I picked up a 1964 panel truck last week. It ran but it does need some work. They seller towed it to my house. Laster that day I drove it around my neighborhood, then parked it in my driveway. Fast foward to this morning, the car wont start. When you turn the key, nothing. Crap. I pull out my voltmeter. .16 volts on the battery. Uhhh cant start the car with that. I put the car in nuetral and let in coast down into the street so I can jump it with my toyota. It takes some work to get a good battery connection but it finally makes contact. IT started but very sluglishly. Ok cool. At least I can drive it onto my driveway so its not on the street. (homeowners says no cars on the street over night) I disconnect the jumper cables and throw the car in reverse. After about 5 feet it dies. Double crap. I turn the key, nothing. Battery isnt holding the charge( I learned this later). Well Im getting pissed. I cant leave my truck on the street and my son will be waking up soon and I take care of him in the morning once he wakes up. So I pull out my trucks battery and swap it with my toyotas battery. So the toyota is running and I was hoping it would charge the trucks battery but that didnt work. The toyota battery is all hooked up but the car still wont start. All it does is crank over the engine. Well I checked the gas tank, it has enough. I check the voltages on the coil. It has 12v going in and im sure as hell not going to check the output. So now im scrathing my head. Well if I have voltage, and the crankes over, my next question is their gas pass the fuel pump? Nope.Is their gas before the fuel pump? Of course. I already found a replacement pump online but I am going to check my local Checker first.

Now for the fun part. Like I said I cant leave the truck on the street. I cant push my truck up the driveway because it is too steep. So I did what I had to do. put it in gear and used the battery to drive the started and drive it up the drive way.

But for you gear heads its a C10 Panel truck with a pontiac 215 straigh 6, 3 speed manual on the column. It has a decent amount of rust too. Its gona be a good project for my 2 month sabaticall come August.

Is it a 24 volt system?

12v

truck...car...car...car...truck....truck...car...truck



What the fuck is it, a car or a truck?

Quoted: 12v

I know 16 volts on a battery is a little on the high side...
but why did you automatically think you can't start your truck with it?

What did you do to verify it?  

Do your headlights light?  Do they stay bright when you try to crank, or do they go dim?

Quoted: truck...car...car...car...truck....truck...car...truck What the fuck is it, a car or a truck?

Both per the rules here.  It is a station wagon built out of a pickup = Suburban.

Quoted: So I did what I had to do. put it in gear and used the battery to drive the started and drive it up the drive way.

Good god man, next time pour some gas straight down the carb!  Those old starters are tough, but no sense in abusing the poor thing.

Quoted: Quoted: 12v I know 16 volts on a battery is a little on the high side... but why did you automatically think you can't start your truck with it? What did you do to verify it?   Do your headlights light?  Do they stay bright when you try to crank, or do they go dim?

He had zero point one six volts.

(In the gearhead trivia dept, I was surprised to hear that a '64 had the Pontiac engine in it. I would have assumed it had the 230 CID Chevy and probably been really surprised when i got it home.)

A six-cell Pb-SO4 battery will have at most, 13.8 volts total with the engine off.  16 volts means your voltmeter is off.  How much?

Start with the ground side of the battery and work down.  You could very well only have a ground issue, preventing charge and starting.  Measure voltage with engine off and have someone turn the lights on while measuring voltage from positive to ground.  If more than ~0.4 volts, either the battery is weak or the ground is shot.  Try again and if the voltage change is less, it is a ground.

-----------Update-----------


I went out this morning and decided to take a look at the fuel pump. AFter about 30 minutes of trying to get the damm pump off it finally broke free. Initial inspection, well its dirty as hell. But thats outside, who cares what the outside looks like. Since I have one on order I decide to open it up. Hey, I've never messed around with one before so its a learning experience. I take off all the screws and it is rusted to hell inside and full of gunk. Hmmm. The flapper valves all look good though. Im starting to think mabye the pump isnt bad after all. I put the pump back together, hook it back up to the gas can, and voila!, it pumps gas with just me cycling the pump. Mega crap. Either I fixed the pump(unlikely), or my timming chain broke. If thats the case, the fucking timing chain broke the second time I drove it. Now its a Pontiac straight 6. Not too many readibly availabe parts for it. I started searching Craigslist for 350's and 454's So far nothing great pops out at me. Ive scanned some websites with crate engines. Man they look nice but they are super expensive. 5 grand for a base 350hp Chevy 350 turnkey motor. Crap oh crap.

Keith_J: In a modern 12V battery, each cell is 2.1V, so six cells times 2.1 yields 12.6 volts total.

Keith_J: get a compression tester and pull a plug, if there is no compression, chances you've either got a broken timing chain, or the chain is so worn, ie loose that it skip a tooth. Good luck!