Starter trouble.

I know I could search but when your already irritated It never seems to help so, I'm asking yu guys.

Its an iron headed 528, timing locked at 36, small vacuum cam. digital 6 ignition with the start retard.

Its kicking back and killing starters. Three DB starters in the last 4 or 5 times out. One broke a tooth on the bendix, one the whole end cap broke off, and one chewed up the teeth on the plastic gear that the three smaller gears turn inside.

Couple of things I'd like to know. What color wires do the msd pickup wires tie to on the dizzy? right now I have the green msd wire to the purple on the dizzy, and the purple msd wire to the red on the dizzy.

Is there any way to see if the start retard is working?

Could the dizzy phase be giving me problems?

Any thing else?

This is my opinion and mine alone. Get rid of the lockedout dizzy or crank trigger. They are starter killers. Have someone setup a ford duraspark to come in full advance somewhere around 2500 rpm and chances are your starter troubles will be over. They are just a big pita. jmopo of course.

check the rotor phase, there is no reason your setup wont worki if the phase is correct.

richter69 wrote:check the rotor phase, there is no reason your setup wont worki if the phase is correct.

Yep, or loose the retard box.

Per MSD's site, you have the pickup connections correct for a stock Ford dizzy -



Make sure your locked-out dizzy has no free play from the rotor to the shaft - any play causes erratic timing. To test the start retard, empty the carb & kill fuel supply so you can crank it without risk of ignition/kickback. That way you can take timing readings while cranking (static).

I put another db starter in and disabled the start retard. Spun it over with the ignition off, two pumps on the throttle and she fires up as soon as i switch the ignion on. I did it the same way when it was around 200*. Started fine.

That'll work.

Went to a race this weekend and on a side note q16 is some mean stuff, but the issue is cranking again.. i tried to crank it the same as last, but this time instead of firing up when i switch the ignition on the engine slows down and misses a few times and then cranks. When its hot it does the same but worse. What could be causing this?

How many cold cranking amps is your battery? How big are your battery cables?

Two optima reds. About 800-900 each. Number 1 welding lead. About 10' from battery to starter.

What about your ground cable? I used to run a ground from the battery to the starter and put it under the bottom bolt. Mud screws with what should be good connections so check everything.

Grounds are number 1 also. One from each battery to the frame. Both about ten feet from the starter

Run one to the starter. Also to the ignition box. Using the frame as a ground will cause you all kinds of headaches in a mud truck. In my old truck we ran cables to the starter and inside the cab. From those two places a ground wire went to everything a 12 volt wire went, this was done the second year I ran the truck due to stupid crap always happening the first year.

Thats worth a shot.