Talk to Brian Hansen at R&R Performance in Spring Lake Park, MN.

Phone 763-785-1949.

The distributor really shouldn’t be that hard to turn. JMHO. I have seen one, on one of my 390’s, where it was almost impossible to turn by hand. I took it apart, cleaned and lubed the shaft and bushings, it freed up nicely. Hopefully one of the builders on the forum will second my opinion.

There is a steel 63 hood with a Tbolt bubble advertised on Facebook 63/63 Galaxie Parts group.  Pictures look pretty decent, ready for paint, no pictures of underside so not sure what he did for cutting a hole in the hood. Asking price was $700 and located in Westby, WI.  It was posted about a week ago.

To properly connect the generator to the house power requires that an interlock device or transfer switch be added to your service panel to prevent back feeding into the main power supply. I believe there is some legal liabilities if these devices are not incorporated. Obviously if you’re just connecting a few plug-in devices to the generator you could get by without them, but, that’s not easily done when powering the furnace, central air, water heater, etc.  Youcan Google this to get a better understanding.

If you frequent Craigslist or Marketplace there’s usually some used generators for sale. I picked up a 5500 watt Honda a couple years ago on Craigslist for about 2/3 of retail price. It was a few years old but was essentially new, just a few hours on it. You do need to figure out how many things you will be running and make sure your generator is got enough watts. The one I got will pretty much handle my needs other than I might need to avoid running to many high current devices at the same time.

I would be a little hesitant to go with a diesel, primarily because of the risk of the fuel going bad.  It’s not really a good idea to run them completely out of fuel and getting them up and running if the system was completely empty could be a challenge. I guess if you run it often and keep the fuel fresh it would be fine. On the Honda that I have I put a little gas in during the summer and run it completely dry until it’s needed. Since I have gotten the generator I have not had a power outage long enough to put it to work. I’m in southern MN and slated for below zero temperatures and 50MPH wind so maybe I’ll get to try it out real soon. LOL

I looked through your original post am under the impression you have installed a new NAPA battery so the battery should not be a contributor to the problem. I assume ( I know, that’s dangerous) your problem is that starter struggles to turn the engine over fast enough to start. These are some things I would do in this situation.

1.  While performing the tests described below it would be advantageous to disable the ignition system so the engine does not start.  We are really trying to validate the operation of the starter, battery, and respective circuits so we don’t really want the engine to start.

2.   Connect a volt meter directly to the battery posts and have someone crank the engine. While the starter is engaged the voltmeter should maintain 11.6 or higher. If you just put a new battery in you really shouldn’t have to do this but do it anyway.

3.  Verify your battery negative (ground) cable is attached to the engine block.  Most FE’s attach to the lower front on the passenger side.

4.  Check for voltage drop on the positive cables. Connect voltmeter to the positive battery post and to the positive starter cable where it attaches to the starter. Hopefully you can access the starter terminal with the voltmeter lead, if it’s really difficult it might mean connecting a jumper wire to the starter terminal and routing the jumper wire to the voltmeter lead.  Have someone crank the engine and monitor the voltmeter. You Will probably see the voltmeter flicker but there shouldn’t be an actual reading. If you see 1 volt or higher where it’s steady enough to read it is an indication of voltage drop (bad connections) in the positive cables.  What is expected on a properly operating system is no reading or very low reading.

5.  Check for voltage drop on the negative (ground) cable. Connect voltmeter to the negative battery post and the case of the starter.  Use a jumper wire as described in step 3 if access is difficult.  Make sure paint on the starter case is not insulating and preventing a connection. Have someone crank the engine and monitor the voltmeter as described in step 3.  Any reading that is steady enough to read is an indication of voltage drop (bad connections) in the starter ground circuit, which is essentially the engine block and ground cable.

6.  If all the previous steps check out I would consider replacing the starter.

About your smoke….,  if it’s a steady plume of smoke rising it could be a clue to your starting problems. Bad grounds and/or connections can certainly emit a steady plume if smoke. (If it’s not a steady plume it’s probably not from an electrical cause).

I know your problem is most apparent when the engine is warm but there could be some advantages to doing some of these tests when it is cooled off. While doing the tests be aware of your aforementioned smoke and check your various cables and connections for abnormally high temperatures.  It would be normal and expected for the cables and starter to warm up as you are exercising the system, but, if you were to find a connection, cable or anything that is extremely hot, more so than all the other components that would be a red flag of a problem being present.

Hope this helps. Good luck.

One last thing, probably been mentioned already, make sure your initial timing is not advanced too much preventing it from starting when it’s warm.

I have a good friend that ordered a F250 XLT Diesel Crewcab in March of 2021 with an estimated delivery date of November 2021. Still no truck and they’re not telling him anything, at least that’s what he has told me.  Sold his similar 2011 F250 to his son back in April so he’s not a happy camper.

What is the O.D. of your C5TE pulley and does it have a slot for a woodruff key.  I’m not certain I absolutely need to have a woodruff key as it seem a lot of the alternators don’t have them.  Is it possible to post a picture of the pulley?

I’m good to go on the crankshaft, water pump and power steering pulley’s, just the generator dual groove pulley is the one I’m struggling to track down.