Reprinted with permission from Steve Dold (Diesel Marine) from Nor-Cal SAACs DRIVEN, August 89 in the March 1996 RootesReview

As many of you may know it is sometimes very hard to start your car, or should I say restart it, after you have run it on a hot day. This Tech Tip is a reprint from the Nor-Cal SAAC newsletter DRIVEN on what you can do to improve that situation.

  1. Start with the best battery you can buy, either a group 24 or 27. Get the top of the line, but not a deep cycle or marine type.
  2. The battery cable is very important. Because of the fact that your battery is in the trunk your should be using 00 cable on both the positive and the negative ground side. I hear people say they have welding cable and think that is all they need. But just like battery cable, it comes in different sizes. If it is too small there will be a greater voltage loss to the starter. The 00 cable measures a little over a half inch at 0.530” OD. Any cables smaller than this can cause a problem.
  3. Now that we have a good battery and proper cable, lets look at the starter and solenoid. The solenoid is a sealed unit, with two copper posts and a contact disc. Over the years of starting, you will get burn marks on the disc and posts which will create enough resistance to cause a starting problem. A new solenoid is cheap insurance. Go ahead and change it.
  4. The starter is a crucial item in this puzzle. When you get ready to rebuild it, you should take it to a quality rebuilding shop. The reason for going to a rebuilding shop instead of the local parts store is to get high torque fields (Part Number ST -218-HT). These fields will give the starter more rpm and added torque which will spin the motor faster. During the rebuild, you will want to change the starter drive from a four roller to a five roller type. The Part Number is 4-242. A five roller is a much stronger unit. It is a must for your Hi-Po motor! You can expect to pay between $70-$90 to have your starter converted to a high torque unit; perhaps that sounds a lot, but you will forget all about it when you hit the key at open track.
  5. The final item is a heat shield to divert the heat from the exhaust header. The shield should cut the temperature by 25%.

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