Degeraths

Nothing wrong with the ground... but this might be part of the problem. Discovered this today when I took the whole thing apart for inspection.

PM sent.

If you want I would be happy to do a partial trade for mine so at least you would get a nice core and some cash in return for your working starter. Never hurts to have a core.

It did work. I've only had the car about three weeks and it always has been slow to crank the engine since I got her. I had a 1927 Dodge before this and that would crank over as fast as a modern car so I just figured the 6 cylinder engine on the Chevy is just a slower crank. But since I have been driving it around it has gotten worse and worse and now it's at the point where there is no hope of it actually starting the car. It mimics a dead battery and that is originally what I thought was going on, but the battery test showed that it was fine. I first noticed that it would seem to crank the engine over fine when everything was cold. But once everything got hot after an afternoon drive, trying to restart her was much, much more difficult. To the point that I didn't want to turn the car off until I was in my driveway for fear that I would get stuck somewhere. I also noticed that the battery terminals would get warm/hot when trying to start the car. If you could check on the spare starter and let me know how much you want for it I would greatly appreciate it.

The ground is attached to the transmission. The battery is fully charged and although it is only rated for 600 CCA's, that should be enough at full charge to at least turn the engine over more than perhaps three revolutions before stopping. I just got done taking the starter completely apart and cleaned and polished every single contact component, blew it all out with high pressure air and wiped every contact surface with grease remover. The thing is practically sterile.... I put it back in the car and is made absolutely NO difference whatsoever. I am so angry I had to walk away before I put a hammer through the windshield. I really needed this car for something coming up very soon and now I am not sure what to do at this point. There are rebuilding kits online for this that replace every basic component except the case, but I have no idea how well those would work. I wish I could just find someone with an extra starter that wants to sell. I tried putting a wanted post for a starter on several Facebook Groups and all I got was about 25 PM's from obvious scammers.

I was doing that when you replied... 😄 No joy on that theory unfortunately. ☹️

That's not a bad idea. But I don't think my current ground (ribbon cable) is long enough to reach. I would have to find a new ground wire of suitable length and diameter.

You sound like you definitely experienced EXACTLY what I’m dealing with and yes, it is intensely frustrating knowing that I can’t trust the car to start again if I take it for a drive somewhere. I mean, what’s the point of owning a car like this if you drive it?? I can’t thank you enough for your insight and I believe I am likely dealing with the same issue you did and will focus on following your lead. As luck would have it, the Filling Station is only about an hour and a half away so I’ll be calling them on Monday and seeing if they sell the proper 6v components for a rebuild or perhaps have an old useable starter in stock.

Okay, here is the issue the car is having. When trying to start the car I find that the starter is only able to turn the engine over around 1 revolution per 1.5, 2 seconds. This results in the typical cranking one would associate with a nearly dead battery. Fully charging the battery seems to have little to no effect. The battery has been taken to a battery store to be tested and was found to be fine, producing a little over 6v and just a few over 600 CCA's, as per the specs on this battery. The cables are the proper 6v rated and all of the connections, both ground and positive have been properly checked, cleaned and tightened. I have taken the starter apart and cleaned it thoroughly, cleaned connection points and oiled where it needed it. It had no effect on the issue. I removed the spark plugs on the engine and tried the starter and found that it was able to easily spin the engine without the compression pushing back, confirming (thankfully) that my engine was not partially seized. The engine itself was rebuilt not long ago by a previous owner and the compression is quite tight and since this is a straight six, which are notoriously heavy engines for a starter to turn, I suspect the tighter than normal compression coupled with the already heavy turn over might be a struggle for the starter to handle? I was told that this kind of engine really should have a 6v battery with at least 800 CCA's to turn over quickly and consistently, but I will say that this current system seemed to work without much issue with the previous owner, but, he didn't drive the car nearly as often as I do and that added amount of use might have worn both the battery and the charger down a bit? I would be interested to hear your thoughts regarding what you believe could be the issue here. Do you think it is a battery that simply doesn't have the CCA's for the engine? Or do you suspect that the starter motor might be bad? I will also add that when the engine starts it runs EXTREMELY well and has no mechanical issues that would result in a problem starting. The problem is that the starter is simply unable to turn the engine over fast enough for reliable starting before it dies completely and is unable to even turn the engine over at all. Even with the battery fully charged I get perhaps 5 to 10 slow revolutions before it stops all together and is unable to crank the engine again. Thoughts?

