[Spridgets] Kent's Bugeye restoration

[Kent McLean]

Engine Compression Check.
The engine turns over by hand. I didn't have a 1.25" open end wrench for the crank nut, and a socket won't clear the frame member, but I did have some 1/8" bar stock that I welded into a wrench good enough to turn the crank.  I did about 1/2 a revolution and it stopped. Hmmm.  The plugs were out, what's stopping it? A frozen valve? I took of the valve cover to watch the vavle action. A little more oomph on the wrench and it got by the stickiness. 2nd revolution it stopped again, but less oomph was required to get by the stoppage. After that, it turned pretty easily. OK, now it's free.

Next step was to do a compression check. I took out the old battery, dropped in a new, charged Optima Red (too early in the process to get it, but if I keep it on a battery tender, it should do OK until I need it), and hooked up the battery cables. Moment of truth: put in the key, turned it, pulled out the starter pull and - nada. The pull didn't pull enough to activate the solenoid. No worries, I just pulled on the other end of the cable at the solenoid. Rr. Rrr. Doesn't seem to be enough juice getting to the starter to spin the engine. Arrrgh!  Time to remove, clean, and reattach the battery cables, and hope the starter is OK.