Hard to turn engine over A ford 1929

[H. L. Chauvin]

Hi gim,

Sounding more and more like a possible tight-bearing adjustment problem; and just in case it is:

FWIW: You may or may not want to try this:

Ford never wrote much about adjusting Babbitt bearings often during the Model A era, maybe because all the vintage mechanics already knew how to adjust Babbitt bearings before and during the Model T era. Ford does explicitly mention adjusting Babbitt bearings in his Model T manuals.

We were always taught that like with Ford's recommended Model T method, if your connecting rod bearings cannot easily move from side to side a little, they are too tight.

If your crankshaft cannot move slightly from front to rear it is usually too tight.

Because of these engines being lubricated with an oil splash system, as opposed to a pressurized system, it is necessary to maintain an oil film between the Babbitt and the journals not only for lubrication; but, also for oil cooling and preventing friction heat build up.

When young, we never even heard of Plasti-Gage that came out later in the 1950's.

We were taught to adjust bearings by wiping all excess oil off of journals and Babbitt and to adjust shims until we could "feel" absolutely "no" up and down movement but could "feel" sideways movement.

This same method worked for our ancestors on large industrial steam engines, installed in mills before internal combustion engines.

I just adjusted all of my Model A bearings with this method 10 years ago and also during the past 59 years, and never encountered a problem with this bearing adjustment method.

[Mitch//pa]

Did u ever check the length of the starter bolts?

[Dick Steinkamp]

Originally Posted by H. L. Chauvin

Hi gim,

Sounding more and more like a possible tight-bearing adjustment problem; and just in case it is:

See OP post #6.

It sounds like it was starting fine on the starter and small battery cables recently. He has also tried another known good starter. If I interpret the info he has provided correctly, I think we can rule out improper bearing adjustment, the small cables, or a bad starter.

Also, he reports "easy to turn with the crank with the spark plugs out". And that he cleaned the starter switch and it looks good. (post #34)

I guess I'd rule out any sort of mechanical binding (clutch dragging, water pump/generator dragging, etc) with this info.

He might try removing the starter switch and touching the - end of the battery cable there just to make sure that even though the switch "looks" good that it actually is good.

High timing is the only other thing I can think of at this point