Starting twilight zone

[snezza69]

Been having some problems starting recently where on turn over it sounds laboured.   Slow and sluggish starter motor and quickly fades.  I thought I was getting some battery drain over night so I began disconnecting the battery.  This seemed to help but occasionally I get the same problem.  A jump start does seem to help but think the problem may be elsewhere.

Any suggestions?

[gecko]

ive also been having the same thing its doing me head in i think its time for a new battrey ,,,,,,hope so any way

[muddyweb]

Remove, check and clean all the connections, including the earth straps.

Could be other, expensive things... but always check these first

[drmike]

Tim's right about the earths but I had a similar problem and I deduced that as I did almost all my driving in the dark the puny alternator wasn't really charging the battery all that much.

I disconnected the glow plugs which must draw quite q bit of power and made a point of running in daylight as much as I could to let the battery get some charge. The Disco with a bigger alternator is unaffected but the 90 suffered like you described.

Mike

[snezza69]

Remove, check and clean all the connections, including the earth straps.

Could be other, expensive things... but always check these first

What other things could it be?  The reason I ask is this vehicle is a donor vehicle for an ongoing project and the last thing I want tot do is place defective parts onto the new vehicle.

[hobbit]

Try a battery jump lead from the battery negative to a good clean bit if solid metal on the engine and try starting it that way

I take it if you boost from another vehicle it starts ok?

[snezza69]

I take it if you boost from another vehicle it starts ok?

I thought that it worked but I occasionally had problems still.  It seems to be a very intermittent problem which is why I thought the problem was elsewhere.  Could it be a problem with the starter motor?

[hobbit]

Have you battery load tested first, less hassle, it may be down a cell

Unless you have a load tester, and a hydrometer then you can do it yourself

If it comes back ok, make sure all the wiring to the starter is in good condition, clean and tight as already said, if the feed wire is in a bad condition it may well something to do with it. If you have a spare starter motor swap it.

If you can clip a jump lead from the Pos on the battery to the terminal on the starter all the bettera nd try that. I'm presuming that the start is a pre-engaged one

[snezza69]

New battery, same problem as with the old one!

[hobbit]

Sounds like leads or starter then. As the problem with earthing is always worth checking out, the thing with the positive lead is it can cause as much problems or more. If you can run a lead to the connection on the starter, when try to start it, at least it will tell you if the problem is in the wiring or starter

[snezza69]

Thanks will try that tomorrow and let you know.