Bill,
It sure sounds like it's still not getting enough juice. When you tried
freshly charged battery and jumping with your truck - did you try grounding
the starter housing directly to the battery? If the ground path is weak it
would produce those same symptoms.

You can also try by-passing the starter solenoid by applying current to the
big wire attached to the solenoid that disappears into the housing - that
will rule out a bad solenoid.

It's always fun working on the starter - that just happens to be within
inches of that big slice-O-matic attached to re-drive :)

Joe Hull
Redmond/Seattle WA, Cozy-Mazda Rotary 71hrs

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Rotary motors in aircraft [mailto:flyrotary@lancaironline.net] On
> Behalf Of Bill Bradburry
> Sent: Friday, February 09, 2007 3:55 PM
> To: Rotary motors in aircraft
> Subject: [FlyRotary] First engine start!
>
> My engine started immediately today!  Probably between first and second
> blades!  It also ran very smoothly.  Thank God and thank you, Tracy!
>
> The only problem was...I removed the oil pressure switch about a year
> ago and never got around to putting a plug in the hole...You would not
> believe how much oil that engine can put through a 1/8 pipe fitting in a
> few seconds!!!
>
> So, anyway, here is my present difficulty....The starter will only try
> to move the prop about 5 degrees or so and then starts to click.
> I have been using the starter to turn the engine to get oil and water to
> move through (apparently not enough to discover the missing plug!) and
> the engine started effortlessly and ran for a few seconds.  After the
> leak, I turned the engine over with the starter to determine where the
> leak was located.  It worked fine all these times.
>
> After the leak was plugged, I made another attempt to start and this
> time the starter would not move the engine.  I thought that maybe the
> battery was down, so I charged the battery and tried again.  No Joy!
> Then I moved my truck over and tried to jump start the battery.  Still
> no joy.
> Now one thing is happening that I am suspicious of..When the starter
> engages and fails to turn the engine, the pinion stays engaged in the
> flywheel and will only retract when the prop is moved a little.  I
> really do not think this is a problem, since if the engine should start,
> the pinion would probably retract...??
>
> Does anyone have any ideas?
> Here is my plan for tomorrow:
> I am going to try and move the starter a little in the mount on Tracy's
> drive to provide a little relief in case it is binding.  I do not know
> if this is possible...(how much slop is in the starter hole on the drive)
> If this fails to fix it, I will take the starter off and to a shop to
> have it tested.  It is a rebuilt starter and has only been operated
> about less than 10 times, so I am doubtful of this as the problem.
> The engine turns over by hand both by using the flywheel and by using
> the prop, so I am doubtful that the drive is somehow out of alignment (I
> hope Tracy has some input here)
>
> So, what do you think??
>
> Thanks,
> Bill B
>
>
>
> --
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