Posted by Keith in Washington [108.162.245.61] on Friday, January 24, 2020 at 13:43:13 :
In Reply to: Hard Starting after sitting Idle for more than a few posted by Dozerman51 [172.68.189.202] on Friday, January 24, 2020 at 12:36:10 :
I have the same issue from time to time with my 51ffPW. It is actually a couple of things. More often than not the fuel has evaporated out of the bowl in the carb and it takes a bit to get gas out of the tank. However, if I put gas in the carb it will kick over a bit and usually start the second try. At times the gas will evaporate out of both the carb and tank and it will not start.
The second issue is with the ignition. At times I know their is gas as I can smell it after trying to start it. After testing I found the voltage at the coil to be 4 volts and not 6 like it should. I measured 6 volts at several other places so something was wrong. I found if I took a jumper from the negative post of the battery to the input of the coil it would start right away. This will bypass the ignition system. It came down to the ignition switch as best I could tell. I then took a short jumper and installed it between the ignition post and accessory post on the ignition switch. After doing that I turn the key to the accessory position then start it. It works just fine. So apparently the contact on the ignition side of the switch is corroded. I have not opened it up to check yet. But I did recently find a NOS ignition switch which I will install. I apparently got their last ignition switch as they now list it as out of stock.
So basically low voltage to the coil was the cause of my trucks hard starting. Not surprised as the entire wiring is original from the factory. It’s in decent shape.
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