Dry it with a towel!!

[albertramsbottom]

Bless me girlfreind

Just told her that our van wont start and I suggested as we had started her for 2 months that it could be damp and in all seriousness she said do you want me to go down and dry it with a towel

[ermie571]

I find the 100% Egyptian cotton is the best...and if you use a tea towel you get into all the nooks and crannies.

As with everything, get quality - the 3 for a £1 in poundland just smear the damp all over everywhere, rather than absorbing it.

Resist the temptation to go fluffy - bits of fluff come off and get sucked into your carb the next time you run the thing. (Don't ask me how I know )

Em
x

[kevtherev]

damp vans cause no end of issues .. I'm out there with a tea towel meself after a bout of mist.

[albertramsbottom]

Well I have just been to my van and to compound all the overheating issues I cant get the bloody thing started now

It started 2 months ago but now its a very slow starter issue. Just about turns for 2 or 3 turns but very slowley. Just cleaned all the HT leads (which worked last year) but it still wont start.

I dont know why its turning over so slow now, perhaps a bad earth somwhere. Fully charged battery on this morning?

Suppose I could check the earth issue by running a jump lead from the starter battery to the earth on the starter motor. Had a secondhand starter fitted 6 months ago but it wasnt a refrub

Cheers

[ermie571]

Did your negative strap on your battery get very hot while the van was slowly cranking?

Is the battery now flat?

Em
x

[albertramsbottom]

Did your negative strap on your battery get very hot while the van was slowly cranking?

Is the battery now flat?

Em
x

Emmm I dont know I didnt check. And its very difficult to know at the moment wether the battery is dead. I would need to get my multimeter on it

Why is that?

Cheers

[kevtherev]

Had a secondhand starter fitted 6 months ago but it wasnt a refrub

Oh dear, I can never understand the logic in that, fitting second hand starters that is.
For a very essential component, that you have to rely on 100%.. all the time.

mine cost £60 from a motor factors last year.. it's great.

probably either the battery connection as Em said or the used motor and or the connections to it.

[boatdog]

dont know if this will help but my van normally starts ok but after the cold weather i went out and its the same as everyone else, cranking really slowly etc so stuck it on charge all day and charger said full, cranked it and got to normal starts then back to slow cranking, checked battery voltage and its normal (12 plus volts) however i opened engine bay up and checked voltage at starter and it was 10.5 volts! so changed the battery and its back to normal! its surprising an apparently "fully charged" battery could be dead, so if you got starting problems might be worth swapping the battery for one you know is good, eg knick it out of the wifes car, just to check before you go underneath your beloved van with the lump hammer

[albertramsbottom]

Here is thing I have just taken the air thingy off so I can see down the carbs and then operated the throttle via the balance bar could here nothing being sqaurted in to the carbs. When I have done this before I have def heard and seen fuel going in.

So here is what I think. As the engine is turning so slow and only about two revs when I try the starter then I think that there is no fuel comming up from tank. Just not turning enough to get the fuel to the carbs. Thus didn't solve the slow starter problems. But may explain the nit starting

cheers

[boatdog]

carb has a float bowl that holds a bit of fuel so should be ok try jumping it and putting a capfull of neat petrol down the carb should fire up then

[albertramsbottom]

Cheers but it's been sitting for two months so they might be empty

yeap gonna chuck a bit of fuel down em

cheers

[a1winchester]

I had a similar problem with my old series III landrover. I used to squirt some 'Quick Start' up the air intake, and it worked like magic.