S'gotta be the starter?!?!?

[Myles]

My k-series wont turn over fast enough to catch from cold. New battery (Powervamp) - but it ain't man-enough just now. Give it a jump and it's fine.

 

I've had problems with my Brise a few times before - its been back to fix a dry/high-resistance connection more than once. Guess its time to send it back one more time ☹️

[jradley]

Have you got a different battery you could try - it may not be the starter but could be a faulty Powervamp or maybe it hasn't been charging properly (eg. faulty alternator).

 

I would start by checking the voltage on the battery at rest and also what the voltage drops to when the starter is turning. Also check all the connections to the battery, starter and earth leads are all clean and tight.

 

Once you have ruled out everything else, then I would suspect the starter.

 

Cheers,

 

John

[Myles]

The alternator is brand new and is putting out very-healthy volts. I've tried wiring up the old Powervamp in parallel to no avail.

 

I cleaned the earth strap yesterday (well, the chassis end of it - will take a look at the engine end after lunch) and cleaned and checked all if the major connections (alternator to starter to battery) a few weeks ago,

 

The only three things left are the fia-switch, the starter and (pretty unlikely) the battery.

 

It's a bit hard to tell what the voltage drops to during cranking - the refresh rate on the SPA gauge is set quite slow and I don't currently have clips to secure my dvm leads to the battery terminals. And I have no helpers. I could datalog via the emerald - worth a shot, but it's always a bit of guesswork when the thing that does the measurement is powered from the thing you're trying to measure!

 

I think I might pop round to maplin later and get some dvm crocs.

[charlie_pank]

Lots of stuff in the archives about this, it can be a number of things combined together to cause the symptoms, fixing any one of them can give results leading people to assert that they've identified the problem and assume it will be the same for everyone else:

 

 

1. Battery doesn't have enough charge

2. Alternator isn't charging proplerly

3. Wiring between starter and battery is too hot, or degraded

4. Connections to start are 'dry'

5. Relay is 'cooked'

6. FIA switch has poor contacts

7. Starter solenoid full of gunk

8. Starter solenoid piston scored/sticky

[charlie_pank]

Happy to give you a hand rebuilding/rewiring it Myles. I think I've even got an old/spare at the back of the garage.

[Myles]

Charlie, if you e got a k starter (and the adapter plate) handy, I might give it a go to at least try and eliminate another variable.

 

Just drove into town and back - stopping at Maplin to buy the wrong things 😔 car restarted fine - but it normally does when warm and with a recent boost from the alternator.

 

I deCided on the drive back that I would like to make a serious attempt to get the car back into regular use - the westie will still get the bulk of the use, but the Caterham can be easier to live with in traffic and/or anywhere with a car park!

[charlie_pank]

I'll just have a quick rummage...

[charlie_pank]

It turns out I've only got the solenoid: here

 

any use?

[Myles]

Nope! I've got one of those too - but no longer own the starter it belongs with! 😬

 

Thanks for looking though

 

The car had a reasonable run today - and I'll need to shuffle cars around before the long weekend is over - so ill check it all again and maybe whip the starter off and get it to Brise for a check over.