Starting Issues

1967 CJ5 with the 225 t90 2gc setup. Issue is that after driving for more than 20 mins or so, it will not fire back up. I get the fast clicking from the solenoid. I had this issue about 2 months ago and found that it was just a loose wire on the back of the alternator. This time around all connections are tight and clean. All it takes is hooking it up to jumper cables and it immediately fires right up. No charging is necessary, it'll start up and idle fine until the next time I take it farther than a run around the block, then back to no start. The battery does get steadily weaker the longer drives I take. Starting and charging system are:

-Reman starter
-New 37 amp alternator
-Voltage regulator
-new cables and ground straps that are all tight and clean
-new battery

All of these parts are new/reman as of 8 months ago. I haven't taken any parts to get tested yet, just seeing if anyone has any advice before I start removing and replacing things.

 

The battery is not being recharged. Either something is wrong with…wait a minute…you have an alternator and a voltage regulator? Doesn’t the alternator have its own internal VR?

 

Its a reman motorola with the external voltage regulator.

 

A battery in good shape will tend to recharge itself (recover) after setting for several hours. If you are trying to remain as stock as possible, you have the Motorola alternator and external regulator. Remove both and take them to a good parts house for testing or a good auto electric shop. Replace as required.

 

New parts are always suspect, especially in recent years.

New battery or solenoid may be defective when warm. But sounds more like recharge voltage is not sufficient = possibly defective regulator or a poor connector in the voltage sensing cicuit.

 

Fire up your Jeep, let it run for a bit and measure the voltage at the battery with lights, heater, etc. on, at about 1500 - 2000 rpm. Use a good meter with a fairly large scale. The voltage should be between 13. 8 and 14.2 volts, or close. If you are not measuring that, then something is wrong with your charging system.

If you can get a DC amp clamp meter and put it on your positive battery wire at the same time, see how much current is being drawn. Stop the Jeep , leaving the amp clamp turned on and on the battery cable. Hook up your voltmeter to the main battery connection to the starter -- at the starter. When you hit the starter, see what it reads. If your battery is charged, it should not go lower that about 10.2 volts to roll the starter/engine. If it does, you may have a defective battery, or starter. If your starter seems to draw an excessive amount of current, say upwards of something around 100 amps with a warm engine, you may have a bad starter.

Double check your connections to the start solenoid and make sure they are tight. I had a new vehicle once where apparently they missed tightening this when it was manufactured. Found the problem, but the solenoid stud threads were so messed up from the arcing contact that the nut couldn't be tightened. The starter had to be replaced.

Let me know what happens...

 

He's getting a "fast clicking" from the solenoid, so I'd guess it's not the starter itself. Usually that indicates a low voltage situation.

 

I agree Pete. But if he has a short somewhere, or high resistance in the circuit, it can create the same situation. That is why I am wondering what voltage he is reading at the starter along with the current draw. Usually the solenoid doesn't draw a lot of current, and just pulling the solenoid in should not decrease his measured voltage by much at all. But once that solenoid pulls in and the battery tries to turn his starter, this is when a problem with a short or high resistance in the circuit would show up. If the voltage at the starter itself drops enough, the solenoid will pull out and then pull in again once the system voltage builds up because of the load having been removed. This will repeat over and over again. Anything causing a lowered battery voltage will do this. I am just trying to help him isolate it. Hope you are having a good weekend. I would be, but my Jeep is down. Brake issues and waiting for parts...

 

BTW, I like your signature line. I think I told you this before, but women with chain saws can get my attention, too....

 

All good points, Eti Engineer.

 

Nope. Found out that when the weather got warmer, my shoes expand to make contact with the drums. Then they just get hotter and expand -- kind of a thermal run-away. I noticed my shoes aren't made the way they should be. They all were the same size. According to what I know from my past, my Jeep is supposed to have a primary (small pad) shoe which goes in the front and a secondary (large pad) shoe which goes on the rear side of the backing plate. I have found the shoes I want with a pix that shows that each set has one primary and one secondary shoe in it. I am awaiting their arrival. Once this happens, I will install them, get the cams adjusted correctly and see what happens. Thanks for the inquiry...

 

back in the late 60's and thru to late '70's GM had a problem with the starter getting hot from it's proximity to the exhaust manifold on that side. The starter would not spin the engine after enough miles for every thing to get hot. Then you would have to jump it, or leave it set long enough to cool down and work.

Actually needed some kinda heat shield installed to take care of that problem

 

I had the alternator and starter checked this morning. Both passed the the test multiple times. I went ahead and picked up a new voltage regulator and installed it. Charged up the battery and let it warm up. Doing the battery test as stated, 1500 RPM with lights on, measured as 12.58 volts. I'm flying solo today and don't have any clamp leads so I wasn't able to do all the test.

As far as the battery getting weaker as I drive it, i thought of it like that because my last few trips were:

to gas station- starts up fine
gas station to home depot- couple of clicks, fires up
home depot to record store- multiple clicks, slow roll over, then fire up
record store to the house- turn off in driveway, fast clicking, no engine turn over, battery dead

That would be about 40 mins of driving and around 15 miles. Quick trips no issue but after multiple days in a row of driving it just seems to get weaker the more trips I make.