Amperage Draw

[Guest shiner]

What is the standard amperage draw by a starter on a 1950 Ford

Flat head Six with 6 Volt negative ground.

Trying to trouble shoot a no start situation.

Any input much appreciated.

Thanks and Merry Christmas.

Brian H

[rons49]

What are the symptoms? You really need to put a gauge on it unless someone knows what it should draw while cranking. According to starter specs, No load is 70amps-torque test is 700amps. Frankly my 308 6cyl hudson pulls @250 on cranking. Are you using any battery shut off? On a 6 volt system they can be a current bottleneck. Cables need to be 00 or close for the most current to get to the starter.

[ply33]

I'm a bit surprised its a 6v negative ground system, I was under the impression that Ford used positive ground back in the 6v era.

A fairly common issue is having some previous owner replace battery cables with modern ones designed for a 12v system. The new 12v cables are too small in diameter and cause too much voltage drop when used in a 6v system that is trying to draw twice the amperage. You might want to check the voltage at both the starter and the battery when you are cranking the engine. Any significant voltage drop between those two indicates the battery cables have issues.

[Guest De Soto Frank]

Ditto Ply33's comments about the ground polarity.

In my experience, all 6-volt Ford equipment was positive-ground.

Also good points about having heavy-enough battery cables (if they're smaller in diameter than your ring-finger (including the insulating jacket), they're too small for six-volts.)

As for the "no start", engine needs the three basic elements:

1) Fuel

2) Compression

3) Spark

I would begin with checking for Spark ( and at the proper time) - points should be set somewhere around 0.015 - 0.018", plugs at 0.025". Once the points are cleaned and correctly gapped, fix the high-tension wire from the tower on the coil so that free-end

(that would normally go into the distributor cap) is about 1/4" from a good ground, and have some one crank the engine over... ideally, you should see/hear a nice fat blue spark every time the points open. If not, there is a problem with the points / condensor / or coil. If the spark is weak and reddish-yellow, that suggests a bad condensor.

Once you have strong spark, double check the ignition timing ( #1 plug firing at #1 Top Dead Center is a good starting place).

Once you have spark at the right time, you can try a little starting fluid down the carb throat and see if the engine tries to fire. If it shows signs of life, then you can work on getting the carb and fuel supply going.

Are you working on a car or truck ? As a youth, I had a very much composted '50 Ford Tudor with a six... not many of those turn-up at shows... everybody wants the flatty V-8...

[Rusty_OToole]

Don't have the figures for Ford six but 1950 Ford V8 Starting motor make = Autolite, Lock test - amp draw = 550, Lock test - volts = 3.75, Lock test - torque = 15 ft. lbs., Drive type = Bendix.

Given that the six and eight were practically the same displacement and horsepower they probably used the same starter. Maybe a Ford fan can confirm or correct this info.

[Guest Jim_Edwards]

What is the standard amperage draw by a starter on a 1950 Ford

Flat head Six with 6 Volt negative ground.

Trying to trouble shoot a no start situation.

Any input much appreciated.

Thanks and Merry Christmas.

Brian H

Brian can you describe the specific nature of what happens when you push that starter button? Many reasons why a car is not starting beginning with a failed starter solenoid, dragging starter, bad ignition switch, issues with the ignition points and weak coil. And of course the ever popular bad ground.