VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND NEWER 1946-1948 47 Chevy Starting Issue

Hello All,

I have a 47 Chevy Fleetline with the original 216 engine. Over the last few weeks I have been experiencing a occassional starting problem. Occassionally after running the car and then turning the car off I cannot get the engine to turn over when I try to start it. I notice that the fuel gage operates OK when I turn the ignition on but will drop to empty when I try to start the car (the engine will not turn over). If I remove the positive connection on the battery and reconnect it, the car will start like nothing is wrong.

Does anyone have any ideas of where I should look for the problem?

As always thanks for the help.

Perol

short across the solinoid with a screw driver. If the starter cranks look for a bad resistor in the wire from the starter switch to the solinoid. replace that wire if you cannot find the resistor

Do the easiest things first....like disconnecting the positive and negative battery cables and cleaning the terminals. Also clean both the positive and negative posts on the battery.

Make sure that you have a good ground.

I agree that cleaning the battery posts and cable ends is the first thing to do. Once clean coat them with some grease either dielectric or chassis or Vaseline. Yes grease. It will keep the acid gasses from corroding the terminals and still permit a good contact between the posts and cable ends.

Just curious, Does the '47 have a polarity reversing switch? Could it have any effect on starting?

Thanks for the ideas guys. I don't know if the 47 has a polarity reversing switch. I have been disconnecting the negative ground at the battery when I do not use the car. It is possible that I did not connect it correctly. It happened again tonight - this time I had no power to the headlights and the engine did not turnover. I disconnected the negative ground at the battery and reconnected it and the car started fine. I will make sure all the connections are clean and tight tomorrow.

Thanks again.

Perol

The polarity reversing switch is mounted on top of the starter. Its to the rear of the starter switch, round with three wires attached. Also a link going from the reversing switch to the starter lever. Yours may be removed or disconnected. They generally caused strating problems for a number of reasons. It could cause the engine to not start but the starter will still spin the engine over.
As mentioned you may have poor cable to battery post connections or the cables may be rotting away inside of the insulation on the positive or just internally on the ground.If there is any doubt about the cables I would suggest replacing them. A farm and auto supply store will have nice fat positive cables and also a good ground strap. Both should be less than $20.00.

Good advice. Twice in my life have had a similar circumstance that was the result of a loose battery cable arcing and creating what I will call a carbon block to power flow. Cleaning the terminals cured it. Both times when this occured one could hear an arcing sound when the key was turned.