I want to spin my engine over with the Starter

[spectria]

Uneducated question here...

Can I make my starter spin by just pushing a round screwdriver in place of the shaft that comes from the factory?

The starter drive is centrifical, right, so all I need do is make contact inside that little cover..

I know this sounds lame, but I bought a "good used" starter off eBay 3 years ago and I figure to spin my engine over a little now that the head is off and I have cleaned up the cylinders/piston tops and it seems free as I turn it by hand.

[Jared275]

Not sure what you have taken off besides the head but it may just be easier to spin it by the pully on the crankshaft.

[smilebigtt]

I may not fully understand what your saying but if you are trying to turn the engine using the starter No you cant just manaully turn the starter bendix shaft. The bendix is what makes contact with the flywheel ring gear in oder for the starters labor to trun the engine. The bendix works on centrifical force produced by the starter spinning. Therefore, you have to supple electrical power to the starter in order to engage the bendix and trust me, you can't spin that starter fast enough with a screw driver or anything else fast enough.
What you can do is pull the starter off the engine and turn the engine by inserting a flathead screw driver (big one) into the teeth of the ring gear and prying upwards against the bell housing starter hole. Or if you have a crank handle. Or as Jared said turn the it with the pulley.
Just my two cents. tt

[Brian T]

Spectria.
What you are saying is the pushrod is missing at the starter switch? If yes then go ahead, change the engine oil first and then smear some oil on the cylinder walls, spinning it over will collect the junk that as gone down the sides of the pistons.
Brian T.

[SHELBY MESSER]

You should have a starter switch on top of starter, with a tube for the push rod to screw into,just push it down at angle to which it is alined to the hole in firewall. If you don't have a starter switch you can touch the negative - cable to the copper post out of top of starter. one or either way will work. Hope this helps. Shelby, Louisiana.

[spectria]

Not sure what you have taken off besides the head but it may just be easier to spin it by the pully on the crankshaft.

Thanks, Jared.

I have done all of my turning by the crank pulley.

I should have been clearer in my question.

I had never taken apart the starter switch on my AA. If I had, I would have found out that there is a contact post I could contact directly with the + wire from the battery, or I could use a newer style Ford fender mount solenoid and hand held starter switch to accomplish the task of running up the starter.

I was just not thinking straight last night, I think it's early Alzhiemers...

[spectria]

Spectria.
What you are saying is the pushrod is missing at the starter switch? If yes then go ahead, change the engine oil first and then smear some oil on the cylinder walls, spinning it over will collect the junk that as gone down the sides of the pistons.
Brian T.

Thanks, Brian.

The rod for my newer starter is not there... The one in the AA is stuck (frozen) in the existing starter. I just wondered what was going on inside that little dodah on top of the starter, I should have just taken it apart and looked, but I was lazy and I knew someone here knew off the top of their heads...

Basically, I should have asked "What does the rod do?" but, Noooooooo, I had to ask something very unclear...

Thanks everybody...

I plan to take the pan off and clean it before I spin with starter, I have already filled each cylinder up with WD40 and let it slowly drain down the piston, I have cleaned the cylinder walls, the valve train and lifter cavity...


I think it's a miracle that the truck sat in a farmers field since 1965 and when I took of the head, the cylinders had no rust to speak of, even thought the exhaust manifold had broken in two, and had a half inch gap on the top side to invite water in.

[spectria]

I may not fully understand what your saying but if you are trying to turn the engine using the starter No you cant just manaully turn the starter bendix shaft......
Just my two cents. tt

My Fault, being lazy and brain dead...

I had a bear of a time trying to get the engine to turn using the front pulley and a big Snap-on screwdriver as a lever, so hard in fact that I broke off a little piece of the pulley webbing, Darn it! A little more history gone because I was being careless...

I did get it to turn over, and it finally got quite easy, with no apparent slop in the rod bearings, but I will know more when I get the pan off...

[SHELBY MESSER]

Spectria, The charging system on the model A's & AA's are normally positive ground,when you get that far! Shelby, Louisiana.

[spectria]

Thanks, Shelby..

My only experience with this is years of work on MG and Triumph... Darn British!



I wonder what happens if you hook the starter up reverse polarity? Does it turn backwards??

[REM]

The starter does not care which way it is hooked up. It still turns the right direction.
Many A's are running around that have been converted to 12V neg. ground using an original starter.

[spectria]

Thanks Rem...

[Brian T]

Hello Dave,
Lets go easy on the Brits , it was MG and Triumph and a little Jag thrown in that made me leave there in the first place , there was a few others thing also , but we wont go there.
Brian T.

(My only experience with this is years of work on MG and Triumph... Damn British!)

[spectria]

SRY

[spectria]

Update:

This last weekend I took the starter switch cover off and cleaned up the contacts.
I had never seen a manual switch before. It is way simple. After cleaning up the contact, I tried jumping it, and I got it to spin but no engagement. A familiar Ford sound, broken drive spring.

I installed the spare starter I had, and removed the switch cover, cleaned it up.

Jumping it got a solid engagement. I had already drained the gallon of water and 4 quarts of oil out of the pan, ran some solvent through, and then filled with good oil.

I spun the engine over and discovered that the opening on the lower passenger side of the block is an oil supply for the valves, so I put a pan under it and spun the engine for a few seconds... It spun easily and made no unusual sounds.

Who knows... I am going to put the head back on, install the replacement manifold, clean up a carb I have and see if I can't get it to start...

I do need that supply tube from the block to the valve cover. Anybody got a spare???

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