My starter drive gear thrust forward and engages the flywheel but
   fails to
   turn over the engine. Any of you more mechanically inclined guys have a
   guess as to what my problem may be? (It's a rebuilt starter)

   Jay


   Can you turn the engine over by hands on the ring gear?
   One rotor could be one tooth off on the phasing gear.
   Make sure the right spark plugs are in there.

   Put a  voltmeter on the brush connections.
   If the starter wire is too small too much voltage
   will drop across the wire.

   Send a sketch of the wire sizes and a schematic on how
   it is wired.

   Paul Lamar

Hi  Jay, Make sure that the starter Bendix drive is correct and not
running out of travel before the solenoid contacts meet. (remove
starter, clamp starter and put a piece of pine packing crate onto gear
and engage starter should smoke the wood on the gear), no matter how
hard you try to stop it, ie you will not stop the gear, all the above
assumes that the engine will turn over.
   John Burey


Thanks for all the responses gentlemen. I attached a diagram representative
of how I have mine wired. So far I tried putting a volt meter on the
solenoid terminals. With the battery on there is 12+ volts but with the
starter button pushed there is less than one volt at the solenoid. I'm using
8 gauge wires and they're getting hot rather quickly.

...Oh and I can turn the engine by hand.

Jay



What is the current rating on the solenoids? As much as 300 amps
can flow through a main starter cable. Starter motors are around
3 HP (for a short while). 3 HP is 2.300 KW.  2300/12 V = 190 amps.

Paul Lamar


Two issues noted:

1. The power source to the starter should be battery  intermittent solenoid starter.

Continuous duty solenoids are rated at 75A continuous, 150 Amp intermittent.
Aircraft Spruce sells a White-Rodges Solenoid 111226-5 for this application.

Intermittent Starter Solenoid is rated at 400A.  ACS looks just like the old Ford Federal-Mogul starter solenoid.

2.  8 gauge sounds mighty small.

This has to be a new installation, but I would talk with your EAA tech rep and get Bob Knuckles AeroElectric book to review before reworking the electrical system.

Tom W