Wow... that was rude. Seeing as most of the people who own these cars are old enough to have played cards with Moses, I would worry more about your future estate sale and less about what happens to my car.

Well, I thought I would give you an update on Sophie. I put her up for sale on Monday and she was gone by the next day. She sold for just shy of 10k and I purchased her about three months or so ago for 5k and put about $700 into her to fix her up a bit. For those of you who think that the market is soft, I have to disagree to a point. I don't think the market's soft, I just think some sellers have higher expectations of value than the market does. A soft market usually means that people just aren't buying these cars because they are not interested. I don't believe that is the case at all. I had a TON of people inquiring about my Dodge in just a 24 hour period, to the point I had to silence my phone overnight because of the messages I was getting about her all night. I was realistic about the actual value of the car and not using my love of antique vehicles as a gauge of worth. In the condition Sophie was in and her huge limitations as a vehicle (hardly any power, can't go over 35mph, little to no braking power on a good day), then I would say nearly 10k is not bad at all. She was gone by yesterday morning and I got higher than what I was asking for her when I posted her for sale in this group. I ended up buying this beautiful 1931 Chevy Independence, which I purchased for less than what I sold my Dodge for, and this car is not only in much, much better condition than my Dodge was, it also can go 50+ and stops on a frick'n dime. I just thought I would give you all a view into the market from my perspective. I agree that it is definitely a buyers market out there right now, but I don't think the market is flat, I just think there are a lot of people who have priced their cars based on love and memories and not on practical curb appeal or realistic expectations of value. I had no problems at all selling the Dodge, even with her problems in tow. I was just realistic about how much people are willing to spend. I asked this groups members and several others for their opinion on resale value of my Dodge and got everything from... "Don't take less than 16k" to "If you priced it at 5k it would probably still sit for months if not years at that price, no one wants four door closed cars". Both opinions of value were drastically wrong. For those of you out there trying to sell your cars and having no luck, bite the bullet and lower your price and broaden your scope a bit. The interest is out there, there doesn't seem to be a lack of it in my experience anyway. I sold mine on Craigslist and had a ton of interest from that platform.

No one was chastised. I just questioned the validity of an estimate that was so much lower than just about everyone else's who has been kind enough to respond. A simple browse through recent sales would indicated a higher price than 5k. She is worth more than that as parts, so I would say that a running, driving vehicle ready for use could command a better price than just five thousand dollars.

Well, there is no substantial market for any cars of this age anymore, but I will say that I have asked this question on several different sites and so far you are by far and away the lowest estimate. I don't believe I am going to break anyone's bank but I don't believe that a car of this quality, in running, driving condition is worth only 5k. It seems that the average value estimate so far seems to run anywhere from 8k to 12k in her current condition.

I would love some input from the hive mind. I am curious as to what you all would think would be a realistic and reasonable asking price for my car? I don't think that I am that eager to sell her but I have been browsing two doors and think that it might be something I would be interested in. So if something was to come up it would be a matter of selling mine to finance the purchase of another. Therefore I would be interested to see what you all might think would be a reasonable asking price. She is a 1927 Dodge Brothers, Four Door Deluxe Sedan. Not entire sure of the exact model number. Body is straight as an arrow. No damage or issues that I can find. She runs and drives well. Good transmission and engine, very reliable. Recently rebuild the water pump and cleaned out the radiator. Stays cool even on 90+ degree days. Has an electric fuel pump. Starts right up and runs smooth. Just got done dialing in her timing as well. She has a BRAND NEW muffler and exhaust line, from the manifold to the end pipe, all new. No major rust issues underneath, just standard surface rust on the frame. Interior is in good shape as well. Her seats have recently been entirely redone and look amazing! Dash looks great, oil pressure gauge works, amp meter and speedometer are a bit glitchy. All of her lights work, including the dash light and dome! The roof will need to be recovered at some point. The door panels and interior walls would eventually need new covering. The previous owners did a quick job but it could look better. Headliner is redone but looks nice. Overall she is a solid runner with no issues that some minor tinkering wouldn't fix. I drive her weekly and she is reliable and fun to drive. I am just curious, what would be a good asking price for her if I did decide to let her go?

