In a message dated 7/2/99 4:06:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
trumpet@bellsouth.net writes:
> So, it's the 4th of July weekend, 4:00PM Friday afternoon and my TR6
> decided to be uncooperative. My son drove it about four blocks from
> home, let it die and it won't start now.
> The battery is ok -oddly, since thats what I've been asking about
> recently - and when I crank the ignition all I get is a click from the
> relay. Hummm? Wonder what the problem is?
> Any ideas? I've cleaned the battery terminals & tapped the relay,
> starter solinoid, wiggled all the electrical connections, removed the
> distributer cap & checked the points and done a lot of sweating and
> cursing (under my breath).
> Your suggestions are welcomed, thakn y'all.
John,
Since the relay clicks, half of your trouble shooting is done. Here's what to
do for the other half. But before you do any testing, make sure the battery
cables and connections, both at the battery and at the solenoid, or in good
condition, with no corrosion.
Step one: First, put the car in neutral, hand brake on, and key off.
Step two: Pull the white with red stripe wire off the solenoid on the
starter. With a piece of 14 gauge or larger wire, jumper from the battery
positive post to the terminal where you just removed the w/r wire. Does the
engine turn over? If not, you have a bad solenoid or a bad starter motor. If
so, go to step 3. Did the solenoid "clunk when you did this? If so, we need
to do some more checking, so go to step 4. If not, then the solenoid is bad.
Be sure to reconnect the w/r wire.
Step three: If the engine turned over in step two, you have a wiring problem.
Reconnect the w/r wire to the solenoid. Find the terminal on the starter
relay with the w/r wire. Connect a voltmeter or a test lamp to this terminal,
and turn the key to the start position. Did you get 12 volts? If so, the w/r
wire is broken, disconnected, or has a bad connection somewhere between here
and the solenoid. No voltage? Either the relay is bad, or the power lead to
the relay is faulty. With the key off, look for 12 volts on the brown wires
to the relay. If you have voltage here, the relay is bad; if not, there is a
break or bad connection in the brown wire, which needs to be fixed.
Step four: If the solenoid clunked, then we need to see if it is the solenoid
or the starter motor that is bad. With the key off, car in neutral, and the
hand brake on, use one lead from a pair of jumper cables to jumper from the
battery positive post directly to the starter. If you look closely at the
starter/solenoid, you will see a large terminal on the solenoid where the
large cable from the battery attaches. On the solenoid just below that, you
will see another large terminal, with either a large wire or a copper bus bar
going from this solenoid into the starter itself. Connect one end of the
jumper cable to the battery positive, and FIRMLY press the other end to this
lower solenoid terminal. If the motor spins, the solenoid is bad; if not, the
starter motor is bad. Note: the starter will not spin the engine when you do
this, it will just freewheel, as the solenoid has been bypassed.
Hope this helps1
Dan Masters,
Alcoa, TN
'71 TR6---------3000mile/year driver, fully restored
'71 TR6---------undergoing full restoration and Ford 5.0 V8 insertion - see:
http://members.aol.com/danmas/
'74 MGBGT---3000mile/year driver, original condition - slated for a V8 soon
'68 MGBGT---organ donor for the '74
|