Starter Heat Soak ?

Can somebody confirm this for me? The vacuum advance adjustment would NOT have an effect on hot hard starting, correct? I haven't messed with the vacuum advance because it runs good at idle and full throttle. From what I understand it is only the initial timing that can create the hot hard start.

I am going to take the truck for a spin tonight and see if it gets tighter when it gets hot.

I've also got a 50% higher CCA battery on order. I'm not saying that is my main issue here but the smaller battery certainly doesn't help and I've put my current battery through the ringer the past couple months.

From what I know of the small 6, the vacuum advance is supposed to turn the whole distributor, so 1st off make sure it is not bound up.
For advanced timing to cause hard starting it will generally reveal it self by "kicking back" against the starter. Not only does this cause hard starting but can damage the starter.
Slow hard cranking that doesn't vary much in speed is not caused by timing.

I think I've made some progress.

Engine does NOT get much harder to turn after it gets hot which is a good thing.

To combat starter heat soak I put a 160 thermostat in it, actual antifreeze rather than water (used water until I knew engine was all good), and put a wrap around the starter. Took for a good 30 minute drive to get hot and it turns over and starts after shutting down. That's a plus.

Now I believe I have another issue though, which is charging. After I drive the truck, I put my trickle charger / tender on the battery (bought a new 1000 CCA battery) and it reads 95% and takes about 20 minutes at 2amp charge to get back to full charge and then it does turn over better than if I don't put the charger on it. The ammeter does bounce up in the + quite a bit for a while after start up and then settles down to slightly above center. I checked voltage at the battery. Resting is 6.52, idle around 7 and give it some throttle it's around 7.35 (I'm not sure what readings I should be getting). Does this mean the generator is charging the battery? Just not enough? Any thoughts on why the battery doesn't seem to be charging enough but voltage increases at the battery when increasing rpms?

Your voltage regulator sound spot on, Nothing wrong with those settings.
Forget the 160 deg "stat, do you really think 20 deg make any difference in cranking? The engine will do a lot better with a 180 'stat minimum.
My guess is you have poor connection or a binding starter, or one someone had put 12 volt field coils in.
You need to take it to someone who can put a VAT on it and see how many amps the starter is drawing hot, how low the cranking voltage drops and can look for a high voltage drop connection when cranking.
It take more than one person and both need to know how and what to look for.

Your voltage regulator sound spot on, Nothing wrong with those settings.
Forget the 160 deg "stat, do you really think 20 deg make any difference in cranking? The engine will do a lot better with a 180 'stat minimum.
My guess is you have poor connection or a binding starter, or one someone had put 12 volt field coils in.
You need to take it to someone who can put a VAT on it and see how many amps the starter is drawing hot, how low the cranking voltage drops and can look for a high voltage drop connection when cranking.
It take more than one person and both need to know how and what to look for.

^^^^^^^^ What he said. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Heres my rub with the problem with hot starting, my r had issues starting hot ,
turned out that large part was due to a bad starter, so I got a great rebuild and
ungraded the wiring too,, now starts very good except every once in a while on a hot day
it will act up , but so far it dose start , kinda like it did B4 the starter rebuild..

Now funny thing is I have a shop manual that has a sample work order from 1955 I believe
its a training sheet and IH engineers used the hot start as an example on this service request , unfortunately
the fix section was not completed in the sample work order,
So could it be these SD220 & 240 had a problems from the start
when new / maybe,,,

Or is it a timing thing and mine still may need fine tuning ... I am set at 7 BTDC..
Cb or Brain any thoughts.. ?

Actually not from 1955 its from 1949 low milage too..

Found it interesting , maybe somebody has the answer if timing is the issue then
what is the sweet spot?

A Group 2 is for small trucks, should be the minimum for a 220,
Ammeters are not volt meters. They show current supplied to or drawn from the battery. When the truck is started a large draw was placed on the battery, the generator needs to replace that, so once running the ammeter shows a charge. Once the current used has been replaced the current should drop to near zero, none going in, none coming out.
The generator voltage regulator contains both a current regulator and a voltage regulator. The current regulator is there to limit the current the generator puts out to a safe level for the windings and commutator, it is set to the current rating of the generator. The voltage regulator portion sets the charge voltage. Since a fully charged lead acid battery has a static voltage of 2.2 volts per cell, a "6 volt" battery is really a 6.6 volt battery and needs a charge voltage over that. You want the charge voltage to be 6.8- 7.2 volts for a fully charged battery. In other words you set the voltage once the battery has been charged, not right after it has had a load on it. The current regulator must be set with the system under load.


The voltage regulators are electro-mechanical and by adjusting spring tension on the correct regulator, you can increase or decrease voltage, current or cut-out settings.

Excellent writeup by CB ...

That was the short version, here is the long, some may not know there are several topics posted on the main page.
https://oldihc.wordpress.com/2013/01/14 ... generator/
There is one typo on the long version, but I can't go in and edit it. Alternator poles are in even numbers like generator, I must have fat fingers and the numbers in the write up are odd, and that is wrong.

I can see if I can get in on that page, not sure, it was Jim's baby. I do not think I had a log in for it, but will look.