Bill,
I had a similar problem, only with charging rather than not starting and it
turned out to be the battery connection to the starter that was a bit loose.
It does tend to get oily on the starter and vibrates a lot. Be careful
about overtightening the nut on the starter as it is brass and will strip
if you get too energetic tightening it up. I used a little sand paper to
clean up the joining surfaces before tightening up. You might want to
disconnect one of the battery terminals before removing and cleaning up the
starter cable.
Dave 72 B
-----Original Message-----
From: Bill Saidel <saidel@crab.rutgers.edu>
To: mgs@autox.team.net <mgs@autox.team.net>
Date: Tuesday, June 27, 2000 6:05 AM
Subject: what else to try?? small starting electrical problem
>Man, am I glad I don't live in the South. 90 degree weather with 95-98%
>humidity is not fun.
>
>Ok, here's an annoying problem and what I did with it. I'm looking for
>other ideas to try.
>
>98% of the time, the car starts fine. No problem...runs fine...lots of fun.
>But that other 2%, the key goes into the ignition, nothing...nadda...zip.
>No sound. No alternator light. No anything.
>So I think battery and wiggle the cables on the battery.
> Starts right up.
>
>So I removed the ground wire, cleaned it, used my Dremel to clean the
>chassis area where it
>connects, replaced bolts to remove old, rusty, original ones (is this a
>modification?), tightened everything down, and
>of course it starts fine. Wed. the no-go happened again. (You
>mathematicians might note the 2% failure rate is rising.)
>So I did the same with the cable to the plus end of the battery, and really
>tightened that sucker.
>
>If I assume I took care of the problem, it'll happen this evening.
>
>Where else might I recondition connections (the starter motor??) and, ugh,
>should I think the ignition???
>
>Gremlins like this I could do without.
>
>Bill
>'76B, newly insured with Hagerty! (a shameless plug because it saved me the
>price of the junked engine I'm looking for)
>
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