Starter Motor..Engine Not turning

[mark030358]

Not sure if to post this topic here or under engine, anyway I 'll start withit here. And I know this is similar (but different) to a post by "Worzel" (whih provided no solution)...

About a month or two ago I found that on trying to start the car I go the dreaded solenoid click click... had been perfect before this...

Ok I thought, flat battery, even though it had been on a trickle charger. So charged it up and same again, click click click. Bugger, could it be a stuck starter. I have a high torque, gear reduction unit fitted (by Brise). So, put the car in gear and rocked/pushed it about, tried again and hey presto engine spins like a demon and starts.

So this is where it gets interesting. Backed the car out of the garage, when in the house, came out, jumped in the car and... guess what... exactly the same, click click click. Ok into second gear again, rocked the car forward and hey presto she spins and starts, loads of power in the battery it seems as the spinning rpms are quite high.

Now this also happened again today, same symptoms, click click click then a push forward when in gear, (to take off the compression stroke??)... try again and hey presto, fine cranking speed and she starts.. (I am assuming the engine will stop rotating in much the same position(s) ie coming onto a compression stoke).

So do I have a duff battery, duff starter, or duff ring gear...

thanks....

[john.p.clegg]

Mark

I would think it is as simple as the "mesh" of your starter pinion into the ring gear,I don't know if this pushes the pinion or pulls the pinion but it looks like the chamfer is not doing its job,check the pinion and ring gear chamfers ( if you have both) are facing each other...

John

[l10tus]

Mark,

For what it's worth................

I had similar issues after a full engine re-build, I persevered thinking that things would get better after running / bedding in, but they didn't!

After replacing battery leads, starter, solenoid s, etc, I inadvertently discovered the new battery was just not man enough - and replaced with a larger capacity one.

Problem solved! - check the spec / size of your battery for starters, eh?

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Philip.

[Spyder fan]

Mark,
Check the earth lead from the battery to the earthing point on the chassis, tighten up bolts on battery and earthing lead, then go to the front of the car and check the earthing strap from the engine, once again tighten bolts.

I spent a very frustrating hour one cold morning when I had to be on my way to Peterborough and wanted to beat the queue's at the Dartford tunnel. Click click click was all I got from the starter motor, I changed batteries, tried my booster charger, put the car in gear and rocked it back and forth, all to no avail. Everything else on the car worked perfectly.

The earth lead from the battery was loose at it's connection to the earthing point in the boot, two turns with a spanner and the starter came back to life.

[rjaxe]

Something that's easy to try: I have had the dreaded "click-click" symptom using my high torque starter which in my case turned out to be a high voltage drop through the starter position on the ignition switch. For whatever reason there was insufficient volts to pull in/out? the starter solenoid before it had made the main drive circuit. I found this out in desperation whilst on holiday with random "click-click" occurrences when I jumped the starter solenoid feed direct to the battery lead. So my cure was to by-pass the ignition start position with a meaty push button starter switch mounted in the dash. Never had a problem since.
So it might be worth temporarily by-passing the ignition switch to eliminate this as a cause.

[bobm3142]

Hi,

This was a common problem with many makes of cars of the 1950's, 60's & 70's. Is the starter motor really trying? You can tell by trying to start (when it will not turn over) with the head lights on. If they dim significantly then either the starter motor is really trying or the battery (and/or electrical circuit) is not. 9 times out of 10 it was the bendix sticking and was virtually always overcome by either rocking the car (in gear) or rotating the starter motor with a spanner. Cleaning and lubricating the bendix spiral usually worked for a short while but replacement bendix was always the best policy.

Regards,

Bob