48 LC No Start,slow turn over,12 volt Hotwire ???????

[Classic Cars]

I have sent dist to Jake Fleming and had engine running. Still had hard starting and looked for furthur improvements. Spark was weak and not same on all cylinders. Replaced ignition resistor, condensors, new terminal plates and installed a carb repair kit all to no avail. Have question quality of gas in tank so now am running line from five gallon tank.I pulled the starter and can't see anything (not tested, was new rebuilt when I got car) Have now replaced battery eve

vn tho it tested ok. Have seen slight improvement in starter speed.Still won't sart but seems close. Have checked voltage at coil posts and get 6.1 and 2.97 with ignition on.Would like to know how put 12 volts to starter but not affect points or coil. I have put 2 6volt batteries in parallel to overcome posible weak battery but have seen no change in starter speed. Spark is weak on both banks when turning over. I have run out of ideas, hope there is some smarts out there. THX

[Rolf]

HMMMM, an awful lot of variables there, did you send the coil to Jake too? The uneven and weak spark sounds like a coil that is breaking down, what is the compression on the cylinders? If over 120 it could affect the starter speed, and if the engine is just rebuilt it could be set up too tight, and just needs to run for a couple of hours to work out the tight spots. I don't think 12 volts is the answer, a 6 volt system will start a V-12 faster than you can get your finger off the start button, too tight an engine and a bad coil seem the most probable to me, good luck, and keep us informed

[DizzyDale]

Dear Classic,Have you checked ALL grounds?Do you have a ground running from the engine to the frame or firewall?diz

[zman]

Ok let's see some past exp.That starter is heavy

and requires a small clip hanger that fit's on the

top long bolt that secures the starter to the bell

housing and the other end is serured to the closest

pan bolt, Ths will keep the starter from binding

Also if it's a 12 volt system make sure that it's

negative grounded to the bell housing and not the

other way around

Zman

[mrpushbutton]

What gauge battery cables are on the car now? Did Lincoln use a braided ground strap?--those straps can carry a lot of current. How are the bushings in the distributor? I have seen rebuilt engines with the same tired old distributor put right back on it. are all battery connections clean and tight?

Don't convert to 12V--6V systems can crank over just fine. They are less forgiving than 12V and there are aspects of 6V that people don't quite follow, like the need for heavy gauge wire and the importance of clean connections.

[Mike Cullen]

The voltage to the coil seems goofy. clean the terminals on the ballast resistors behind the dash, check the wires and connections, IIRC, you should have between 4-5V on both of them. (having 6V on one makes me think you have an open or nearly so somewhere. in order to get the voltage drop across a resistor you need to have current flow, no current path, you will read source voltage) The slow cranking is also likely poor connections or bad cables and grounds. A fresh tight engine will "loosen up" after a couple hours running and a few heat/cool cycles. I'd bet that at least 1/2 of all electrical complaints with 6V systems can be corrected with clean tight connections and a dab of NO-OXide grease.

[Classic Cars]

You guys are a big help and I will bring you up to date. I got her running today for about a half an hour. The engine just died and wouldn't start again. It could be fuel as I was feeding out of a 5 gal. can. Will give another try tomarrow. I read all of your suggestions and proceeded as follows. Added another ground cable to engine to body. Pulled spark plugs, wiped clean, checked gap and torqued to 18#. Pulled carb and changed power valve, charged new battery to 6.45 volts. Tried start and noticed the starter seemed faster and finally had engine catch, amen. Engine sounded good after it warmed up.Idle screws now respond and spark looked very good. When engine died, I have had this happen before and always figured it was fuel problem but now think I may have coil braking down as spark looked bad. Jake checked coil when he set up distributor before and now awaiting his hot spark relay for starting. Am not home yet but the V12 was music to my ears today. I will keep you posted. THX again.

[Guest imported_V12Bill]

Your reading of 4.5v and 6v on the two posts of the coil are probably correct. It depends on whether or not the points are open or closed.When you get it running again check the spark on each bank at the plugs to see if you get a good spark to jump at least 3/8 or more. If it is 1/4 or less you probably have a bad coil. Check each bank because there are two coils inside that bakelight case.

[Classic Cars]

Thanks for all your help. I wemt back to Jake Fleming and got his hot wire start relay and wish to tell everyone that it really works. Just ran into a new problem when I raised the window on the passenger side ( it didnt work) I found it had what I thought what was a paint overspray.Unfortunately it appears this was a sand blast that hit the window. Has anyone had any luck in trying to remove the scratches. Its very light but noticeable. THX

[abelincoln]

I had similar problems with unequal voltages at the coil, even with the engine running. Pulling the distributer and filing the points with a points file from the auto parts store seemed to help a lot. Apparently one set wasn't conducting much current.

The starter will run fine on 12 volts, but you need to add a resistor in series with the ignition resistors. I used 1.2 ohms. Mine was a 25 watt resistor, which got quite warm. Now I'd look for a 50 watt resistor. Remember to unplug fuses and disconnect gages if you are later going back to 6 volts to prevent damage. Also, don't turn on lights or step on the brake.

Abe