Datsun Roadster Forum-311s.org

hey everyone
let me start from the beginning so everything makes sense.
so, after driving around town for awhile, my grandfather and i parked our 69 2000 in the driveway. then maybe half an hour later we went back to pull the car into the garage. but the car didn’t turn over.
okay, maybe the battery is having issues and needs charged, it’s an old battery.
so we push the car into the garage and charge the battery then try to start it again. still nothing. just clicks from the starter.
okay, well maybe our connections at the starter are loose? so we check everything, tighten everything up, all looks well, still nothing. starter just clicking.
okay, maybe we’ve got a starter issue? so we take out our starter and take it to a local guy that has been rebuilding starters forever to have it rebuilt. so we get the starter back, put it in the car and try again. still nothing, the starter rapidly clicks now.
okay, seems like we don’t have enough juice to the starter and it just can’t turn the motor over. maybe we do have a bad battery.
well, we take it to oreilly to get it tested and it’s still good.
hm, maybe we’ll try a different starter and see what that does. so i research a bit in the forum here and we picked up a forklift starter. part # 23300-K9160. i’m sure many of you are familiar with it.
will this finally solve our issues? nope. the starter still clicks rapidly.
okay, well let’s try a new battery and battery cable, surely that will solve our problem.
nope. it still clicks and struggles to turn the motor over.
some other things we have done are check voltage to the solenoid wire when cranking, it shows 12v so we must be good there. we’ve checked continuity through our harness that goes down to the starter and cleaned it up a bit too. all seems good there.
we have not messed with our alternator at all, but it was rebuilt when we rebuilt our engine roughly a year ago. also, i don’t see how we’d have an alternator problem when even with a brand new battery we can’t get crank whatsoever.
it may also be worth mentioning that we managed to get the car to start a few random times. all of which occurred when the battery charger was hooked up or when attempting to jump it with my grandfathers truck.
thoughts? ideas on other things we should check? we are at a point where our knowledge is not enough to diagnose this issue and we don’t know what to do at this point.
thank you in advance if you’ve read this far and i hope some of you may have some insight!

Hmmmm... electrical stuff is my weakness, but it still sounds like a connection problem... battery cables, connection at the battery or starter, even though you have replaced much and checked for voltage. Since the engine started with the starter with extra power it's not likely that there's some kind of obstruction that's keeping the engine from turning over. I would clean or replace the cables and connections, and check for any not easily observable breaks or weaknesses at cable ends (like at the starter).

Check the ground strap connections to make sure they are tight and clean. One on the battery side of the motor and one ground strap from the starter to the frame.
Loose or corroded ground connections could cause intermittent starting problems.

Hopefully this is the cause.

Cheers
Ray B.

I agree, GROUNDS, GROUNDS, GROUNDS - check them all.
Make sure you have a ground from battery to block, block to frame and starter to frame. When Jumping, you are probably enhancing the ground with the jump vehicle. Try using the jumper cables just as grounds (don't connect any juice!) Just go battery (-) to frame and Battery (-) to block and see if you get any different results. Leave the positive connection as is when you do this, just supplement the grounds with the cables. If this makes a difference you know that the problem lies in the grounds and can rule out one more thing.

3rd vote on the grounding straps. Per a previous thread:

Attached at these locations
1. starter to chassis
2. engine block to chassis
3. alternator to chassis
Plus the battery ground cable to chassis.

thank you everyone for the insight. we haven’t taken a close look at all grounds. that’ll be next!

notoptoy wrote: ↑Wed Apr 20, 2022 3:13 pm I agree, GROUNDS, GROUNDS, GROUNDS - check them all.
Make sure you have a ground from battery to block, block to frame and starter to frame. When Jumping, you are probably enhancing the ground with the jump vehicle. Try using the jumper cables just as grounds (don't connect any juice!) Just go battery (-) to frame and Battery (-) to block and see if you get any different results. Leave the positive connection as is when you do this, just supplement the grounds with the cables. If this makes a difference you know that the problem lies in the grounds and can rule out one more thing.

great idea. i will do this

Yes grounds & batt Conn's 1st
With a multimeter a volts drop test is a quick way to zero in on high resistance , but if the Batts very old have it load tested or replace 311 s are known for the starter copper solinoid swt . getting a high resistance after setting for yrs
With someone holding the key to start ( and it does nothing) try a strong tap to the starter solenoid

area

+1 on grounds! Had recent issue with my other car where I had ground from battery to engine block but no ground to chassis. Addition of ground strap cured it.

well i owe a huge thank you to everyone who suggested double checking ALL grounds. turns out our alternator was not grounded…at all. so i got it grounded and now it turns over no problem! thanks everyone

Yeah! Love to hear when we and you are successful!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=moOkrdmztcM

Here's a auto electrical video that gets the current flow right, many are wrong @ 2:48