My car has had hot cranking problems ever since it was built 5 years ago.  Over the years I've replaced batteries, Battery isolator switches,  swapped starter motors and put a relay on the start circuit. It comes good for a while and then rears its head again, usually when its double or triple entered and parked in a queue of cars, but its generally a lotto any time after recce whether it will crank. 
 
I was looking at replacing the starter solenoid or replacing the starter with a gear reduction starter from castle electrics. After checking the voltage at the starter I'm dropping 2V between the battery & starter at crank, so I'm thinking to address that first by replacing the current Battery & Earth cabling first as the current set up is made from different 10mm cable from spare parts bins, mostly truck battery cable. 
 
B&S (Battery & Starter) rated cable seems to be what to look for. What size would be suitable for the pinto trying to turn 11:1 compression.  Below is a chart from 1 of the numerous Oz suppliers who sell B&S rated cable.
 
http://www.tycab.com.au/a...e/battery-starter.html

I use 2 guage B&S with my battery in the boot.

is it the timing advanced too much, or the compression too high causing the problem?

thanks, orders some 2 b&s

war
is it the timing advanced too much, or the compression too high causing the problem?

Hadnt given either too much thought until now, because of the history. I did increase both CR and timing at xmas to match the new cam. Looking at my timing advance. its at 13deg at 1000rpm which is idle speed, and 16deg at 850 to compensate for no idle valve. Its likely it uses the 16deg at cranking speeds as 850 is my lowest timing bin. If the cabling doesn't help, the MS has a setting to reduce/advance the cranking timing. , thanks.

i changed my cranking timing and it help with my starting. good luck

when you say it doesnt crank, do you mean you get nothing or is it just not starting the engine?
 
if you are getting nothing then it could be the earth from your engine to the chassis. 
if it is ignition then it should turn over but go real slow or stop when one of the cylinders fire. its likely it would struggle with that much advance. you could recurve the distributor to give you less cranking advance as War mentioned.

gazz
when you say it doesnt crank, do you mean you get nothing or is it just not starting the engine?
 
if you are getting nothing then it could be the earth from your engine to the chassis. 
if it is ignition then it should turn over but go real slow or stop when one of the cylinders fire. its likely it would struggle with that much advance. you could recurve the distributor to give you less cranking advance as War mentioned.

When it plays up, its exactly like a flat battery and doesnt or barely turns over. It will start off jumper leads which is likely the extra volt & a bit from the running car or wait till it cools down.
War has given me some ideas to solve another issue, when it is hot and does crank its lethargic unless i crack the throttle a bit. I put that down to no air flow, but it makes more sense its my extra timing at 0 tps in the 850rpm bin. Ill fiddle with cranking retard a bit to see how this goes.
Hopefully the new cable will turn up this week and in on the weekend. Have a khanacross the following weekend, then another a f/n later and then a rallysprint in sept to rap up our year at westlakes.

rallyrs
thanks, orders some 2 b&s

 The problem will disappear. 10mm2 is way too small.
Battery in engine bay, min 35mm2 (or 2AWG). Battery in boot, 50mm2 (0AWG)
 
http://www.engineeringtoo...-wire-gauge-d_731.html

A khanacross and a hillclimb done and started everytime :-). Hillclimb scrutineers did complain the battery isolator didnt cut the engine. guess i now have to think about rerouting the alternator charge wire back to the battery side of the isolator switch or something else using a big relay