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New to the forum I have been if the process of a mutil year full restoration on a 1951 F1, with the 226 6cyl Flathead. I am close to done. I have the engine in the truck and everything wired up but running into 2 major things.
1. The engine started and ran at the shop i worked with on the rebuild fine, but he test start with a 12v, now that I have the engine in the truck I can't do anything to get it started and I have problems even to get it to try to fire. New to 6v, when I put the battery in the truck I did wire it as negative ground, I did correct that, and its now positive ground but did I hurt something trying to start it that way? It seems like I have a spark problem but I have a spark, but maybe seems weak.
2. With everything wired up properly twice now the starter has continued to turn over even after stop pressing the button and I had to disconnect the battery.
Any thoughts and suggestions welcome as I am out of ideas and don't want to just start to swap things at this point.
Check your solenoid wiring. It matters which direction you feed it and load side. Also it may trigger from ground or trigger from hot. There were no directions in either of my solenoids. I even returned a couple. You can test operation with just the power hooked up. That way you are not triggering the starter as you are testing your hookup. You can use a tester to make sure power is passing through it.
New to the forum I have been if the process of a mutil year full restoration on a 1951 F1, with the 226 6cyl Flathead. I am close to done. I have the engine in the truck and everything wired up but running into 2 major things.
1. The engine started and ran at the shop i worked with on the rebuild fine, but he test start with a 12v, now that I have the engine in the truck I can't do anything to get it started and I have problems even to get it to try to fire. New to 6v, when I put the battery in the truck I did wire it as negative ground, I did correct that, and its now positive ground but did I hurt something trying to start it that way? It seems like I have a spark problem but I have a spark, but maybe seems weak.
2. With everything wired up properly twice now the starter has continued to turn over even after stop pressing the button and I had to disconnect the battery.
Any thoughts and suggestions welcome as I am out of ideas and don't want to just start to swap things at this point.
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6 volt positive ground? It's a good system if things are done correctly.
1. Make sure you have thick cables from positive to ground, from negative to starter solenoid and from solenoid to starter. They should be 00 gauge.
2. Cables should be fairly new. Even cables that look good and clean at the ends could have corrosion in the cable under the insulation.
3. Grounds and connecting points should be free from rust and paint.
4. Make sure the grounds from engine to frame and cab to frame are clean.
Others smarter than I will be along shortly to answer your other questions.
If you suspect weak spark, make sure you have a 6V coil and no resistor (internal or external).
Also, with the negative ground oopsie, you may need to check the charging system out and re-polarize it.
If you are running a pertronix electric points replacement, it may be toast with all the electrical trials. They are great, but don't tolerate electrical anomalies well.
6V runs best with thick battery and starter cables, like double ought.
As for the starter continuing to run, it could be a stuck solenoid or starter button. There are two varieties of these, ground trigger and power trigger, so if replacing, be sure to use the appropriate ones, or rewire accordingly.
Fresh out of a rebuild means fresh paint. The starter grounds through the mounting face and so paint could inhibit a good ground to the starter. Also check the grounding cable to the engine head for isolating paint.
Additional data, everything is new. the Solenoid was marked with BAT so that the feed side I have coming from the battery. Otherwise when it when was testing the setup it works an operates just fine. Just twice the starter kept running
If you suspect weak spark, make sure you have a 6V coil and no resistor (internal or external).
Also, with the negative ground oopsie, you may need to check the charging system out and re-polarize it.
If you are running a pertronix electric points replacement, it may be toast with all the electrical trials. They are great, but don't tolerate electrical anomalies well.
6V runs best with thick battery and starter cables, like double ought.
As for the starter continuing to run, it could be a stuck solenoid or starter button. There are two varieties of these, ground trigger and power trigger, so if replacing, be sure to use the appropriate ones, or rewire accordingly.
Fresh out of a rebuild means fresh paint. The starter grounds through the mounting face and so paint could inhibit a good ground to the starter. Also check the grounding cable to the engine head for isolating paint.
I am running a new stock distributor and points, as well as the 0 gage new As far as I know its a 6v coil, unfortunately it does not have any markings on it to verify.
On the generator I figured I may need to do that but just working on getting it started at this point.
My button is stock so its the ground trigger type, and new.
Added some photos
With the wires disconnected, throw an ohmmeter across the coil. It should be just over 1 ohm if it is a 6v coil. And yes, the wire connected to the (+) terminal goes to the points.
I had the starter on my 390 not disengage when I tried to start it with a near dead battery, the result was a fried starter, the cause was welded contacts in the starter relay. The starter and relay were both a couple months old.
With the wires disconnected, throw an ohmmeter across the coil. It should be just over 1 ohm if it is a 6v coil. And yes, the wire connected to the (+) terminal goes to the points.
I was told both ways on the coil wiring but good to confirm since that is what I found on the diagrams. that it should be the negative going to the distributor and positive going to the ignition, I did flip it back but it would not start either way when I was trying before.
with nothing hooked up the coil is reading around 3.6 ohms positive to negative, I assume that means I have a 12V or when you say test across test from the negative to the center?
The coil will "work" with either polarity, but in a positive ground vehicle, the (+) terminal of the coil goes to the distributor/points as discussed.
Your 3.6Ω primary resistance reading is for a 12V coil. I would definitely get a 6V coil at this point. As for a coil, just about any 6V can coil will work. Some examples:
NKG 48772
Standard Motor Products UC14
Duralast C809
One of these can be ordered through your local parts shop.
The coil will "work" with either polarity, but in a positive ground vehicle, the (+) terminal of the coil goes to the distributor/points as discussed.
Your 3.6Ω primary resistance reading is for a 12V coil. I would definitely get a 6V coil at this point. As for a coil, just about any 6V can coil will work. Some examples:
NKG 48772
Standard Motor Products UC14
Duralast C809
One of these can be ordered through your local parts shop.
Both bad news and great news to confirm. That is what I was assuming was the issue, ie either a bad coil or a wrong coil, and it would have started with the12v battery as before.
I have ordered a 6v coil and will report back. Thank you all.
Odd Electrical Issues
