antijam
CCCUK Member
Starting has been something of a lottery on my '71 small block ever since I acquired it. Sometimes it would start first turn of the key, sometimes there might be just a click from the solenoid and other times there would be nothing at all. It always started eventually but often needed several go's. The battery was fully charged and it made no difference if the engine was hot or cold. Possible problem areas seemed to be a) the lock barrel, b) the ignition switch, c) clutch inhibitor switch, d) wiring or e) the starter itself. The lock barrel is a pain to replace, the ignition and inhibitor switches are not easily accessible, the wiring could have a problem anywhere so I decided to start diagnostics with the starter motor itself.
To access the motor I had to remove the header which wasn't too tricky and with the starter exposed it did look a bit tired....
I suspect the motor is rather older than the car and was probably a second-hand replacement at some time. There was a lot of heavy rust pitting of the case that had been painted over and it wasn't the correct starter for the car. However if it was salvageable I wanted to retain it rather than buy a new one if only because I didn't fancy farting about with shims to ensure proper pinion engagement. When my starter did deign to work it turned the engine over perfectly and it turned out it was actually mounted with no shims at all - which would make replacement very easy.
With it off the car I passed it to my local starter expert to be checked over. He dismantled it, skimmed the commutator, fitted a new solenoid and declared it fit for purpose - all for £50, which I thought very reasonable.
Still looking for possible problem areas I noticed the bolt securing the starter ground wire to the engine mount bracket - arrowed in this piccie....
.... was loose - well, that can't have helped I thought - but with the lead removed more serious damage was revealed. 
The lead had obviously been in contact with part of the header that had burnt through the insulation and started to erode the copper core. Close up.....
With standard exhaust manifolds there is plenty of clearance around the lead, but with headers that is drastically reduced. Whoever had fitted the headers had obviously not noticed the contact (or not worried about it) and damage was inevitable. This explained the hole in one of the header pipes that I'd discovered on removal.....
The hole was in the exact place where the lead had contacted and the two had obviously gone for mutual destruction! A different ground cable and routing would solve the problem, but the standard ground lead can be routed to clear the header with careful pre-forming before fitting. I bought a new one and with the starter back in place, the new ground lead and repaired header fitted, checked there was adequate clearance.
With everything back in place and tightened up, time to try a start! 10 key turns, 10 starts! So far it's started first time every time - so I'm tentatively assuming problem solved - and I wont have to replace the lock barrel or ignition switch or get bogged down in tracing wiring faults - time for a celebratory coffee!
To access the motor I had to remove the header which wasn't too tricky and with the starter exposed it did look a bit tired....
I suspect the motor is rather older than the car and was probably a second-hand replacement at some time. There was a lot of heavy rust pitting of the case that had been painted over and it wasn't the correct starter for the car. However if it was salvageable I wanted to retain it rather than buy a new one if only because I didn't fancy farting about with shims to ensure proper pinion engagement. When my starter did deign to work it turned the engine over perfectly and it turned out it was actually mounted with no shims at all - which would make replacement very easy.
With it off the car I passed it to my local starter expert to be checked over. He dismantled it, skimmed the commutator, fitted a new solenoid and declared it fit for purpose - all for £50, which I thought very reasonable.
Still looking for possible problem areas I noticed the bolt securing the starter ground wire to the engine mount bracket - arrowed in this piccie....
.... was loose - well, that can't have helped I thought - but with the lead removed more serious damage was revealed.
The lead had obviously been in contact with part of the header that had burnt through the insulation and started to erode the copper core. Close up.....
With standard exhaust manifolds there is plenty of clearance around the lead, but with headers that is drastically reduced. Whoever had fitted the headers had obviously not noticed the contact (or not worried about it) and damage was inevitable. This explained the hole in one of the header pipes that I'd discovered on removal.....
The hole was in the exact place where the lead had contacted and the two had obviously gone for mutual destruction! A different ground cable and routing would solve the problem, but the standard ground lead can be routed to clear the header with careful pre-forming before fitting. I bought a new one and with the starter back in place, the new ground lead and repaired header fitted, checked there was adequate clearance.
With everything back in place and tightened up, time to try a start! 10 key turns, 10 starts! So far it's started first time every time - so I'm tentatively assuming problem solved - and I wont have to replace the lock barrel or ignition switch or get bogged down in tracing wiring faults - time for a celebratory coffee!
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