Starter Issue or Something Else?

[Cal2121]

When my truck is cold (hasn't been started for the day or has sat for multiple hours), it take multiple turnovers to fire. The turnovers seem a bit slower. Once it fires, it runs great. If the engine is warmer, it turns right over quickly and fires up. I'm assuming this is likely a battery or starter issue. The battery is about a year old and I haven't noticed any other battery related issues. The starter is a high torque mini starter that I put on when I installed the rebuilt engine about 4 years ago. Any thoughts?

[fordrebuilder]

Someone else can probably chime in with a little more info than me, but in my experience starters that are beginning to go out tend to turn slower when the engine is warm verses cold. I might would look at timing or ignition next if you're confident that your battery is in good health.

[zgerbic]

I think I posted this somewhere else but one other thing that makes the starter slow down is if the starter begins to ware out the brass bushing on the nose. This can happen pretty easily with a recently rebuilt engine or one that has high compression. The armature begins to get a little off (forced away from the ring gear) and the armature may slow down due to the drag on the bushing or drag from rubbing against the windings in the starter.

I have seen this happen on one of my starters on a new rebuilt FE and since I have machining capability I made a new bushing and it works like new.

Another check you can do is to pull the coil wire, open the throttle/choke all the way and see if it cranks pretty freely. Check battery and connections if it labors. If it spins freely, hook the coil wire back up and close the throttle and see if it labors. Then turn the distributor back about 10 degrees and try again. If the timing is too far advanced at idle and the engine is cold, the engine loading might be slowing down the starter. I am sure others can provide additional checks.

[fordrebuilder]

Hmm, very interesting on the new build/high compression statement. This may explain my I had to replace the starter on my newly built engine in approximately three months time.

[Cal2121]

Thank you all for the input. I figured I would test the easiest first. Despite the battery being relatively new, I put a charger on it. I tend to only drive the truck on the weekends and not for long drives. Anyway, it had been sitting at least a few days before I put the charger on it. Went out and it kicked right over. Maybe it's the battery or it isn't getting a full charge from my short trips. I won't drive it all this week and will have the charger on it. See how it starts next weekend and go from there.