Carrier staring question/problem

[rob love]

Hard to tell by your "row row row", but is that a nice quick "row row row, or a laboured one?

I used to blame many things for the hard starting on a carrier.....bad ground, vapor lock, poor fuel pump/worn pump push rod, tired coil, the difference in fuel makeup since the 40s, even our expectations of how easy it should be to start a vehicle.

One solution I found to my starting problems was to hook the 12 volt battery I had stored in the radio battery box to the starter, and the 6 volt battery still powered the rest of the vehicle. I would put a 6V solenoid controlled by the starter switch to feed the 12 volts through. The vehicle would start quickly every time, whether hot or cold. I have to wonder if the load of the starter reduced the voltage to the coil enough that it made starting (without any assistance like priming) difficult.

[Bruce Parker (RIP)]

First case, row-row...(dead battery....wait for it)....rrr..ow. Very lethargic. After a squirt: row-row-row (very quick, what you'd expect if all things were perfect) followed by a nice varoom.

Oh, how I'd love to keep this 6V and original.

Originally Posted by rob love

Hard to tell by your "row row row", but is that a nice quick "row row row, or a laboured one?

I used to blame many things for the hard starting on a carrier.....bad ground, vapor lock, poor fuel pump/worn pump push rod, tired coil, the difference in fuel makeup since the 40s, even our expectations of how easy it should be to start a vehicle.

One solution I found to my starting problems was to hook the 12 volt battery I had stored in the radio battery box to the starter, and the 6 volt battery still powered the rest of the vehicle. I would put a 6V solenoid controlled by the starter switch to feed the 12 volts through. The vehicle would start quickly every time, whether hot or cold. I have to wonder if the load of the starter reduced the voltage to the coil enough that it made starting (without any assistance like priming) difficult.

[Bruce Parker (RIP)]

I've been playing with it. Very hot positive (ground) post on the battery.

[colin jones]

Bruce, if you have a hot terminal that generally says it's a bad connection.
Remedy!
Remove, clean thoroughly, bit of grease on the terminal, replace and tighten then check the others.
Colin.

[Lynn Eades]

A good (large cross section) earth strap is supposed to be vital in all 6volt vehicles. Jeeps are an example.
Nice clean surfaces at every contact point.
Maybe run a battery earth direct to a starter through bolt.

[motto (RIP)]

With only 6 volts you can't afFord to lose any. A hot terminal = resistance = voltage drop.

To watch engine starting and operation through one of those heat sensitive cameras would be an interesting exercise.

David

[David Dunlop]

Just a thought because I had a bad battery in my car once.

See if you can pull the battery completely from the carrier and apply a heavy load to it. If your positive terminal heats up, you very likely have a bad connection for it inside the battery: i.e. the battery is toast.

David

[rob love]

With regard to batteries, there are a only a few test tools you need. A hydrometer (I prefer the glass tube type with the floating bulb over the plastic antifreeze tester type) and one of those $30 load testers that are everywhere these days. But usually, if the hydrometer reads OK, the battery is fine.

Check the strength of each cell with the hydrometer. If all are equal, and in the yellow or the green, you are good. If, any one cell is more than 20 points out from the rest, the battery is toast and will not give good service. Make an allowance if you just added a bunch of water and have not mixed it up with the acid. You can do this by pumping the hydrometer in and out a few times to mix the fluid.

If you have a dead battery, take some readings periodically while charging the battery. Same deal, as the cells come up they should not be more than 20 points apart from each other.

I also prefer slowly charging a battery, with less than 7 amps......2 amps is even better. A quick charge can really damage a battery if the temperatures are not controlled.

As for other battery tools, I have the old "exide" case type battery tool carrier, which is made of the bakelite material the battery cases were made out of. In it is a battery carrying strap, a battery brush, battery terminal spreader pliers, and the round nose battery pliers, and the battery post puller. The spreader pliers are especially great. They allow you to evenly spread the terminals so you can get them all the way onto the posts.
As well, the carrier has a bulb type syringe, like you use for basting turkeys (for putting water into the cells) and the hydrometer.

The battery carriers are hard to find here in the west, because they also had an area for water. Guys would leave the water in them and they would crack in the winter.