Share Posted October 28, 2011 1973 240 with an f54, brand new flywheel, brand new starter (cheap pos). New battery, new wiring. Last week after driving I went to start and "No Crank". A Click - Volts meter went WAY down and no crank so I aborted the start. Next try was fine. Fine for the next week. Last night went to start, flip switch, cranked over about 1 revolution and BANG. Dead Stopped cold. Like any well trained bozo I tried it again... crank crank BANG. dead stop. Kinda freaky. Got my big wrench and turned the motor by hand at the front pulley with no problem. Tried the starter again and it worked flawlessly, started, drove, restarted. I am assuming the internal gear reduction in the starter is bad? That or I may have finally located my missing 7/16" lock socket after the engine rebuild... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noddle Posted October 29, 2011 Share Posted October 29, 2011 Hi, a few question, Is it spinning fast enough at crank, what is the timing set to, if it's to far advanced, and if it not spinning fast enough ( at cranking) and the engine fires, it can stop it from turning (ignition trying to push the piston down, when the starter it trying to move the piston up) Nigel 1973 240 with an f54, brand new flywheel, brand new starter (cheap pos). New battery, new wiring. Last week after driving I went to start and "No Crank". A Click - Volts meter went WAY down and no crank so I aborted the start. Next try was fine. Fine for the next week. Last night went to start, flip switch, cranked over about 1 revolution and BANG. Dead Stopped cold. Like any well trained bozo I tried it again... crank crank BANG. dead stop. Kinda freaky. Got my big wrench and turned the motor by hand at the front pulley with no problem. Tried the starter again and it worked flawlessly, started, drove, restarted. I am assuming the internal gear reduction in the starter is bad? That or I may have finally located my missing 7/16" lock socket after the engine rebuild... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duragg Posted October 29, 2011 Author Share Posted October 29, 2011 At about 16 Initial now. Cranks great when it cranks. Drove it 10 times since then with no reoccurrence of either. If it ain't the starter locking up something WICKED is happening internally. No metal in oil. No other faults. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duragg Posted October 29, 2011 Author Share Posted October 29, 2011 Picked up a replacement starter - fingers crossed. Will finish inspecting all ring gear teeth (new 240mm flywheel). A tranny faux-paux today is pushing me closer to pulling engine / tranny for a review of some items. Thx. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewZed Posted October 29, 2011 Share Posted October 29, 2011 Stuck advance mechanism maybe, giving high initial advance? 16 + 15 from the typical vacuum = 31. I've wondered what would happen if one of those ball bearings that typically breaks free in a crusty distributor caused the breaker plate to get stuck fully advanced. Just a guess. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duragg Posted October 29, 2011 Author Share Posted October 29, 2011 I just had the Dizzy off and the advance is slick and free. Plus one day I hit the button and NOTHING. Just a massive battery draw. Starter tested good. But could have intermittent problem. I thought it was gear driven, but looked to be direct drive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duragg Posted October 29, 2011 Author Share Posted October 29, 2011 Plus, when it Locked while cranking, it was a hard "sudden stoppage". Like the starter shorted internally in an instant stopped. or a loose bolt or fastener jammed something. But why would it be perfectly free the next second? Getting paranoid about my new motor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
josh817 Posted October 31, 2011 Share Posted October 31, 2011 (edited) Don't think it's ignition advance. If it was too far, but only "by a little" it would crank when the motor is cold and then give you **** when the motor was warmed up. Some of the things we do on our track cars that don't run vacuum advance so you have the timing set high to begin with, is you add an ignition toggle so you can crank the motor over, it spins up quickly and then flip the switch to get spark. I did this on my 521 truck, but it's more of a theft deterrent. I bet it's the gear reduction, perhaps its jumping teeth on the gear/helical drive however it works internally. If it's drawing way more current then normal, granted starters draw a ton of current and actually since it is directly connected to the battery and a battery supports "unlimited" or a "****-ton" of current for a few seconds the limiting factor is really the gauge of the wire/when it will start to melt stuff... probably just a bad starter, since you can turn the motor over by hand. From what I have read on the Nissan truck forum, maybe here too, stick with Nissan starters. I bought a brand new starter, no core charge, from Napa for my L20B for $37 a few weeks ago. It's not gear reduction, those are about $75 from what I saw. Should be the same starter for L24-L28ET I would assume. Also consider this; if were something on the flywheel or clutch like a bolt that backed out and hits the bell housing, it would be constant as it rotated around. This isn't constant and from the sounds of things once it's started you have no problems? If you found your socket or anything else loose in there, I'm sure it would be clunking around as the motor is running. Edited October 31, 2011 by josh817 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duragg Posted October 31, 2011 Author Share Posted October 31, 2011 I replaced the starter, but it may be a direct drive unit. Hoping that is all. It sure was a dramatic sudden stop. But was perfectly free seconds later. Makes me think electrical. I have a race-car like panel with all toggle switches so I can just crank the engine with ignition off and all sounds good. No abnormalities heard, no clanking. Its a relatively new motor so I have some paranoia. If it blows up into pieces I'll just build another one. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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