Starter issue and crank pulley question.. helping a friend

[x98boardwell]

My buddies car has had some issues which have "supposedly" been fixed but he is still stuck. I am helping but have a couple questions.. I figured I could find help here without having to join 356 registry as it's not my car but if needed I would be happy to, just figured these questions aren't too technical. Appreciate the help!!!

Note: This car is still a 6V system for the time being.

1) What is this relay for on the starter?
2) The starter is a high torque starter but when we turn the key is lags terribly like it doesn't have much power. Any ideas on what this could be based on relay present?
3) Going to do a leak down but crank pulley doesn't have a definitive mark on it other than someone's marker... Is there a better way to tell? What is Cylinder 1 on these engines? I'm used to the 911 motors, even those these are simple I'm not familiar with them.
4) What is adequate pressure to put into cylinders for proper leak down? I was thinking 90-100PSI.. is this too much?


Thank you for any help!!

[Daves911L]

Possibly a 12 v starter in a 6 v car? Even with your good photos, its hard to see what going on with that wiring. Not uncommon to add a relay to a 356 starter, but that's not the way its usually done.

OT is TDC for either #1 or #3. #1 is right side, forward (flywheel end)

[x98boardwell]

It is a 6v starter.

One thing I noticed is the starter is grounded through the ground strap that attaches the transmission to the body. Shouldn't I have and actual ground on the starter itself as well?

Then black spade connector travels up towards the relay but I'm guessing that's also a ground, Since there are 2 spade connectors there I wonder if I can attach another spade connector and make that a ground to the frame.

Thanks for any additional help.

[Cunning1]

Daves911L had my 1st thought. 12v starter in 6v car. More than just voltage. number of ring gear teeth different 6v vs 12v. Make sure good ground at starter. Make sure ignition switch contacts good. Make sure bushing in tranny good and lubricated. Make sure ignition timing not advanced too much(try with coil wire pulled to see if normal spin). Out of box problem I never saw before but 6v car had 12v Crane ignition. Was drawing so much juice car wouldn't turn over. Went to conventional and problem solved.
I had a 6v 356C that I converted to 12v STARTER ONLY with series/parallel switch. Required 2 6v batteries but car stayed 6v and sent 12v to starter only during starting. Worked like a champ on 6v starter for years. Relay was $40 from JC Whitney in '80s but now you have to pay $300 from elsewhere. Bottom line shouldn't need if everything A-OK. Good Luck!

[ensys]

Mr.well:

The pulley is correctly marked; the "OT" denotes top dead center. It will line up with the case half join.

Seems most likely that the "hi-torque" starter draws a number of amps that is a hazard to the ignition switch.

If the normal ground is in good fettle, the chances are the starter has brush issues or your battery is not up to the load.

Curious install tho; it could be the angle of foto, but the pinion shaft doesn't seem to line up with the original centerline. And the wear pattern on the teeth indicate:

1. very little engagement with the ring gear teeth.

2. that this starter has not seen much use. What does the ring gear have to say about this?

These issues make me wonder if there might be some sort of "bind" involved...

Just $.02 from the cheap seats...

[NICE 69 S]

I know that this is over a year old, but let me put in my 2 cents. Is it possible that this motor has a 12V flywheel? I believe the 12V flywheel has a larger diameter, and it looks to me in the picture of the starter gear that the flywheel is contacting the bell housing in that picture.
I changed my ‘66 VW to 12V back in the early ‘70’s but didn’t change the flywheel because the larger diameter of the 12V wheel would have necessitated grinding the perimeter of the bell housing, and I didn’t really want to do that. So I just left the 6V starter in. I put a 6V Zener Diode in series on the line into the solenoid to drop the voltage to 6V at the solenoid, but let the 6 V starter spin on 12V. If you put 12V into the solenoid, the starter gear will hit the flywheel so hard that it tears up the gear on the flywheel. If you look at a flywheel that has a lot of time in service, you will see that the flywheel has only two places on it that it always stops at, because it always stops when a cylinder is coming up on compression. So the starter gear always hits at one of two places. As long as you don’t crank the motor too long, the 6V unit will last over 20 years as mine did. And the motor in that car was a 2074 with 9:1 compression.
Bob Brawders