Reply To: Starter brushes available if needed?

[Gregory Long]

Hi Philomena, as mentioned above and in your gasoline additive questions, check the battery connections and grounds.

The most problematic side is the ground connection or the + Positive side in our Pierce cars. My ’29 roadster has the battery on the right side, under the floorboards. But later ’29’s the battery is under the driver’s side floor.

With either location, the original ground was a flat woven cable from the + battery terminal to the inside of the frame channel, or to a bolt on the top of the transmission shifter cover. Either way, you should have made up and install a battery cable that goes from the + battery terminal directly to one of the three bolts that hold the starter to the engine crankcase. This directly connected cable eliminates all the possible bad connections through the frame, motor mounts etc or transmission to engine block.

With very good connections to the battery, the starter will have full voltage, and draw less current when cranking the engine. A starter that is smelling hot, is drawing a lot of current.

The engine should not need a lot of cranking to get running, so avoid prolonged starter use. If the engine won’t fire after 5-10 seconds of cranking, any more cranking is only damaging the starter.

Hope this helps.

Greg Long