1985 Ford F150 4x4 302 (69 Torino sourced), 351W G truck originally

I need some help. And then after dealing with this truck I'm gonna need some help of another kind. I am still having this problem even after I put this new stuff in. So I have a brand new PMGR starter, wired directly from the battery with the power wire going to the big terminal on the built in solenoid and the ignition wire to the small one. I have put in brand new 1ga power and ground wires and completely gotten rid of the original starter which I have been using as a terminal since I first got the old mini starter.

When I go to start the truck, sometimes it will turn over but most of the time it will only click once. I have tested the battery voltage, put a jumper box on the battery, put the jumper box on the starter with a ground cable from the batter to the starter as well, tested the voltage drop to the starter, and when I test the starter off the truck it spins every time even using the wiring on the truck and a ground going from the battery to the starter housing.

I think the problem is that the starter is having trouble spinning the flywheel. I had someone turn the starter while I spun the crank with a breaker bar and it would spin the engine. We only did this once as it is mildly dangerous When I turn the ignition the headlights and lights in the car will dim. I have tried to back off on the timing but I'm not sure it worked as I am getting the click again after it cranked a couple times.

My next idea is to put a small shim on the starter bolts and see what happens.

Do you have any ideas? As of now, I've got the Beatles song stuck in my head and this is all I can think of.

 

Nevermind, 1/32 shims did the trick!

 

Aftermarket junk? That was the problem? The old starter worked ok for years didn't it?

 

It could be that the PMGR starter I have ($69JBG) is not the best. I was having the same issues with the last one but I guess it just needed the shim to be able to turn the engine over. After that I could barely bump the ignition fast enough keep the engine from starting. I'm finishing up my carb rebuild tomorrow and I am gonna tune and test the truck out with some hot restarts. Hopefully the heat shield I put on there will let it start up hot and prolong the life of the starter.

 

How do you shim a Ford starter?
The engagement depth is wrong?

Are you running headers?
A heat shield is never a bad idea.

If you have DuraSpark II, timing retard while cranking is already build into the ignition.

 

I used to have one of the full body shims that go around the starter and have two bolt holes in the plate but it was like 1/4" thick and put the stater too far out. This time I had two 1/32 shims (basically metal plates with a open end cutout to slide a bolt through) and put one on each bolt so the starter would be even. They're really meant to adjust the angle that the bendix gear lines up with the flywheel but it works this way too. The truck starts up everytime effortlessly.

My headers are very close to the starter and I actually had to cut one of the pipes and use some flexible tubing to get the stock starter in there originally. I'm not sure what headers they are, but the PO decided to weld them directly to the rest of the exhaust which makes for annoying engine pulls/installs.

Now that I think about it, I am not sure what ignition or anything like that. I'm sure it doesn't use a stock computer or anything like that either. I just kinda put it together with the parts I got from the PO. There are tons of connectors I'm not using.

You should see the rusted floorboard fix the PO did on the truck. He bent up a license plate and put it over a hole in the floorboard. It almost looks like he laid a new floorboard but just put it on top of the old one. I guess I'll find out whenever I replace the carpet. I'll try and take a picture tomorrow.

 

License plate? S'pose ta use road sign. Sheesh.

 

Odd, I just installed a new DB Electrical PMGR starter on my 351W. Works perfectly so far.

 

So after my first big road trip the same thing was happening again. It made it down on a 2.5 hour trip with a few stops and it started right up every time but about 4 hours after the truck had cooled down it went back to just the click of the solenoid pushing out the bendix gear. Now that I pull the starter off and test it, it is very slow and clearly something is wrong. I truly think that the headers are too close and are killing the starter. I'll post up some pictures to see what yall think about the clearance.

 

The flex tubing was on there so I could fit the original starter. I think I'm going to buy new headers and ceramic coat/header wrap them I just don't know which ones to buy. As a temporary solution I may say F it and take the sawzaw to the other bank's pipe that is closest to the starter and put some header wrapped flex tube on there too. The headers are welded to the exhaust so to get them off I will have to cut the exhaust and have a shop weld on new flanges so I don't have to deal with that anymore.

 

If those nylon zip ties are surviving I doubt your 'heat' problem is as bad as you think it is.

 

351W: The A/T starter is different than the M/T starter.

 

I just wanted to let everyone know that I have figured out the problem. There is a clutch bypass somewhere in the system, although I can't find it. I am bypassing the whole thing via a switch with one wire going to battery power and one to the little stud on the starter solenoid.