Starter Drama

I dragged Margaret to the Auto Swap Meet in Portland this weekend. It was neat but really just a chance for a bunch of people to get together drink beer and sell their parts and misc. other junk. But there were some really cool looking old cars and trucks that I was able to look at to get some good ideas for mine. I did meet up with the owner of Chevs of the 40's, Bill, who gave me a bunch of insight on how to move forward with my truck. I talked to him about my truck not starting and wanting to keep it as original as possible but still converting to 12 volt. He told me I could keep the 6 volt starter and have to replace it every few years and run an alternator unless I could find someone capable of wiring a starter and generator to 12 volt.


When we left the Swap Meet, I removed the old starter, at left, went to Chevs of the 40's and purchased a rebuilt starter. Then went home and installed it. Reconnected the battery cables and tried to start the truck. A small little grrr, then nothing. I tested the connections with my voltmeter. Everything said it was fine, but when I had Margaret try starting the truck every connection would drop from 12.4 volts to .3 volts. So I knew something was wrong. After some swearing and what not I decided to go to buy new battery cables. I also thought it would be a good idea to take the battery too since I haven't been able to charge it in the truck with all of the cranking I've been doing. Of course when I get the battery tested and it only has 81 cold cranking amps, when it should be closer to 500 +. Needless to say I was glad I took it, they charged it up for me and I took it and new cables home. I was able to reinstall the positive battery cable without too much trouble, but the negative cable was next to impossible to take off the frame. The bolt holding the wire on the frame was more or less welded tight with rust. After lots of WD-40 and Liquid Wrench, the use of Vise Grips and a socket on the other side I was able to twist it apart, in half that is. I connected the new negative battery cable to the frame and then to the battery. I started the truck and the new starter spun with such force, but yet still not able to turn the engine over. It still wasn't getting any gas. I decided to call it a night so I could cool down and rethink my next step.


While rethinking my next step, I wanted to come up with a name for the truck, since "the truck" just doesn't cut it. So Margaret and I came up with a name for her. Since most of the boats that Rob, Margaret's father, owns have been named after women in the family, I've decided to name my truck Diane. My mom's middle name.

Since we picked out the trucks name I could move on to thinking about my next step. I'm thinking I'm going to test for a spark, then see about running fuel straight to the carb, to see if that might let me start the truck and once it has started then the fuel pump will start working.