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Old 03-12-2020, 02:41 PM   #1
1928forda
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Default No Power to Starter

Hello All,

The last couple of days, my new to me, 24T has not been starting - just constant turning on the starter. Today I hooked it up to my model A via jumper cables thinking my battery didn’t have enough charge to start it. I turned the key to battery, the coils buzzed for less than a second, then radio silence. The starter is not making any type of noise at this point. I put the battery in my model an and drove that around for a while to make sure it had a good charge, put it back in the T and still silence.
With that being said, all of the wires on my T are very old and cracked. I have a whole new wiring harness arriving tomorrow or Saturday and plan to rewrite the entire car.
My question is, assuming the car shorted out, what type of damage could I have caused? Possibly destroyed my starter? Or no?
Anything I should immediately be doing?

All help is much appreciated.
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Old 03-12-2020, 03:53 PM   #2
100IH
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Default Re: No Power to Starter

Do you have an analogue (preferred) volt meter and / or test light? First thing would be to do a visual inspection (and you did some) "cracked wires". The starter uses fat cables Not the small diameter wires. Finish looking and begin doing a wiggle test looking for loose connections. The whole while the charger should be hooked up, do you have that? This is a start- test light or volt meter next.
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Old 03-12-2020, 06:14 PM   #3
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Default Re: No Power to Starter

No damage.
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Old 03-12-2020, 09:33 PM   #4
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Default Re: No Power to Starter

Change the wiring, clean all connections and grounds and you should be good to go, or...
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Old 03-12-2020, 09:49 PM   #5
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Default Re: No Power to Starter

You don't have a short. You have an open. Likely a dirty connection at one of the terminals.
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Old 03-13-2020, 01:41 AM   #6
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Default Re: No Power to Starter

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I’m still new to the T, so maybe this is nothing...

I know the T is normally a negative-ground system, while the A is normally a positive-ground system. Is the T like the A in that hooking up a battery ‘backwards’ is not much of an issue?
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Old 03-13-2020, 06:57 AM   #7
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Default Re: No Power to Starter

Check your starter Bendix. If it is stuck against the flywheel, it could act like a dead starter. Rock the car back and forth to free it up.
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Old 03-13-2020, 08:49 AM   #8
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Default Re: No Power to Starter

It can cause problems if it's backwards like the ammeter would read backwards and if it has a modern generator cutout it might fry that so don't do that.


Do disassemble every place that the current must pass and make sure every connection is clean bare metal.




Quote:
Originally Posted by cpf240 View Post
I’m still new to the T, so maybe this is nothing...

I know the T is normally a negative-ground system, while the A is normally a positive-ground system. Is the T like the A in that hooking up a battery ‘backwards’ is not much of an issue?
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Old 03-13-2020, 12:33 PM   #9
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Default Re: No Power to Starter

Fortunately, the test light is immune to Polarity and follow the circuit without issue.
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Old 03-16-2020, 02:25 AM   #10
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Default Re: No Power to Starter

The only real damage you can do in purely stock form from a short is if the power from the battery drains through the magneto. Can de-magnetize things.
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Old 03-16-2020, 09:09 AM   #11
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Default Re: No Power to Starter

If the starter is turning but you don't hear the coils buzz when the switch is on the battery, there may be a problem in the timer circuit. Each coil will buzz only when the timer revolving brush is making the contact with that particular coils terminal in the timer commutator shell. As you crank the engine by hand, you should hear the coils go on and off. No buzz equals problem in the circuit somewhere.
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