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H won't turn

A

Anonymous-0

Well-known Member
My H engine rebuild is done but I won't get the tin and a few other things done for awhile. To day I installed the starter since I wanted to hook up the new battery and make sure the starter works OK. The engine was not running when I bought the H. I put a new bushing and bendix in it and it turns strong on the bench but it won't turn the engine over. It will only it turn a few degrees each time I engage the starter. It is 6 volt and I am using a pair of fairly small gauge jumper cables to hook up the battery. Could this be the problem. Also, the engine seems a little tight. I can barely turn it over with my hands on the crank pulley with the plugs out. How tight should it be??
 
start with a good set of battery cables. 6 volt systems draw twice the amperage of 12 volt systems. Good 6 volt cables will be about twice as big as cables on a 12 volt system to handle this. Have you had the engine apart, or could it just be dry from sitting? My H was stuck when I got it. I tried all the tricks to free it with out disassembly, no luck. We got it apart and managed to free up everything. I put it all together with new gaskets and all the old parts, just honed the cylinders. It seemed a little tight at first, but runs real good now! (I have trophies to prove it) If your engine hasn"t been apart I"d put a couple tablespoons of oil in each cylinder, leave the plugs out and hand crank it over several times. Good luck!
 
Buy a pair of 00 battery cables and clean all connections until shiny. That includes where the battery is grounded on the tractor. Did you check the clearances on your bearings? Hal
 
Yep. 6 volts takes heavy wire to carry the amps. i always remember what my first employer always said. He was an old mechanic and learned the trade in the great depression. He would say "when they went to 12 volts the auto makers stole half the copper out of your car"
 
A 6 volt system dont set the world on fire to begin with as far as fast cranking speeds even in a worn engine so a newly overhauled one is even harder to crank. Id start with the absolute biggest heaviest highest rated battery that will fit in the box and USE 00 GAUGE BATTERY N STARTER N GROUND CABLES (all bright clean shiny connections). I think I would just pull start it a few times n let her do some preliminary breaking in n then see how she cranks with BIG CABLES and a good heavy well charged battery.

John T
 
A few things come to mind. Did you do the overhaul yourself. If so, did you double check all clearances on your bearings? If your clearances are too tight it makes for a tight engine and trouble if you ever do get it started. Secondly, did you lube all your parts well when reassembling? This makes a huge difference too. If someone else did the rebuild I would talk to them. If they are confident about the clearances then proceed to get the heaviest cables you can and the stoutest 6V battery you can lay your hands to. Do you have a hand crank for the tractor? If so you should be able to turn the thing over with the plugs out.
 
I did the rebuild. I've done 5 previous with no issues. I checked all of the bearing clearances and ring end gap
 
If you can turn ut at the crank pulley W/O plugs in it, you are good to go. That is an indication that things are OK in a new engine.
Jumper cables on a 6 volt system will not do the trick (especially the 8gauge booster cables often described as jumper cables. With the distances involved it would take OOOgauge welding cables to do a good job. The tractor needs at least ))gauge cables installed for normal operation, and those are as short as possible. It is fine, Put the battery in the box fully charged, and it will crank well. JimN
 
Just in case you haven't gotten enough of a repetition on the value of fat battery cables, I actually have had two no-start conditions caused by resistance building up in battery cables that were too light. The former owners must've grabbed whatever was around and that got them going again. I got a deal on some fine-stranded fat copper cables so now I just replace any cables I don't know the history of. I just want to eliminate one possible doubt right off the bat. These were both 12V systems so it goes double for the 6V.
 
Jumper cables alone are just not going to cut it, no matter what gauge wire they are made with. The clamps and the ends are going to be the limiting factor. A clamp is not going to have enough surface area in contact with the starter terminal to flow enough current to crank your engine.

If you can turn the engine by hand with the front pulley it would indicate that the drag is completely normal for a fresh overhaul.
 
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