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Im a 2bd owner of a 54 corvette with 88,000 well documented original miles It is basiclly unddriveable due to poor starting conditions: Slow engine rotation even with a fully charged new bttery + a 2nd battery hooked up with a jumper cable. I had the starter rebiult which did not improve teh situation. I have new braided ground and large cable to the starter and have scdrubbed all cconnections, all to no effect. AARRGGG!
i;m a retired fighter pilot, but not an electrician and need help.
Steve Dwelle
.
The bane of a 6-volt system. Have you ever considered converting to a 12-volt? I have owned two '54, both of which were converted. No issues. I suspect the battery is your problem.
6 volt cars do turn over slowly but they will start and run
Check your timing with the vac advance plugged
These 235s LOVE advance - but too much and it will be difficult to start
Make sure the advance is working
Good 4 pole starter and battery and cables are key
Chris
Even with the best starter and battery a 6V Corvette will turn over slowly. So I doubt slowly is your problem.
First of all you need to use the proper starting procedure. Choke fully out. The moment it seems to kick in on its own choke must go all the way in, or it will flood, and give it a little accelerator.
If you are using that procedure and it won't start tuning is the problem, as Chris suggested.
Go back to square one with the tuning.
Check that you have the correct plugs. Clean and gap plugs. Check resistance in each ignition wire. File crud off rotor and contacts in distributor cap. When cranking engine, look for spark between each wire and plug. Check that initial timing is correct - number one plug just about to fire - or as Chris suggested, a bit more advance to begin with.
Hopefully you can then get it started and tune it better when running. Regap the valves with engine hot, fine tune timing, and tune the heck out of the carbs using a UniSync flow tool to set the throttle opening on each carb so they all flow the same..
Even with the best starter and battery a 6V Corvette will turn over slowly. So I doubt slowly is your problem.
First of all you need to use the proper starting procedure. Choke fully out. The moment it seems to kick in on its own choke must go all the way in, or it will flood, and give it a little accelerator.
If you are using that procedure and it won't start tuning is the problem, as Chris suggested.
Go back to square one with the tuning.
Check that you have the correct plugs. Clean and gap plugs. Check resistance in each ignition wire. File crud off rotor and contacts in distributor cap. When cranking engine, look for spark between each wire and plug. Check that initial timing is correct - number one plug just about to fire - or as Chris suggested, a bit more advance to begin with.
Hopefully you can then get it started and tune it better when running. Regap the valves with engine hot, fine tune timing, and tune the heck out of the carbs using a UniSync flow tool to set the throttle opening on each carb so they all flow the same..
My 1954 Corvette also had starting problems especially when the engine had warmed up. This was actually a common problem on both the corvettes and powerglide equipped passenger cars in 53 & 54 until a mid-954 change from a two-pole to four pole starter (Delco 1108035). My car would crank fine when cold and if I started it immediately after a hot shutdown. The problem was worst when stopping for fuel refills and would barely turn over then. The timing was set to spec (2 degrees after TDC), battery was new, and cables were all correct and sized for 6 volts but still the problems persisted. Oddly enough, my car was produced late enough in 1954 that it should have had the four pole starter but instead had the two pole. I searched for months for the correct 1108035 starter. In many cases the starters had the 1108036 id tags but upon examination the vendors found that the starter cores had be re-tagged -- so buyer beware. The solution I found was to order a 1950-1952 Cadillac starter (Delco 1107969) and replace the drive nose with my that of my original 1107102 starter. The bad news is that the starter nose must be re-clocked so that the thru bolts and dowel align but that is about a 15 minute operation if you have a drill press and a 1/4-20 tap. The only other "gotcha" is that the solinoid is located 1/2" closer to the rear end of the starter on the original corvette so the fix is to use the Cadillac solinoid plunger and link but drill a new hole 1/2" closer to the plunger itself. The starter then engage perfectly with the Chevy flywheel. The starter drives are identical so either the Cadillac or Chevy drive may be used; ditto for the solinoids. If you like, you can also change the id tag or have a new 1108035 tag made by any of several vendors. The good news is that the Cadillac starter is available while the original 1108035 Corvette/Chevy Powerglide is now extremely rare. The car now cranks under all circumstances. As an added bonus, I can now advance the initial timing from 2 degrees ATDC to 8 degrees BTDC and that really wakes the old 6 cylinder up and still cranks under all conditions.
My 1954 Corvette also had starting problems especially when the engine had warmed up. This was actually a common problem on both the corvettes and powerglide equipped passenger cars in 53 & 54 until a mid-954 change from a two-pole to four pole starter (Delco 1108035). My car would crank fine when cold and if I started it immediately after a hot shutdown. The problem was worst when stopping for fuel refills and would barely turn over then. The timing was set to spec (2 degrees after TDC), battery was new, and cables were all correct and sized for 6 volts but still the problems persisted. Oddly enough, my car was produced late enough in 1954 that it should have had the four pole starter but instead had the two pole. I searched for months for the correct 1108035 starter. In many cases the starters had the 1108036 id tags but upon examination the vendors found that the starter cores had be re-tagged -- so buyer beware. The solution I found was to order a 1950-1952 Cadillac starter (Delco 1107969) and replace the drive nose with my that of my original 1107102 starter. The bad news is that the starter nose must be re-clocked so that the thru bolts and dowel align but that is about a 15 minute operation if you have a drill press and a 1/4-20 tap. The only other "gotcha" is that the solinoid is located 1/2" closer to the rear end of the starter on the original corvette so the fix is to use the Cadillac solinoid plunger and link but drill a new hole 1/2" closer to the plunger itself. The starter then engage perfectly with the Chevy flywheel. The starter drives are identical so either the Cadillac or Chevy drive may be used; ditto for the solinoids. If you like, you can also change the id tag or have a new 1108035 tag made by any of several vendors. The good news is that the Cadillac starter is available while the original 1108035 Corvette/Chevy Powerglide is now extremely rare. The car now cranks under all circumstances. As an added bonus, I can now advance the initial timing from 2 degrees ATDC to 8 degrees BTDC and that really wakes the old 6 cylinder up and still cranks under all conditions.
Welcome to the Forum. A terrific first post with a lot of very good information. If you wouldn't mind, could you open a new thread and post this same information...many more members will find it that way. Again, welcome and thanks.
Check voltage drop on both the positive and negative side, it only takes a minute, even a cheap HF voltmeter is fine for this test. I've helped many of these by cleaning/replacing parts that looked fine to the eye. Here's a couple of pics from a book I wrote a while back:
I tend that way myself, and have not heard a peep about checking for spark. Any evidence of a nice blue spark? If his rig still uses points in the distributor I would have looked at them, made sure they are not closed up and perhaps stroke those contacts with a points file/crocus cloth. I mean, when cars didn't start and had gasoline we used to start there...
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1954 Corvette Slow engine rotation starting problems
