2013 at the Hammond Barn

[Bob Carriere]

We always hear about how important it is to have a good grounding connection particularly on 6 volts system........ well it also applies top 12 volts.

Although weeks apart, on 3 occasions the truck would not turn over and a fully charged battery made no difference. Because I am still running the truck as a rolling chassis it is easier to work on.... but after removing the starter 3 times....taking it apart, cleaning the segments as I assumed I had a dead spot somewhere...... no difference. Tuesday it started well Wednesday it was dead cold again.

After sweating bullets removing the starter again with no improvement I decided to push it into the barn for shade and ease of working. I tried to start it by towing it but no spark.....????

Everytime I used the tester it showed 12.88 volts.... so I assumed that power was getting to the starter.......

So went back over every thing one step at a time..... cleaned the battery terminals ..... no change..... checked the black ground wire tied to the bellhousing.... gave it another quarter turn .... still no change.

Decided to remove the bolt holding the ground wire..... installed two new star shaped washers one on each side of the cable ferrule..... bingo started right away.

Don't think that faulty connections can only happened on 6 volts system.

I have concluded that although the ground wire was conducting enough voltage at the low amps generated by the tester the connection was bad enough that on a high load for the starter it failed to carry the amperage.

Lesson learned.

Bob C.