Electrical woes

[Matt Bunten]

Hi guys,

I recently replaced the starter in my 350 with a new starter purchased from a place that deals in used and new JD parts, located here in southern NH. The new starter went in fine, and I made sure I checked the starter lead wire placement, as they have changed them. (Thanks Ken P) I turned the key, pushed the starter button and nothing. The old starter used to at least activate the solenoid contacts, but this does nothing. The batteries were new last fall, and test fine. There appears to be only 6 volts going to the starter. I have read through the manual several times, and even had a friends dad who is a master electrician look at it. Nobody can seem to figure it out. Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Matt

[H-D]

GM taught us to use a voltmeter & walk through ANY doubtful circuit observing voltage drop. Any connection which showed a voltage drop exceeding .2 volt was a connection that needed attention. High resistance causes EXTREME voltage drop (Voltage = Amperage X Resistance). Have you perhaps been 'getting by' with a battery that is 'iffy'. Insufficient CCA WILL murder your starter (usually slowly) & after it's replaced the insulted solenoid will rear its head. Volt Ohm meters can be like your gun & your knife...they WILL comfort you.

[shinnery]

I would get a voltmeter and start checking for voltage drops around the circle from the positive terminal of the battery to the negative terminal when the starter button is pushed. Might start checking directly across the battery and see if it has a high internal resistance (see what the voltage drops to when the starter is engaged). Next check positive post to positive cable etc. If you have a 12v battery and only getting 6v at starter there has to be a bad connection(s) dropping the other 6 volts.

H-D If I had known you were typing I coulld have saved my hunt and peck efforts. LOL
Bryce

[KenP]

deleted

[Stan Disbrow]

Hi,

Yep. There probably is a high resistance connection somewhere. Make sure you use a voltmeter to measure the voltage right at the battery itself. If that has an internal problem that makes it read low under load, you can spend an awful lot of time trying to find the problem in the wiring.

Once you find it, it may also mean that the original starter is actually OK...

I ran into an odd problem like this once where someone used two 6v batteries in series to make a higher capacity 12v. They had only 6v at the starter because they managed to hook it up wrong. The starter was hooked to only one of the 6v batteries! I don't think you've done this, but I mention it just because the situation once caused a lot of befuddlement!

later!

Stan

[H-D]

Bryce, I'm only up to 'two finger' typing my own self. Also, it's gratifying to have another reinforce one's opinion. I'm used to being the 'lunatic fringe'!!!

[Matt Bunten]

Thanks so much guys for all of your input and great pool of knowledge. Mechanic I am not.......Ken P, I'll be in touch..

Matt

[Lu47Dan]

Matt, About a month ago I ran into a problem with a friends drilling rig that I had never seen before. We were in the middle of drilling when the deck engine died, we tried restarting figuring we had pulled a load of water up into the carburetor, had gas but no fire! Traced the wiring and found that the power wire from the alternator to the battery cable had worn through and had grounded the system, this drained the battery and killed the deck engine. We jumped it off, then taped up the bad spot to get through the day. Went to start the deck engine and we had nothing, no clicks or anything from the solenoid. We figured the battery was shot, we pulled the battery out and had it tested, it tested good. We got a new battery cable terminal clamp, wire and ends to replace the bad wire, and a battery terminal cleaner and cleaned everything up and installed the battery and replaced the cable terminal, the deck engine started great then.
The moral of this story is ..... You may have bad terminals on your battery cables, that was what it was on the drilling rig.
Dan.