Understood and I will of course be careful, but every single example of failure that resulted in injury that I could find was ALWAYS related to some massive truck tire or giant tractor rim being filled with many, many, many times more pressure. I have not yet found a single reference for someone with a 35psi classic car tire such as mine having such an event take place. You would think all of the cautionary statements and warnings I have gotten would have at least some documented evidence or examples out there.

Thanks for the detailed instructions, but I'll be honest, most of the "do it carefully or it will kill you" things I have found on the net are in regards to giant truck tires and massive pressure AG vehicle tires that use pressure rings. The tire I am inflating is going up to a whopping 30-35 psi. Not exactly the kind of pressures that will have the explosive effect some think it will. I will certainly be careful as you should when inflating any tire, but I'm not entirely sure it is quite the nuclear device that is being expressed here?

Been searching on the net to no avail... How do you remove the tire/tube from a disk rim?

Not the same pump as mine.

AAAAH HAAA!!!!! Then I think I may have found the problem. I will check again today and make absolutely sure but I think you may have made the winning diagnosis. In theory, I should be able to drain the water, remove the hose that it attached to the top of the pump and then crank the engine and be able to tell if the impellor is working or not.

I will say that if I fill the radiator to the point where I can look in the tank and see the water while the engine is running I don't see any noticeable movement of the water at all. There is no flow. Would I easily be able to see the water being moved around by just looking in the fill cap?

The lever is all the way down when started and I move it upwards as my speed and rpm's increase.

Okay... never heard of pump sealing rope? Is this something I have to make or can I buy it?

Interesting, that might be something I could try. It seems that the water pump on mine would be pretty easy to remove and take a look at. Any tips on how to repack the shaft?

Okay, so here's what's going on and I am hoping that someone here might have some insight into what is happening with my car. I have a 1927 four door sedan. She starts right up, seems to run smooth, but will boil over after even as little as two or three miles of driving. I have flushed the radiator several times and it seemed to help very slightly and a lot of brown water came out, but it didn't solve the problem. Yesterday I drove her to a mechanic shop that I use for my regular cars and had him look at the radiator with his thermal camera while the car was at idle and very hot and it showed pretty even distribution of heat, no cold spots. The temp at the top of the radiator was around 190 and the bottom about 130 or so. So, I don't think it's the radiator. I have asked in other groups and have gotten suggestions that the timing may be off and that can cause overheating, but the engine runs and idles smooth, so it doesn't, at least to my ear seem like a timing issue. There has also been a suggestion that she is running either too rich or too lean, but again, none of the signs of that seem to be present. The plugs are clean when I looked at them (remarkably clean actually) and if memory serves from my younger days of restoring VW's, if a car is running lean then plugs would be white and too rich, black. Neither seems to be the case here. She does tend to backfire when hot and driving. She will sometime have a couple of internal pops when shifting from 1st to 2nd, and then sometimes an exhaust bang when shifting from 2nd to 3rd... and occasionally when I engine brake in 3rd. I thought that it might be a blown head gasket, but I am not blowing any white smoke at all and there are no bubbles in the radiator water while running. She does lose a LOT of water somehow though, in fact in one drive that was about 12-15 miles it took nearly 2 gallons of water to refill her. There is a small drip leak at the water pump packing nut, but just the occasional drip, nothing that would account for nearly 2 gallons. The radiator cap doesn't fit well and I will see quite a bit of water bubbling out when it gets hot and driving down the road. The threads on the radiator cap are pretty worn and the cap doesn't seem to seat well or seal. Her stock fuel vacuum system is gone (wasn't there when I got her) and has been replaced by an electric fuel pump with a pressure regulator that I believe is currently set at 1 psi, with room to drop it to .5 psi if needed. So, I would love to hear your thoughts as to what might be happening to cause the overheating. As I said, she seems to run well, starts easily, in fact when she is warm just a simple tap of the foot on the starter is enough to make her run, so quickly in fact that often times the starter doesn't even come close to a single revolution before she is running.