Club 80-90 Forums

No that doesn't sound right!

With a fully charged battery the starter should be capable of turning the engine over continuosly without stopping!
However...it is generally advisable to avoid continuos cranking and only turn the engine over in 5 second bursts giving the starter a rest in between.

When all said and done, the engine should start within a very short period, at the first or second attempt..the fact that the starter 'stops' then goes again still indicates further problems with the positive feed or main earth points.

Martin

cheers!

I will keep at it! Thanks for the advice!

Got the van going today! The rotor arm was not in properly, hence the pause in the starter!

All sorted now, driven it a few times today with no issues! Actually been running much better than usual!

cheers all
Danny

One of those eh! moments....as I don't know how the rotor arm would'nt be in properly..it's on a D drive and can't fit any other way...and besides, how who the rotor arm cause a pause in the starter? maybe a pause starting lol.
Anyway...good to hear it's OK.
Martin

California Dreamin wrote:One of those eh! moments....as I don't know how the rotor arm would'nt be in properly..it's on a D drive and can't fit any other way...and besides, how who the rotor arm cause a pause in the starter? maybe a pause starting lol.
Anyway...good to hear it's OK.
Martin

Hi Martin....if the rotor arm is not depressed fully....it doesn't play ball. I had that experience. We put a new one in, it ran fine for a while, then started to play up - the occassional miss, backfire, until it wouldn't run at all. The embassassment when the AA turned up, and in doing the checks found the rotor arm wasn't seated propertly....I felt a right plonker . Push it home properly now...

It affects the starter because it's slipping on the shaft and every now and again it fires a cylinder well before TDC trying to push the cylinder back down.

Forgive me but I didn't think the distributor cap could go on and fasten down if the rotor arm wasn't fully down and the only way the arm can be fully down is if the arm is located correctly on the drive flat?
I know that there is a few millimeters of carbon bush/spring on the king lead centre but surely not enough that the rotor would be 'off it's drive' ?
Having gone through a 5 year apprenticeship and a further 8 years on the shop floor, fitting the rotor arm correctly just comes as second nature, I really didn't think the the distributor cap would fit with lug into notch if the arm wasn't seated?
Martin

Hi Danny,

I have had part of the problem you have been having - that is the battery not charging properly, resulting in the voltage dropping below 13, then 12, then not starting, even after charging overnight.

What I did was to connect a multimeter to the battery and check it while I was driving around. I noticed that the voltage did not always go up as it should when running and charging.

I then checked the output from the alternator and it was fine. On my van, there is one cable that comes from the alternator and piggy backs off the connection on the starter before going to the battery.

So I disconnected the lead from the alternator to the starter and put my ammeter in line and found that the output from the alternator was not reaching the starter. There was an intermittent break in the cable and it was only charging now and then.

I ran a new cable from the alternator to the starter and it has been brilliant ever since.

This is not the total solution to your problems but it may be part of it and its quite easy to check. Good luck!

Cheers
Jon

Hi Jon,

When I read your post I thought 'brilliant' as I have exact same symptoms, i.e. battery not charging BUT there is 14V coming out of back of alternator when running.

However, I've continuity checked the positive coming out of alternator directly with the positive lead connect to battery. There is continuity there even when I wiggle the wire from alt to starter.

As soon as I turn ignition on, there is no continuity only open circuit. This persists when the van is running, hence no charge.

As soon as I turn ignition off, with no red lights on dash, I get continuity back.

To say I'm bamboozled would be understating it!

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

James

Hi James,

I still think it's a similar problem. From memory there are two wires from the battery. One feeds the starter and alternator and the other one feeds the auxiliary circuits.

Why not try running a new cable (use a jump lead) directly from the battery to the starter and see if it makes a difference.

Best of luck
Cheers
Jon

California Dreamin wrote:Forgive me but I didn't think the distributor cap could go on and fasten down if the rotor arm wasn't fully down and the only way the arm can be fully down is if the arm is located correctly on the drive flat?
I know that there is a few millimeters of carbon bush/spring on the king lead centre but surely not enough that the rotor would be 'off it's drive' ?
Having gone through a 5 year apprenticeship and a further 8 years on the shop floor, fitting the rotor arm correctly just comes as second nature, I really didn't think the the distributor cap would fit with lug into notch if the arm wasn't seated?
Martin

Years ago knew a guy who managed to get three cassettes into a car cassette player. Blamed the player for not working.