Club 80-90 Forums

Van has been playing up for a couple of days! Starts first turn in the morning, then starts straight up again at lunch, but wont start after about 3/4 hour.
Fryed the starter trying to get the problem sorted the other night and have just fitted brand new starter today!It started without problem, turn it off and just turns over and over!!!!
Have now traced it to stop solenoid.Have power with ignition on but nothing when cranking.If i drop a live over from the battery to start it will then tick over and run with this wire removed and the original connected back up.Anybody got any ideas????

Could actually be your ignition barrel (the one in which you turn the key)not making proper contact.

i am having the same problem- starts fine form cold most if the time when hot but if warm doesn't want to know. have ended up having a few hour breaks rather than just 30mins on a recent trip back from the lakes. if you get to the bottom of it please let me know. i was just about to order a new starter motor too

pete23
As long as it starts properly from cold, your starter is not the problem.

Cold is ok, hot is ok ..."warm" isn't ?
Sounds to me like your engine could do with some extra glow-plug action when warm.

There's a trick how to persuade your glow plugs into glowing even though the engine is warm ...can't find it right now ...will try and dig it up.

You are using the "choke" on startup? ...because that also helps immensly.

ok ...this is second hand info now, I've never had to do this myself (yet)

At the front end of your cylinder head, where the coolant outlet is, there should be two temperature sensors. One feeds the dial in the cockpit, the other one tells the glowplugs how long to glow.
If you disconnect that one, your glow plugs should glow for their maximum time, whatever the engine temperature. This should fix your "warm" starting problem.

If it does, invest in a new sensor.

thanks for the info- i will get onto those sensors!
i had been trying the choke but it made no difference
pete

it has taken some time but finally sorted the hot starting problem - a new fuel pump
wasnt cheap but now starts first time everytime hot, cold or warm
messed around with glow plugs, sensors, relay kits etc all to no avail
happy camping this summer