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I'm encountering a restart problem with my 37 115 6 cylinder. I can start the car and drive a short distance, turn off the ignition and when I try to restart the engine it turns very slowly and will not start. I can then hook up a charger to the battery and it will then start after about 15 minutes. When the engine reaches full operating temperature it absolutely will not restart unless it cools down for about 20 minutes. The engine is not overheating. As I have a new radiator and an engine with only about 200 miles.My battery is about one and a half years old but I wonder if It might have a weak cell causing this issue. A friend of mine suggested that I add a ground strap bolted under the starter bolt at the bell housing back to the starter end plate.. This had no effect. I would love to hear input from any Packard owners that may have experienced an issue such as this. I plan on having the battery load tested this weekend. Thank you.

Is the generator charging? How long did it sit while you had the car apart? I had a similar problem on my 115, re-polarized the generator, and it went away immediately.

The generator hypothesis is an interesting idea. If the regulator isn't polarized the generator may be motoring. Loosening the belt would prove that point.

But how do you polarize the charging system?

Take a short lead of wire and momentarily connect the battery wire to the armature wire on the regulator. Or for the uninitiated, jump the two fat wires on the regulator together for a second.

The old AC Delco manual said to do this anytime the battery was disconnected. I don't think they reckoned on disconnect switches back then, but they were fanatical about the need to polarize the charging system.

Tim, thanks for the assist. I couldn't remember for sure which two wires to jumper momentarily.

A great spoiler of hot starts is having the timing too far advanced. You may not hear it kicking back against the starter but it will be very hard to start warm.

Thanks everyone who have posted with suggestions, I'm working my way through the ideas and will post when I find the culprit.

ok. so it cranks real slow when hot. Has this engine been recently rebuilt??? And if so, then what kind of piston clearence was used???

Old Coils and Condensers can cause such hard starting. Ernie. Caretaker of 'Miss Prudence' a 1949 Deluxe

My guess is that the starter is worn and when it becomes heat soaked requires significantly more current than normal and turns over slower and may not restart the engine. I would just remove the starter, disassemble, clean. inspect, and overhaul as necessary. It is a relatively simple job.

(o{}o)

Edit: I looked up the amp load test for the Delco starters, but there was no spec listed. The Auto Lite load spec for the 6-cylinder starter is 880 amps and 5.5 volts. I would expect both to be about the same current draw. Hope this helps.