[DeTomaso] starting problems

[Tom Baranek-Home]

I don't need to break the bank...but I am having the same issue on my STOCK (except Holley and headers) '73.
Vendor/$ for a "reasonable" plug and play starter?

----- Original Message ----
From: "JDeRyke at aol.com"  <JDeRyke at aol.com>
To: edlebby at yahoo.com;  detomaso at realbig.com
Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2008 2:18:11  PM
Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] starting problems

In a message dated  2/13/08 11:51:26 AM, edlebby at yahoo.com writes:
snip.....

whenever  the car stops, after fully warmed up, and i try to restart it, the

starter  motor is extremely sluggish, might turn over once...pause a second
or 
two...again...and so on - the only way it will restart is if the pedal is
at 
WOT - at first i thought it was the starter engine...but then JT said it
was 
probably the battery - so put new connectors on the battery cables, cleaned

the zf ground and the starter wires - that improved things alot for awhile -

but now i am back to where i was (even worse) - thoughts?


This  could be the result of a minor carb malfunction, but my first move is 
to add a  SECOND large diameter ground wire running from a shiny bare spot
on 
the  subframe to either the engine block or the ZF cases- sometimes both!
Then 
I'd  swap the stock starter for a modern gear-drive mini-starter; there are 
many  brands our vendors sell that fit properly & will spin a
high-compression  
engine far better than any stock one. My 12-yr-old McLeod mini-starter-
based  
on the Hitachi starter motor, spins a smoking-hot 10-1/2:1 compression 351-C

almost as rapidly as when the engine is cold. All gear-drive starters are  
about half the weight and physically smaller, so the starter is unaffected
by  
header heat without the need for a shield. Try these & let us know how  they

work- J DeRyke

------------------------------
Ziehl-Abegg, Inc.
Senior Sales Engineer-North America
Air Movement Division
Tom Baranek
6348 Burnt Poplar Road - Greensboro,NC 27409 - USA
Phone +1 (336) 834-9339 - Fax +1 (336) 834-9340
email to: thomas.baranek at ziehl-abegg.us
web: http://www.ziehl-abegg.com