Irma made BW grumpy

[fljab]

I parked BW sideways across one of my garage doors as a hurricane prep before Irma.  It's been starting fine altho sometimes I had to do a charge first and prime the carb, but it would crank and fire up no problem.  I got it parked, it was running fairly well.  

A couple of days later after the storm passed went out to move it back out to it's spot and I can't get it started!  Won't even crank.  Did the battery charge, no go.  Took the battery, new solenoid, and positive cable out of my other '85, nyet.  Can barely even get it to make a sound at all.  

I'm getting power to the solenoid from the ignition, it seems to have enough power in the battery.  I guess I need to start on the hard stuff - crawling under neath and cleaning the lead down to the starter, make sure all the grounds are good, maybe even pull the starter and ensure it's mating to the engine right.

Jeez, what a pain!  Not to mention they had the wrong battery in it (side lugs vs on top, and pos and neg reversed).  No hold down clamp (robbed the one from the parts truck).  If they could find two different fasteners to attach something, that's the way it was done.  The cables are the crappy kind that you clamp the wire down; not sure how to describe it.

What puzzles me is it started/cranked fine before, and now nothing.  I used to own an Izusu truck that would go through starters.  It had a "World Class" which was a cheap rebuild brand from Advance Auto with lifetime replacement.  I replaced it 3 times in 60K miles and they would quit suddenly, but that truck was a small one with a 4 cyl and 5 sp manual, so it would push start fairly easily.  I got to where I could replace those starters in 10 minutes and kept a special wrench I made in the glove box for the back starter bolt.

Dunno, but it looks like a starter system R&R is in my future.  Researching parts now.  I hate to just start throwing parts at it, but I don't like the looks of some of the things I'm finding done by whoever worked on it last.

I have a rebuilt, never used starter for my '85 300 six.  Probably not the same one as for a 351W, but it doesn't cost anything to lay them side by side and compare.

The worst part of this is it's blocking the garage door.  I can't roll it forward because it would run over Mamas prized fig tree and other plants.  Can't go backwards because it's angled into the recess for the door.  My riding mower is in the garage as are my special county supplied garbage bins that they pick up with a powered arm rig.  I'm not sure there's a worse spot for it to be stranded; frustrating for sure.

[Gary Lewis]

Yipes!  Any chance water got in the engine and hydro-locked it?

And, I fully understand what you are running into. Fixing decades or layer upon layer of problems is a huge pain. Onion rings!

[fljab]

That's a thought.  I could pull the plugs and try to turn it over.  It seems far fetched, but that would do it and somewhat easy to check.  It was nosed into the wind at the corner of the house, and I can tell you it was pretty wild Sunday night outside.  Before I start changing components, I'd like to figure out what is going on.

I did go on Advance Auto parts website and looked at starters and the part number for the unused rebuilt starter I have as a spare for the 300 also pops up for the 351W.  I need to pull it anyway and clean things up, so if it matches, I think I'll put it in.

I've only left the house/property once since last week and that was to get more generator gas from a friend that didn't lose power.  My new front yard pond has receded to the point I can get another Festus load of debris!  We saw and talked to a power crew from New York earlier today in the neighborhood.  They were repairing down lines.  They told us FPL will be here "soon" to restore power.

[Gary Lewis]

You can put your faith in the Advanced page, or you can put your faith in what Ford said: Engines/Starters.  Just three clicks away when you are on a forum with integrated factory documentation.  (How many forums can say that?)  

Yes, I'll bet it was crazy!  I've been in intense storms, but nothing like the duration of that one.  Wow!  Hope you didn't have much damage.  I'll bet Festus is earning his keep.

[fljab]

What I'm really going to trust is a visual of the two side by side.  The Ford page link also lists them for both engines + 302.  I know there is a snout (technical term) length difference of ~3/8.  Advance Auto doesn't list separately auto and manual transmission applications, but as I understand it that is why they are different lengths.  I ran into that before and didn't notice the lengths and tore up a brand new, not rebuilt starter.  I got my money back for it, but lesson learned.  From now on will compare side by side regardless of what the computer screen says.  It's hard to find good parts people these days, ya know?  That makes contributors like Number Dummy priceless in my book.

Having lived in Florida well over 30 yrs I have seen and been through some storms.  But this one pretty much topped the list.  We had another one 10+ yrs ago that dumped as much rain, but none of them were as wide spread as this one.  Restaurants and other businesses are just now getting their doors open.  My wife stopped at our small town southern style restaurant yesterday and brought home some food.  Much better than what we can do on our single burner propane stove for sure.  I could go on and on, but bottom line is we were very fortunate vs many people around the state so no complaints.

[Gary Lewis]

Yes, there is a ~3/8" difference between auto and manual transmission starters on the 300/Windsor starters.  Oddly enough, not so for the 335 Series 351M/400.  Don't understand why, but that's a fact, Jack.

As for Bill, he's supposed to be here tomorrow.  He and Chris have been visiting all sorts of old Ford buildings in Texas and Oklahoma, and I can't wait to see what they've found.

Anyway, I hope things get sorted for you and all the others soon.  Our son's in-laws live in Ocala and they are still w/o power as well.  But, some people have it far worse.

[fljab]

I got power back today, so that's good news.  On the BW front, I pulled the starter and no, it didn't match up to the one I had as a spare due to the length (auto vs manual).  I took it in to the parts place and got a new one, along with the correct battery, solenoid, and some cables and other bits.  They did test the starter and it was no good.  It failed the "majic smoke" test immediately.  I'll get back on it tomorrow.  I have the trickle charger on the battery now.  

[Gary Lewis]

Lots better than having water in the engine. And glad you have power back. 👍

[fljab]

I got it running this morning.  Could have had it yesterday, but something about being in direct sunlight @90+ degrees made me put off the final bits to this morning.  I still need to revamp my cables as I think the grounding system needs help, but it starts and runs and I got it out from in front of the garage door.  Mama is happy and that's the big thing!

So, how did the International FTE meet go?

[Gary Lewis]

Glad you got it running.  And, momma being happy is paramount.

The international show is next year - September 15th to be exact.  But this year's "domestic" show went well.  I'm going to write it up in a bit and post some pics.

However, just fyi, FTE had nothing to do with it.   Heretofore my get-togethers have been associated with FTE because I was hosting them in their name and gave away their lanyards and stickers, although I was funding the get-togethers.  This year was the first to be a full-blown show & swap meet with trophies, banners, signs, ballots, and other expenses.  In addition Tim Meyer came with his engine goodies, and Miller welders were there to allow folks to try their hand at welding and plasma cutting.  Plus we had a small concession stand.

But when I asked FTE for lanyards and stickers to give out they didn't even respond for two weeks, and when they finally did they didn't provide anything.  With other things that were going on between myself and IB/FTE at the time, that was the straw that broke the camel's back and I disassociated all of my efforts from FTE, once and for all.  

[fljab]

Got it.  I'll be looking forward to the write up!

[Gary Lewis]

It is in the Picture Gallery.