A week and a half ago, I brought home an early 70's Allis FPB 20-24 1 ton capacity forklift. The lift is powered by a gas (Waukesha F 133 4 cyl). Anyway; when I picked up the forklift from the seller, it started right up. It also fired right up when I unloaded it, after the 300 mi trip home.
The forklift has sat for a little over a week, with no charger on the battery. Today; I tried to start it, in order to change the oil/filter. The old Allis would not start! I put a 200 amp jump box on it, and the lift still won't start. Even after a quick charge for 30 min @ 40 amps. The carb is getting fuel (electric fuel pump is working), the ignition solenoid is working. I am sure the forklift is in neutral (checked a few times). I am not seeing the crank pulley rotating with the ignition engaged? It sounds and seems like the starter motor isn't kicking in, when the key is turned on. I am thinking either the batt is going bad, or the starter motor crapped out? I even took a rubber mallet and gave the starter a few wacks, but still not start. I am going to put the battery on a trickle charger over night, and go from there. Will probably start with a new battery, then go on to the starter motor. Any idea how big you can go with CCA rating (cold cranking amps) on these little 4 cyl forklifts? Also; on a shuttle shift clutch, you don't have to have the clutch pedal engaged, on start up - do you? I am sure as long as the lift is in neutral, it should start? Any help is greatly appreciated!
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Johnr,
Thanks for the reply! I finally found my multi-meter, and checked the ignition solenoid (which is good), and the batt (not good). The battery was under 12 volts. I also pulled all the cables (pos batt cable, neg bat cable, and starter cable) - as they were pretty tattered! I am going to get a new battery and cables at NAPA tomorrow. That should solve the starting issue, I hope.
Also, I attempted to pull the old belt on the engine/alt. From what it appears, the rear hydraulic pump - on the crank pulley, will need to be removed, in order to change out the belt. I see no other way to removing the belt? It sure would be nice to have an operators manual, but so far, I can't locate one.
First, you might want to make certain your cables going to the starter are in good shape (no worn insulation spots- generally caused by rubbing or flexing) and the terminal connections are clean & not corroded plus check your battery terminal & connections then clean battery negative ground cable at both ends (battery & ground end).
I memory serves me right these units have a starter solenoid, when these go bad you can have a no starting issue - you can jump the solenoid terminals & activate the starter - be careful when doing this - used to do this often on my first $150 car a '51 Ford when I didn't have the coins to buy even a good used one.
And as I recall the manual transmission units (you call a shuttle tranny) did not have a neutral start switch only the units equipped with a torque converter transmission (aka Power Shift transmission). I used to work at Allis Chalmers lift truck plant and my first job in '67 was writing parts, service & operators publications for these trucks.
A quick check on your battery is to test it with a volt meter after it has been charged. Battery voltage should be at least 12.6 volts after the battery is taken off the charger & has sat for several hours to cool down & avoid getting a surface charge reading (which is always a bit higher than actual).
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