Cold starting/slow cranking engine

[thebrookster]

6797 wrote:

Starting to think the battery is the issue  - stripped the starter back off the motor and tried it on a spare battery that I charged overnight in the garage - it kicked and flew round as I'd expect.

Sounds good!

6797 wrote:

I can JUST turn the front pulley by hand on the engine, so I guess it's not seized

OK, does suggest battery or power, I would expect the starter to turn the engine if you can turn it by hand (unless you also happen to be built like big Chris, our resident judoman, who would give any self respecting starter something to think about!!).

Marcus' suggestions could well become useful here, if further testing is warranted.

6797 wrote:

(managed to trap my finger between the pulley and the steering rack though as it went round - swore a bit!)

I'll bet you swore!! Nowt worse than that kinda trap, you feel it for ages after as well!!

[Velocita Rosso]

SPAM....you`ve a PM in the can!

[yorkshire_spam]

Confirmed. It's the battery - everyone who said "it's the battery" can now be totally smug and say "we told you so!"
I fitted the spare battery (terminals wrong way round, but it fits) and it turns over fantastically fast,
Mike - since it's not urgent I'll probably sort that battery out with you - will PM you soon.

Thanks Guys! You kept me calm and stopped me rushing out and jumping to the wrong conclusion about my engine!

[thebrookster]

Excellent :)

Out of interest, are the terminals facing forward or back?? From what I have seen, they had the terminals facing forward originally, however I know quite a few people now prefer to get a battery with the terminals the "wrong" way round, and simply fit it backwards so that the terminals face the rear of the car.

The common explanation for doing this is concern over the battery potentially shorting out over the clamp, turning the battery round obviously alleviates this risk. It also incidentally gives you a wider ranger of batteries to choose from, if you ever need to get one in a hurry.

I know my last Spitfire I turned the battery round, though my reasons were slightly more mercenary. I was scrapping my old Vectra at the time, and had an old battery in the Spitfire. Seeing as the Vectra had recently had an "uprated" battery fitted new, I was loath to send it to the scrapper, so I switched the batteries round ;)