Rich_s Posted October 15, 2012 Share Posted October 15, 2012 As the weather turns cold again my Spit 1500 starts to get starting problems again, it does it every year, when its cold the engine turns over a little bit too slowly, if i leave it till the afternoon when the temp is much higher it turns over normally, all summer been fine, nows its cold its back to its old tricks again.the starter is in good ish condition, earth path checked and very little resistance back to the battery, all connections cleaned up to shiny metal and covered in grease once reconnected up to stop then corroding.Been and checked the solenoid and i get 12.8 at battery, 12.8 at the battery post on the solenoid, at the other post with ignition completely off i get about 3 volts ?????? battery does not discharge though. if i disconnect the starter motor and turn the ignition as if starting it i get 12.4 volts at the other post, could it be time for a new starter solenoid????thanksrich Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
piman Posted October 15, 2012 Share Posted October 15, 2012 Hello Rich, measuring with the starter disconnected is meaningless, you will still get battery voltage even if there is a high resistance across the contacts. Reconnect the starter and measure from one terminal to the other while cranking the engine, if there is any significant voltage doing that then the solenoid needs replacing. The more brutal test is to short the two terminals with a screwdriver, if the starter cranks then it's a duff solenoid. Lots of sparks with the last test!Alec Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doug Paterson Posted October 15, 2012 Share Posted October 15, 2012 piman wrote:Hello Rich, measuring with the starter disconnected is meaningless, you will still get battery voltage even if there is a high resistance across the contacts. Reconnect the starter and measure from one terminal to the other while cranking the engine, if there is any significant voltage doing that then the solenoid needs replacing. The more brutal test is to short the two terminals with a screwdriver, if the starter cranks then it's a duff solenoid. Lots of sparks with the last test!AlecAye - if doing that one use a BIG screwdriver and hold on to the handle ;D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich_s Posted October 15, 2012 Author Share Posted October 15, 2012 i disconnected the starter just to try and find any resistance that shouldnt be there, the earth path back is all fine and as it should be, the live to the solenoid is fine and from the solenoid to the starter is fine so thought i'd try the solenoid, am thinking something is not right if the starter side has power all the time, and would of thought the voltage drop through the solenoid should not be that noticeable....i have access to another one so will check what the figures are like with that, mine is possibly the original as rather old looking...rich Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebrookster Posted October 15, 2012 Share Posted October 15, 2012 Doug_P wrote:Aye - if doing that one use a BIG screwdriver and hold on to the handle ;DWould an old hammer (as in the wooden handle type) may do the same job? You are further away from the live bits that way :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich_s Posted October 16, 2012 Author Share Posted October 16, 2012 have used that trick a few times when working on cars that wont tick over, when you get sick of going round and turning the key you just stick whatever tool you have to hand across the posts and up it fires :) get a few sparks but never had that much, just tend to find the tool tries to get welded to the posts so have to be quick :)rich Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkDeTriomphe Posted October 16, 2012 Share Posted October 16, 2012 932 wrote:As the weather turns cold again my Spit 1500 starts to get starting problems again, it does it every year, when its cold the engine turns over a little bit too slowly, if i leave it till the afternoon when the temp is much higher it turns over normally, all summer been fine, nows its cold its back to its old tricks again.the starter is in good ish condition, earth path checked and very little resistance back to the battery, all connections cleaned up to shiny metal and covered in grease once reconnected up to stop then corroding.Been and checked the solenoid and i get 12.8 at battery, 12.8 at the battery post on the solenoid, at the other post with ignition completely off i get about 3 volts ?????? battery does not discharge though. if i disconnect the starter motor and turn the ignition as if starting it i get 12.4 volts at the other post, could it be time for a new starter solenoid????thanksrichI had exactly the same symptoms on the MX-5 - put up with it like that for 2 winters! In the end I found out it was just the battery - £15 for a second hand battery from the local scrappy and been fine ever since.Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich_s Posted October 16, 2012 Author Share Posted October 16, 2012 mine has done it ever since i put it back on the road, brand new battery no difference, have to use a jump pack some days and even then it dont spin as faster as i think it should, have tried swapping the battery for the one off my dads MGB, figured if it can turn over a 1.8 then a 1.5 should be no problem, wrong, on the cold days it would barely turn over, am going to try a different solenoid and if no change then a diff starter motor, hopefully one of them will improve it.thanksrich Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich_s Posted December 1, 2012 Author Share Posted December 1, 2012 After a few weeks of it being very close to not starting in the mornings i may have found the problem! took the starter apart and the 2 live brushes are 8mm and service limit is 9.5 ish, have packed them out a bit to make them sit higher and will be trying to start it in the morning to see if makes a difference although does seem to spin over faster already so fingers crossed this is a quick easy fix!Rich Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yorkshire_spam Posted December 1, 2012 Share Posted December 1, 2012 Fingers crossed! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich_s Posted December 2, 2012 Author Share Posted December 2, 2012 FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! just out to a very frozen car and it fired up perfectly, engine spun much faster than normal so think i have found the problem, only taken 2.5 years to find it ;D only goes wrong when cold so have just put up with it, off to order some new bits so can have a proper fix, bits of perspex are nor really a permanent fix....rich Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yorkshire_spam Posted December 2, 2012 Share Posted December 2, 2012 Great result. easy fix too once you get some new brushes! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich_s Posted December 9, 2012 Author Share Posted December 9, 2012 The cause of all the problems, and for once its a cheap and easy fix: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yorkshire_spam Posted December 9, 2012 Share Posted December 9, 2012 That's pretty much what mine looked like when I rebuilt the starter recently. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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