Today being a nice day here in the upper right corner of the country,
I tried to fire up the Spitfire. No go. So I hooked up my faithful
portable starter battery. Just a very slow whirr--wrr--wrr. Not
even close to being fast enough to fire. My neighbor happened to be
watching so he grabbed his portable starter battery. Still nothing
but a very slow whir--wrr--wrr. So I cleaned up the terminals on the
solenoid, the starter, the bell housing, and the chassis. Actually,
there is a line directly from the battery ground to the chassis and
another from the battery ground to the bell housing. Still no go.
This behavior has been coming on for several years, the starter
seeming to have less and less oomph at turning the engine against the
compression. Something, either the wiring or the solenoid or the
starter motor, is eating up all the juice. Or, more techncially
preventing any from getting through. The wiring is easy to replace.
Solenoids and starters cost money though. So I'm open to
suggestions. Is there historical precedent (well, we are in the
midst of a pecedential campaign, are we not?) for starters getting
weaker? Or solenoid terminals to crude up such that it still closes
and the starter still turns but just has too much resistance?
Tanks,
Jim Muller
jimmuller@rcn.com
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