I have heard and experienced (mostly on GMs) that stop-and-go
erranding can increase the heat in large-block cylinders and
expand the piston rings. A symptom I watch for as an indicator of
an aging starter or battery is when the car fails to start when
you've made a bunch of stop-and-go starts, but behaves normally
once the engine cools a few moments (and the rings contract).
With respect to forceful pursuasion methods on starters, one we
use frequently here in the flatlands (and one that I employed just
this week when my '69 Buick starter Bendix became reluctant) is to
open the car door, drop the transmission into neutral and push
with your foot to make the car move a little. While it's moving,
even a tiny bit, you drop the transmission back into park and the
force of the transmission locking can jar the starter back into
action. Often you can actually hear it release. I've had cars
that each want a different method of releasing a captured
starter. I've jumped up and down on the rear bumper of fords and
the front bumper of my Cadillac. I had three late 70s/early 80s
Mercedes diesels that would only respond to a sharp rapping on the
starter when they got stuck, a very inconvenient problem when
you're in a suit. And you haven't lived until you're out with
your boss for lunch and had to jump on the bumper to release your
starter. My '76 Cadillac provided that memory for me, that being
the day before I went out and bought a new starter. Plainly, I'm
cheap and waited too long.
My '70 300 with its gear-reduction starter never gave me that type
of trouble. It had plenty of other problems and never ceased to
drive me insane, but the starter always performed well. I
sometimes called that car "tough love" or worse, depending on what
on-board system was failing me at the moment, yet of all the cars
I've owned and sold, I miss the 300 the most.
Patrick
'58 Southampton project
'69 Electra ragtop w/ "Wildcat" rims
'86 Merecedes 300 SDL (my daily, 237K miles and counting!)
'04 Honda "mini-man" (her daily)
.
----- Original Message ----- From: "Tom Scott" <shelbyguy@xxxxxxx>
To: <mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, August 31, 2006 4:37 PM
Subject: IML: 60 Imperial-starter problem
I was out tooling around in my 60 Crown today running a few
errands. It was cool today, temp right around 70F. The car ran
perfectly throughout the day until the last stop. I ran into the
local WalMart to pick up some film I had developed and when I
came out, she was dead. The temp gauge never moved more than 1/3
of the way to hot the whole day. I had stopped, parked and
restarted the car 4 times within a span of about 20 minutes and
had driven maybe 6 miles or so. When I turned the key to start,
nothing happened at all. I ran through the pushbuttons figuring
maybe the neutral switch was hung up or maybe the pushbuttons
themselves. Everything electrical worked at normal
speed...windows, wipers, etc. Dejectedly, I hoofed it on
home...fortunately I was only a mile or so from home. About an
hour later I went back to the car, turned the key and she started
right up. The starter spun at normal revolutions.
Anybody got a clue as to what might have happened? I'm thinking
either the starter or solenoid overheated but starting the car 4
times in a half hour or so shouldn't overheat them.
There is no corrosion on either the battery or the starter.
Thanx
Tom
60 4 dr Crown Southampton
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