[Roadsters] Starter click click click... (solved... battery cable...)

[The Ken Pearce]

Thanks for the replies!

I bought a new battery and as I was removing the old one, I saw the culprit.
The heavy black cable that connects the neg battery post to the transmission
plate / housing had come off the gang of wires that attach to my neg terminal.
Easy fix, duh!!!   Moral of the story, after pulling several 8 and 10 hour
sessions, go home, post to the Datsun group, get some sleep and the fix will
probably be easier than originally feared. :)  Starter is fine solenoid is
fine, engine sounds nice as it turns over easily.

My next post will hopefully be a YouTube link to a video of that sweet sound
of a U20 coming back to life after a 5 year rest.

Big thanks to Dean for the thicker head gasket and to Dann for the other
various parts.  Thanks to all the parts suppliers, we can keep these cars on
the road!

Ken
Bellingham, WA
68-2000



From: tom at datsun2000.com
To: ken__pearce at hotmail.com
Subject: Re: [Roadsters] Starter click click click...
Date: Mon, 22 Aug 2011 09:15:08 -0700








My first
impression would be a bad connection between the battery connector and the
cable
running either from the Negative terminal to the engine block or body ground
(block is better) or the Positive terminal and the cable running to the
starter.  Clicking usually indicates that something in the circuit path is
not able to handle the current being asked for by the circuit load.  Did
you use new cables on these two connections to the battery when you put
everything together?  If not I would seriously consider purchasing a new
set of manufactured battery cables.  If the battery connections are repair
connectors I would not hesitate to purchase new cables with the proper
connectors already attached.  Repair cables can easilly corrode, which
reduces the integrity of the contact between the repair connector and the
cable.
I have rebuilt a starter solenoid, and it
is not hard.  But of course you have to remove the starter to do it, and as
you said, that is a bear.  Inside of the solenoid is a large copper
disk.  When you activate the solenoid the disk is slammed into a pair of
large copper contacts.  Over time the contacts leave some of their copper
on the disk and reduce the contact surface available for transferring current
to
the starter motor from the battery.  A file and a ltttle effort can restore
the surfaces to near new again.  If the starter is starting to turn I
suspect the solenoid is doing its job.  The chatter made by the solenoid is
usually caused by the loss of voltage in the poor connection somewhere in the
battery or battery cables when the starter asks for several hundred amps of
current.  Before I tried to rebuild the solenoid I would carefully check
everything else first.
Tom
69 2000 - Mr.
Hyde
Las Vegas
http://www.datsu2000.com
http://www.nowroc.org

On
8/21/2011 11:41:09 PM, The Ken Pearce (ken__pearce at hotmail.com)
wrote:
> Well, I finally got the
engine together and back in the car.  After
> turning it
> over by hand
a few times on the stand to make sure everything felt and
> sounded
> correct I
bolted everything on and put it back in the engine bay.  Once I

> had
> oil
in the engine and the battery hooked up, I turned it over a bit
> without
>
sparkplugs and it was smooth, turning over easy, sounded great
> (meaning I
> didn't
hear anything at all other than a smooth turning engine).  So I

> continued to hook up the fuel system, spark
plugs, cooling system, drive
> shaft, etc
etc etc...  And when I went to turn it over to try and start it,

> "CLICK CLICK CLICK..."   sound of the
solenoid and or starter trying to turn,
>
but it would not turn the engine over.  Easy, my battery was dead, it sat
for
> 3 or 4 years without being charged,
it's
> probably toast.  I put the
charger on
> it anyway for a while, still
just the click click click...  So before
> running
> off to buy a
battery, I tried jumping it using my truck's battery.  Still only

> click click click....
AHHHHHHHH!H!!!!!!  Really?  I get everything buttoned
> up after spending torturous amounts of time under the car
and now the starter