Well, it's almost all back together -- the Green Car, that is.
I located the missing lower bolt for the starter and hooked everything
back yesterday. I tightened the last couple of engine mounting bolts,
gave a loose bolt on the transmission a few twists, checked the charge
in the battery (thanks again for the loan of the trickle-charger, Daren!)
and...
...decided to crank it over.
No dice.
The fuel pump clicked, which was a lovely sign. The lights were bright,
everything seemed to be going smoothly right up to the point at which I
turned the key from On to Start. Nothing happened.
Well, that's not exactly true. When I turn the key, nothing happens,
but when I *release* the key, I can hear the solenoid click open.
But I don't hear it click when I turn the key to Start.
On the assumption that the battery might simply be too pooped to run the
starter even if it would run the fuel pump and the lights, we backed the
car out into the driveway (after verifying that the engine wasn't frozen)
and hooked it up to the ZX, which has a voltmeter. (That, BTW, is about
the limit of my electrical troubleshooting gear.) I let the ZX charge
on the B's battery for a few minutes, then tried the M.G.'s key again.
Still nothing. And furthermore, the voltmeter in the ZX didn't even
wobble when I turned the B's key to Start.
I've been trying to figure this one out. The starter I've got, for the
benefit of those just coming in, came from the original '71 MGB motor
that I took out this summer. I cleaned it externally (for which our
absent friend Tim Pettenati can express belated gratitude; Tim took the
starter out back in July, and it was completely covered with black goo),
and replaced the bolts that should have held the solenoid onto the starter
(this is one of the integrated solenoid-starter units, not the Bendix
drive units from earlier Bs).
On this starter, all wires connect to one post of the solenoid; the one
that matters most is the battery cable. A couple of brown wires bolt to
that post too, and a white-brown wire connects to a spade lug and runs
to the ignition switch. That all works; all the ignition-related stuff
(lights, fuel pump, etc) work when I turn the key.
So either:
- The battery just doesn't have enough amps in it to throw the starter.
I suppose I could most easily test this by trying to start, say, the
Volvo (same size engine, similar construction, etc.) with this battery,
which is a newish (last winter) 12V battery that's been sitting most of
the summer and fall, disconnected from the car but only on a trickle-
charger for about two weeks.
- The drive gear might be wedged in some weird direction, jamming the
solenoid arm so that it is already closed. But from what I know
about electric motors (which is some, after my slot-car racing
experience, though probably still less than Pat V. has forgotten),
I would have expected to see *some* voltage flicker on the Datsun's
gauge if we had been dumping any current into the starter. This
leads to my most likely scenario:
- The solenoid somehow isn't making contact properly. It's obviously
closing to a low-load ground, as the lights, pump etc. work. And
it's also obviously moving to some degree, as it clicks. But it
might not be closing to a degree sufficient to make the high-load
connection required to turn the starter. (Most likely, some of
that high-grade crude that I swabbed off the starter is gumming
up the contacts inside the solenoid.)
I suppose the next step would be to check resistance across the two
poles of the solenoid and compare that against resistance from the
input pole ofthe solenoid to ground on the block. I guess I should
have asked Santa for a DMM... :-)
Oh well. At least now I know how to install the starter and which
bolt goes where.
--Scott "I just hate having to redo work, though" Fisher
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