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Thu Jul 17, 2008 10:45 pm

I am new here and am trying to get my 63 to start after 20 years in my garage i have in the past had it running an now i can start the car and it runs by spinning the car over with a drill on the gen but the problem i have i think is with the battery , i get about half a revolution with the starter and then a click click , with a volt meter i have tested the voltage after putting a charge into it for several days and i get 6.40 volts however when i crank th motor over by the key i get less than 1 volt on the volt meter my question is do you think i have a dead battery or is the voltage drop normal for a 6 volt battery?

Thu Jul 17, 2008 11:46 pm

1 volt while cranking? And your checked with your voltmeter leads directly on the battery? That's not good. Should be like 4-5 volts under that kind of load if the battery is weak - more if it's decent. If this has been trickle charged for several days I'm thinking it's probably bad. Now if you are measuring the voltage somewhere else I might also suspect bad power or ground connections in the electrical system.

Fri Jul 18, 2008 5:03 am

Trying to start this thing off the generator is awful hard on the genny! There is a lot of banging going on in both directions as each cylinder fills, then maybe fires.

You can do serious damage to the pulley, the nut and the armature. This stuff is just too little to be turning the engine over this way.

Have you checked and cleaned ALL your battery connections to ground and to the starter? Ground strap on tranny nose cone?

Fri Jul 18, 2008 7:58 am

I was having starting problems too... The battery checked 6.4 volts static.. but when the problem started the battery would drop down to around 3 volts while cranking.. (Charging system ok).. I finally got a new battery... now 6.4 volts static.. 5.5 volts cranking... Turns right over.. I think you need a new battery.. but check out your charging system..

Fri Jul 18, 2008 8:00 am

A bad battery can take a surface charge and read 6V under no/light load, but show its true colors under heavy load and drop to nothing. Sounds like yours.

Fri Jul 18, 2008 10:33 am

thanks everyone great to have the great advise i all so think the battery is shot i have a new starter the battery is two years old and not properly maintained ,dead over the cold winters i will look into a battery tender junior 6 volt thanks again

Fri Jul 18, 2008 11:06 am

A battery can show 6.4v but have a dead cell.. A dead cell will only show up when you put a load on it...

I vote for changing the battery for a know good one.. Any battery you buy will most likelu need a charge when you bring it home..very few place's now a days will have hot battery's on the shelf..

Fri Jul 18, 2008 2:15 pm

i just got back and installed the battery and 2 seconds later the 63 was running so it was the battery . i allso picked up a battery tender for use on a 6 volt battery so now the battery will be at top charge all the time again thanks for the help