Jeff,

Sheer will is a powerful force.

It helps to have a REALLY good welder sorta on retainer.

Thanks. Brad.

Impressive

Looks like Spray Transfer on the flange weld bead.

We get a good tri mox gas up here called Arkal 14. Great all purpose gas for stianless and steel. Spray transfer gives great penetrarion and amazing beads. Bette then the often poor pen stacked dimes.


Are you going to pikish them up? Or test them out, then do fine details next winter?

Tartilla,

That’s the OEM elbows, and yes…. My welder said it was spray transfer. Never heard of it myself. That’s why I leave all the welding intricacies to him.

No. My plan is to have them powder coated black as soon as we get it running right. It might wait until this coming winter, though.

Thanks. Brad.

Guys,

I wanted to crank the engine over, so I hooked up a battery, no ECM, and hit the key. I got a click from (I’m guessing) the slave relay, but no starter. I’ve confirmed continuity between the battery cable and the starter lug, through the selector switch, and I’ve confirmed continuity between the ground cable at the battery and the block and ground wire on the starter. So it has to be solenoid related. I was alone in the shop today, so I couldn’t confirm what exactly I was hearing.

So far today, the builder has not responded to texts. Not really worried on that front, as he has a full time job, but I am wondering/concerned about this issue. So what should I be looking for?

Thanks. Brad.

Does the battery have at least 12 volts? Clicking would be the relay trying to go but either sticking, or not enough voltage. Or starter itself not engaging/sticking and just clicking

Ryan,

It SHOULD be pretty well charged. I just took it off the tender three days ago (Saturday). I will confirm in the morning. The tender showed full charge at the time.

There is a slave relay as well as the starter solenoid, correct? I probably need to verify positive connection between the relay and the starter solenoid. Tough to do by myself, though.

Thanks. Brad.

You're not catching many breaks here...lol.

Can you setup a continuity test on the pass through connections on the solenoid? Use a jumper to to apply 12v to the trigger contact of the solenoid.

Or you can use a test light with the aligator clip on the solenoid output terminal, with the point on a ground. When you turn the key to start...the light should light up.

Tartilla,

I had the thought to make a hot jump from the battery to the solenoid lug on the starter, just to confirm the starter and solenoid are still in good working order. I do have a remote starter switch somewhere. Gonna be pretty peeved if that is bad.

My biggest fear here is that the removal of the 555 harness, with all the externalities that were laced into it, is gonna be cause issues. I am assuming the builder wired the new cannon socket to the engine such that nothing will be amiss here. But I did have to figure out the trim limit switch, and I wonder if things like the neutral lockout might be interfering. Would you even hear a click if that were the case?

I’ll hopefully have some help at the shop tomorrow, so we can start rooting this one out.

Still haven’t heard from the builder. Getting a little concerned on that front. He’s not one to ghost me. I hope something else isn’t going on.

Thanks. Brad.

Guys,

Heard from the builder. We're all good there. He asked the same questions. I got to the shop this morning, enlisting the help of my son, and got to probing....

The first thing was to verify battery voltage. I discovered the 29 series Walmart EverStart battery (my newest one) is only showing ~11.8v after only 3-4 days off charge, not connected to anything. Bad battery?

After swapping to the other battery, fresh off the tender, I've got almost 13v to the starter main lug, and I've got the same current to the solenoid lug when we hit the key. But no starter activity. Bad starter? I have no idea how old it is. It very well could be original '02.

Thanks. Brad.