starting trouble

[army2a]

hey guys, having some issues starting my landy :toilet: Sounds like the battery is flat but has good voltage and everything else works fine. Im changing the starter solenoid tommorow ncase its a bad connection in that and replacing the active lead to the starter and battery. The engine earths seem to be clean and making a good connection. Has anyone had this issue? Im hoping its not the starter itself :wallbash:

[Michael2]

try jump starting it, if it's just the battery, then it should still jump start on another battery (or just swap batteries). If the problem persists, then re-examine the cables.

If you have a crank handle, turn the motor a half turn, and see if the current battery starts it up okay. I sometimes found the point of the compression cycle that the motor was stopped at, could make it hard to start (2.25 petrol).

[army2a]

thanks for the reply, i have 2 batterys in parrallel so there is plenty of power there, and the batterys are only about 2 months old. Everything else works as normal, but when it trys to start, it struggles to turn the motor over.

[gromit]

It could be the starter motor bush. When it wears the starter motor rotor gets too close to the windings and 'poles'. Rather than generating a rotary motion the rotor is just pulled towards the windings.
I had this on a Series 2 some time back, replaced the bush and all worked OK again.


Colin

[Blknight.aus]

seconded on the starter motor. JIC, turn it over on the crank handle in neutral to make sure its not galled up inside.

[isuzurover]

If the batteries, cables and connections are good then it must be the starter. Just make sure you clean and check all connections before pulling the starter apart.

I had a 2.25D starter that was shorting internally. Result was it cranked slowly but the cables got VERY hot.

What are your cable temps like when cranking?

[JDNSW]

Third on the starter motor - check the temperature of the starter after trying to start.

It could be a bad connection - check this with either a meter measuring the voltage between the battery pole and the starter itself - even turning the motor the drop should be less than 1v. If this is OK, check the voltage between the starter motor frame and the battery negative pole - should be very close to zero, perhaps 0.1. If either of these voltages is higher, use the meter to check where the bad connection is.

If the battery is earthed to the chassis, a bad connection between chassis and engine is often the problem. Should be a cable somewhere.

John