Starter not quite up to the task after rebuild

[john in illinois]

I would also reccomend driving it. Several people in our club have had the same situation and driving it freed them up.


John

[Alaska Mike]

I by-passed the battery disconnect and nothing changed. It does have high compression head. I have about 150 miles on the rebuild now. I checked the battery voltage and it was only 5.1 volts, which didn't sound good. I have the battery charger on it now to see if that helps. I really appreciate the ideas! I will let you know how I finally solve this thing.

[Harpkatt]

The Hagerty Redline videos of the Model a Discussed this issue. The Babbit has to wear in it's clearance. Hagerty used another car to pull/bump start their engine rather than the starter. I have no personal experience so don't take this as gospel.

[CWPASADENA]

if Babbet bearings are set up correctly during a rebuild, they should not be so tight that the starter with a good battery will not start the car.

You only having 5.1 volts could very well be the issue, however you previously stated that the engine is tight when trying to turn it by hand.

You may have 2 issues going on.

Chris W.

[daren007]

Drag it behind your pickup with the plugs out in third gear for a month or take it back to the rebuilder.

[katy]

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Originally Posted by Harpkatt

The Hagerty Redline videos of the Model a Discussed this issue. The Babbit has to wear in it's clearance. Hagerty used another car to pull/bump start their engine rather than the starter. .

I assume that's the "lazy man's" way of doing it, rather than the tedious job of checking, scraping, checking, scraping, checking, scraping, etc, the clearance and fitment of the babbitt on each journal.

[daren007]

Find a machine shop that knows what they are doing. Forget scraping, use time saver.

[Alaska Mike]

Put the battery on a good charger overnight, and still only 5.1 volts. Battery was only 3 months old, but who knows what was up with that. Bought a new batter, and now it starts like I expected. Still a little tight from the fresh rebuild and high compression head, but much better overall. Thanks for all your ideas and encouragement!

[nkaminar]

I have ruined some very good batteries so I speak with the voice of experience. The last battery was just last year. It was in my travel trailer and the solar charger was set too high and cooked the battery. This is usually the case with the batteries that I have ruined, they were cooked with too high of a charging rate. The other way I have ruined batteries is at the opposite end by letting them sit uncharged for a long time. The batteries build up sulfate crystals on the plates that cannot take place in the charging cycle. I suppose one can buy a bad battery, but in my experience I am the cause of them going bad.

[McMimmcs]

Originally Posted by Alaska Mike

Put the battery on a good charger overnight, and still only 5.1 volts. Battery was only 3 months old, but who knows what was up with that. Bought a new batter, and now it starts like I expected. Still a little tight from the fresh rebuild and high compression head, but much better overall. Thanks for all your ideas and encouragement!

Did you return the 3 month old battery ?

[katy]

I've had new batteries that after a day or too were NFG (not found good).

[California Travieso]

Originally Posted by Alaska Mike

Put the battery on a good charger overnight, and still only 5.1 volts. Battery was only 3 months old, but who knows what was up with that. Bought a new batter, and now it starts like I expected. Still a little tight from the fresh rebuild and high compression head, but much better overall. Thanks for all your ideas and encouragement!

I’d leave the battery on the charger longer than over night, sometimes it helps to leave it for 24 to 48 hours at the lowest charging. Invest in a battery tester or take it to parts store.

David Serrano

[Alaska Mike]

My battery charger is one of the newer ones that monitors the charge and tapers off as it reaches full charge. I then tested it with my battery tester, the kind they use at the autoparts store, and it tested bad. The new battery seemed to fix things, but only time will tell. Thanks for all your help!

[Ed in Maine]

I also had this experience with a newly rebuilt engine. I used a 12 volt battery for a while. It was a pain because I had to remove the battery from my modern car. Yes, it is tight so don't run it fast and keep the temperatures low by not running for long periods (not over 15 minutes at a time). After a couple of weeks, it was like magic. The car started on 6v just like it should and we never looked back. Good luck with it. Ed