The Cessna 120-140 Association Forum

I started up the 140 this morning flew about 1.5 Hrs landed fueled up and the starter won't turn over. It's a manual cable pull to engage all seems fine there. I don't have power at the post on the starter. Any suggestions? I'm thinking the solenoid at the battery.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks, Brent

You say "power everywhere". The starter wire is powered directly from the solenoid, in fact, no power at the starter usually means no power anywhere. The original wiring fed from the solenoid to the starter and then on to the bus. First thing I'd do is see if the solenoid is turning on, then make sure it's passing power to the battery end of the starter wire. Unlikely the wire itself would fail. For that matter, is the battery good? Are the connections clean and tight?

Are you up on safe hand propping procedures?

Thanks John,
I do hear the solenoid click when I turn the master switch on so something is happening. Maybe not engaging all the way? It was broad daylight when I checked the nav lights and landing light, but now I'm thinking maybe the battery is bad and just not enough left to crank the starter. It's been working fine since I got the plane, but it hadn't been run in 4 years when I bought it a couple of months ago. I'm going to put it on the charger and see what that does for me.
Yes I can hand prop it, just not sure how safe I am when doing it!
Thanks again.

I put the battery charger on overnight and it turns over fine. Just Need to make sure the generator is charging the battery well enough now. I hadn't noticed a discharge according to the ammeter. Need to double check everything again at this point I guess.
Thanks for the help.

Ok, engine at 1000 rpm ammeter slight charge, 1200 rpm 0 charge, 1500 rpm -10.
Any thoughts?
Thanks

Ammeter is wired backwards?

Put a volt meter on the system. At idle you should see battery voltage. Around 1200-1400 RPM it should start to rise as the generator comes on line. It should top out around 14 volts.

Another thought is that it could be charging backwards (discharging). You might need to flash the field on the generator.Try John’s Test first..

Thanks Guys,
I will try your suggestions first thing in the morning and let you know what I find.

Wait a minute... When did this backwards ammeter business start? Have you changed anything since it all worked correctly? Did you remove the battery and reinstall it? Any chance you charged the battery backwards? (I wouldn't think it would take enough charge to start the engine, but then I've never tried it...)

It looks like the brushes in the generator are bad.
Any idea where I could get a set for a Delco Remey p/n 1101876 13 amp?
The ammeter has done that since I got the plane a couple of months ago, so nothing has changed except the battery finally wasn't charged enough to run the starter. I believe it was charging some, but the negative reading on the ammeter is definitely more than when I first started flying the plane. I think I'm honing in on the problem, we will see.