Thread: Starting dramas.... Live from a carpark in Brunswick!!!

Update: after an hour of no starting it fired up out of the blue, no struggling whatsoever, when I got it safely home I tried turning it off and back on and the same fault has returned, I'll check again in the morning but I'll bet any $ that it fires cold first go...

When it fails to start next time, try wriggling the wires that connect to the starter, could be a bad earth in there somewhere. This is what helped mine last time it did a similar thing to what you're describing, but I haven't yet fixed mine - the joys of intermittant faults.

Also look at the starter motor relay ( should be one of the relays in the engine bay firewall) . Old ones there can get corroded.

Does it have a crank angle sensor? When these fail it's always a case of won't start hot, will cold.

This happened on both my Rangie and my Landcruiser. I took the solenoid apart and cleaned it up and it has not occured since. Not sure if it was poor connections or if it was just getting so worn the gaps were getting too large to make a circuit?
I now have a new boxed unit sitting in my shed waiting to be called into action, or just looking for a new home.

Well this morning I did a little test, car started several times when cold, then I let it idle up to temp and same old problem, I know all signs point to solenoid but I'm not convinced as the symptoms are identical with the donor starter (which has no history of such dramas) also the 3.9 Lucas 14cux system, to my knowledge, doesn't use a crank angle sensor. I'll swap out the relay and see, does anyone know the part number? It's a pre serpentine 3.9 - 93 vogue se (I'm at work today without rangie so I can't get in there myself today for a squiz!)

is there an ignition coil amp module? and does it get quite warm? or the coil itself?

To positively isolate a starter fault I would run a temporary starter button under the dash. Connect a 4mm2 two core cable to the battery cable terminal on the starter and the terminal that operates the solenoid. Run this cable inside with a decent size push button. Useful in emergencies if your key switch dies, anyway.