<VV> Frustrating weekend, continued

[Chris]

I got a lot of good suggestions in response to the two e-mails (copied
below) that I sent out earlier.  I reset the timing manually by aiming the
rotor at the # 1 spark plug when the timing mark was aimed at “14” on the
indicator.  I swapped out the coil with another that I had.  I ordered a new
starter from Clark’s and installed it.

 

Unfortunately, nothing has changed.  The new starter still won’t turn the
motor when the plugs are in.  It will when the plugs are out.  One point I
forgot to mention is that it has a petronix ignitor.  That’s about the only
thing in the electrical system that I haven’t swapped out yet.  I’m running
out of things to try.  Keep those ideas coming, and thank you.

 

 

e-mail # 2:

My first post was long, so I’m just going to start where I left off.  Thanks
to everyone who has responded so far.

 

First, for those who asked, I have a powerglide.

 

Second, I checked the oil.  It is at the full level, not overfull, and no
smell of gasoline.  I took out all six spark plugs.  Numbers 1, 3, 5, and 6
had wet tips.  After taking out each spark plug, I tried to crank the motor
using the starter.  No luck
 until all six plugs were out.  Once there is no
compression possible at all, the starter will spin the engine.  I let it sit
for a few hours, figuring that any gas in the cylinders would evaporate out
(or maybe was pumped out while I was spinning the engine).  By the way, when
I was spinning the engine, NO gas came out of the spark plug holes.

 

After a few hours, I put the plugs back in and tried to crank it again.
With the plugs in (even with one plug in), the starter will not spin the
engine.  Took the plugs out again, and it spins just nicely.  There is no
clatter or noise in the engine when it is spinning, so I don’t think there
is an issue in there.  

 

Several suggested that my ground wire or my 12 volt supply to the starter
might be at fault, so I eliminated that possibility by putting the positive
and negative from my 200 amp charger/starter directly to the starter.  The
starter pulled a lot of juice out of that charger, but still wouldn’t crank
the engine.  

 

Is it possible for a starter to function fine when it is not under load and
to malfunction when it is under load?  On the tester at the local parts
store, it passed the tests, and it seems to hum right along, but it sure
isn’t turning this engine when compression is part of the equation.  

 

I considered the possibility that the harmonic balancer might have slipped,
causing to valves to be in a closed position when they should be open, but I
inspected it, and it looks nearly new.

 

What should I check next?

 

 

 

e-mail # 1:

 

Sorry in advance if this is a little long, but I need the advice to be good,
so I want to be thorough.

 

A few weeks ago, I decided to deal with a problem I’ve been having with the
choke on my 61rampside.  It has a 62 80 hp engine in it, so it has automatic
choke, but the choke rods were broken off below where I could get to them by
the previous owner.  It was frustrating because it took 10 min to get the
thing going whenever I wanted to go for a ride, and sometimes it would
mysteriously stall and take me a while to get it going again.  I decided to
take care of several things at once, so I replaced the inline fuel filter
and the fuel pump with new.  I replaced the choke coils and rods, and I
swapped out the carbs for some nicely rebuilt ones from Grant Young.  

 

With all that done, it, unfortunately, ran worse.  The problems seemed to be
mainly on the right side, with backfiring out the exhaust and, to a lesser
extent, out the carb.  It would stall every time I came to a stop, and I
would have to pump the gas a couple of times if I wanted it to start.  It
also had less power than it had had before I started (not than an 80 HP has
much power to spare).  I got some advice from here and from Grant Young on
how to trouble shoot my problems and set out to get it running perfectly.  I
discovered that the timing was way off, so I set about adjusting it.
Problem is, I’m working alone, and, did I mention, whenever the truck is
stopped, it stalls.  So, I was trying to adjust the timing and use the
timing light and keep the engine from stalling and restart it whenever it
would stall all at the same time.

 

Before I could get the timing right, it stalled again.  However, this time
when I tried to restart it, the starter would not respond.  I figured I’d
run the battery down, so I put the big Sears charger/starter on and set it
to 40 amps and came back ½ hour later.  This time, the starter would barely
move (like with a cold battery in the dead of winter in Northern Minnesota).
So, I kicked the charger/starter to the “jump start” mode and tried again.
It would still barely rotate the engine as I cranked.  And as I glanced at
the charger, it was showing that it was delivering over 200 amps, so the
starter was really pulling all the juice I could put out.  The cables on the
charger even heated up.  

 

And, when I stopped cranking and let go of the key, the fuses on my stereo
both blew.  That was weird, since it is a whole other circuit.

 

So, I figured there was a short in the starter somewhere and I pulled it
out.  I drove over to my local parts store, and they put it on their tester.
It tested perfectly and sang like a brand new starter (it actually looks
like a brand new starter).  

 

So now, I’m thinking one of two things.  It could be that something happened
inside the engine to make it too hard for the starter to turn.  That seems
less likely to me because the starter will turn it, albeit slowly, and I
don’t hear any unusual sounds coming from it.  So, it’s not seized and there
is no clanging, banging or other ominous noise as it goes through its 1
revolution every 20 seconds.  

 

My other thought is that I must have a short somewhere else that draws power
whenever I’m cranking the starter.  I just don’t know where that would be.
I tried cranking it with a remote starter lead, in case there was a short up
in the ignition switch or something, but that didn’t make any difference.
And wherever the short is, why would it surge power into the stereo circuit
when I let it go?

 

A few people had suggested here that the problem I was having with
intermittent stalling might actually be a sign that my coil is on its way
out.  Could something in the coil cause all this to happen while the starter
is active?

 

Thanks in advance (and again) for all your help.