starter clicks; remove, spin, then it works. why?

gergonne

New User
I have a '46 H that I bought in 2008. It's running great, although it's taken me 12 years to get it to this point. I wasn't much of a mechanic when I started, but I'm at least OK now. It's 6V pos ground, gas.
There is one thing that I have never figured out, that has been an intermittent issue from the get go.
Sometimes the starter simply clicks without cranking. Battery is 100%. One of the first things I did was replace all the cables with 00 gauge or bigger (pos a little bigger than neg, but both nice and fat). Connections are all clean. Nothing wrong with the starter itself (I have two, one new, and both do the same thing).
To fix temporarily is easy: Take it off, hook it up to a power source, and spin it for a second, then reinstall.
But I cannot figure out why it does this, or how to keep it from doing it.
The last thing I fixed was the generator, which never worked - the whole time I've had the tractor I just wound up charging the battery every time I used it. During fixing the generator I learned about polarizing the generator, which I haven't had to do on the generator itself, but the problem sounds a lot like the problem I'm having with the starter, and as I understand it, the generator and the starter are similar in terms of how they work.
Haven't gotten much farther than that.
Ideal would be to keep it from happening, but failing that, would be nice to be able to connect some wires and flash the starter without having to take it off every time.
I looked for this specific issue in the forums and maybe I missed it, but didn't see where it was mentioned specifically.
 
Removing and putting it back on likely cleans up the starter ground or stud connection
 
The original big spring drive pinion jambs in the ring gear and locks both of them solid. If you
just loosen the starter bolts you will hear a pretty loud click. this click is the drive becoming
unjambed. To fix it for real buy a new style drive for less than 20 bucks (on this site) and follow
the installation instructions (easy) and cures the issue. Jim
 
As Jim said only check for the starter switch can get burned. This will act similar in it will not turn over usually more like the battery is disconnected than the click.
For the starter gear stuck in the flywheel, you can rock the tractor in 5th gear sometimes and it will come out with w popping sound when it becomes unstuck. Another way to see if the starter gear is stuck, is if you can turn the engine with the fan. If it will turn it is not stuck. Watch the crank pulley at the bottom when doing this and have the switch off so it doesn't start on you.
 
"Flashing" the generator imparts a residual magnetism in it that allows it to start charging. No such magnetism is required in the starter, so "flashing" the starter is not the solution.

You've got one of two problems, mechanical or electrical.

4-cylinder engines stop in two places, and those two places on the ring gear tend to get beat up over time. Take a look in the hole the next time you have the starter off, and see if the ring gear is all chewed up. Sometimes you can dress the teeth with a file to get a little more time out of it, but other times ring gear replacement is necessary. That requires the tractor to be split at the bell housing, the flywheel removed, and the ring gear replaced.
 
You could possibly have a bad commutator bar, that the brushes run on. Take the starter apart and clean and inspect the
commutator and brushes. My Honda 4-wheeler had a similar problem and that's what it was.
 
I would say the scenario Jim pointed out is the starter drive gear jamming in the flywheel teeth. As he explained a dull thud while loosening the starter generally alerts you it has unstuck. Along with updating the starter drive gear, since engine repeatedly stops in the same position a little file work to take off burrs between the teeth are at that location can help. Sometimes the only fix is to split the tractor and either flip the flywheel ring gear over, or remove and reinstall turned so good teeth are showing when the engine is stopped or just put in a new ring gear. Also if you are on solid ground and this happens sometimes you can put it in 5th gear and rock it back and forth pushing on a rear tire. Once you see the engine fan turn just slightly the drive will be un-jammed. Good luck!
 
It is called starter lock and is a chronic problem with many IH and some other smaller gasoline tractors. The fly wheel has 4 positions it normally comes to rest on shut down. When the starter is energized it attempts to push the cog into the flywheel (More like slam violently) and the teeth get worn in the four positions and it binds or locks rather than engage the flywheel teeth now and then. Even a relatively new flywheel will occasionally bind with the starter. It happened to me just this week with a 200. The fix is to loosen the starter bolts and with the ignition switch in the off position put the tractor in road gear and rock the rear tires until you hear a click. Tighten the starter bolts and go back to work. The old worn out C my dad had in the early 50's did it often but the 200 he bought in 1955 did it occasionally from the time it was new. You were doing the same thing I am suggesting here by removing the starter but you do not need to go that far. It got to the point that I could use a crank and unbind the starter without loosening the bolts on the 200 and that came in handy when the corn picker or planters were on the tractor. Keep a 3/4" box end wrench in your tool box and give the a try the next time it lock up. If you have a heavy plow and can't rock the tractor use the hand crank. What ever you do stop with trying to engage the starter until you get it unlocked or you will just lock it up tighter.
 
Thx all - have a few things to try here (as soon as it stops snowing!) but 'starter lock' sounds like the most likely. And I'd been sure it was an electrical problem all along...

(quoted from post at 18:42:23 05/07/19) It is called starter lock and is a chronic problem with many IH and some other smaller gasoline tractors. The fly wheel has 4 positions it normally comes to rest on shut down. When the starter is energized it attempts to push the cog into the flywheel (More like slam violently) and the teeth get worn in the four positions and it binds or locks rather than engage the flywheel teeth now and then. Even a relatively new flywheel will occasionally bind with the starter. It happened to me just this week with a 200. The fix is to loosen the starter bolts and with the ignition switch in the off position put the tractor in road gear and rock the rear tires until you hear a click. Tighten the starter bolts and go back to work. The old worn out C my dad had in the early 50's did it often but the 200 he bought in 1955 did it occasionally from the time it was new. You were doing the same thing I am suggesting here by removing the starter but you do not need to go that far. It got to the point that I could use a crank and unbind the starter without loosening the bolts on the 200 and that came in handy when the corn picker or planters were on the tractor. Keep a 3/4" box end wrench in your tool box and give the a try the next time it lock up. If you have a heavy plow and can't rock the tractor use the hand crank. What ever you do stop with trying to engage the starter until you get it unlocked or you will just lock it up tighter.
 

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