ok here's the deal- yesterday, the 1942 ford pickup my dad and i are working on restoring wouldnt start up by itself, and we think it may be electrical...when we jump the car, sometimes it will start up. it used to start up on its own, but now doesnt. my dad just replaced the battery as well. we think something may be shorting out? starter bad? i dunno . of course nearly all of the wiring is probably 60 years old...
we got it to start up a few times today by jumping it with my contour. but sometimes when we would jump it, it wouldnt start up. note that it will not start up at all without being jumped.
when it does start up, it runs pretty well, we actually drove around our street a couple of times tonight.
so today, i cleaned off the battery terminals, and the cables, but couldnt get to the ground, so i sprayed some wd40 on it and hopefully ill be able to take it off tomorrow. anyways, i got it to start on its own power about 3 times, but im not sure if cleaning the cables helped, since i didnt try to start it before i cleaned the cables today. after i got it to start and run for about 3 times, it wouldnt start again. tried a couple of more times to start it, and it would crank,but eventually just sort of stopped cranking after i tried a couple of times. ugh.
If it stopped cranking, it's either your battery isn't holding a good enough chagre to start, or the starter is getting overheated from all the cranking and will not turn without more elec power. What voltage battery are you using? The Contour will give some extra power for jumping, being 12 volt, but it is also a negative ground system, your truck, if it's all original is a 6 volt positive ground system. Wires build up resistance as they get older and older, so the wires are definatly not helping the situation. For a couple hundred bucks you can replace all the wiring in your truck yourself, and have all new wires. The fact that the extra voltage from your jump halping it start makes me think you might have some resistance somewhere that is overcome by the extra voltage. Clean your grounds, try to get the cables connected to clean, rust free, bare metal.
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Gary-
Down to only one, a 1946 1/2 ton
Collector of anything related to 42-47 Ford Trucks
ok, well both batteries we have were dead as a doornail, so we went and got them charged up. the guy said the new one wouldnt take a charge..hmm. guess im going to go return that new battery then! weird!
anyways, we put the old one in and the pickup started up fine today! i still think there might be a short in our electrical system somewhere , but i think we'll just disconnect the battery when its not in use for now. eventually the wiring will be replaced i guess.
Well, if the battery is draining just sitting in the truck, then either the battery is damaged and not holding charge, or you have a small amount of current being constantly drawn, which would cause the battery to drain. If the guy said the new one is not going to take a charge, then something is damaged in the battery.
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Gary-
Down to only one, a 1946 1/2 ton
Collector of anything related to 42-47 Ford Trucks
yeah, the battery was bad or something, he gave us a new one.
the truck wont start anymore though, even with the fully charged battery, and wont start when jumped either. it cranks, but after a while it kind of gets weaker.
bad starter?
ignition?
we're pretty sure there is a short some where, and all of the wiring is goign to be replaced in may...but it seems like something else is wrong...
Nate..
Take a look at the starting motor. Sometimes when the end bushings are well worn, they cause the rotor to drag on the field windings. This can really slow the cranking speed for starting, and drain batteries. The 50's vintage Dodges were well known for this problem. New Oilite bushings usually solved it.
Take the starting motor off the truck and dissassemble it. There will be one bushing in the "flat" end cap, and another in the opposite end, where it passes through to the Bendix spring. Remove these and replace them with new ones. Most industrial bearing supply shops can match them up for you for very little cost. While you have it all apart, you may also want to replace the carbon brushes. Clean all the parts and pieces, and reassemble. This may not solve all your starting problems,but it eliminates a trouble source.
Al
ok i took it apart, and one of the springs was broken. im sure there is other stuff wrong (since it is the original starter i think), but i dont know enough about this stuff (yet) to tell. im just going to send it off to obsolete ford parts to get a "new" rebuilt starter...
hopefully that's 1 problem solved.
btw, the heater (original i think) started randomly working today. how weird is that??
'42 truck w/ flathead v8 has trouble starting
