ragin rover wrote:hi John,
No its not....
Mark.
Can you hear the starter solenoid click in when you try to start it?
How good is your batteries charge? Turn the headlights on - they should be bright and remain bright when you hold the ignition key in the start position.
The starter motor has a solenoid mounted on top of it.
The solenoid has 2 large terminals with hexagon nuts on them and 2 terminals with push on connections.
The 2 large terminals are power for the starter motor. A heavy cable from the battery runs to the outer terminal. A short cable runs from the inner terminal to the starter motor. When the solenoid is energised (by turning the ignition switch to start position) an electromagnet closes the contact inside the solenoid to connect the 2 large terminals together (so battery power gets to the motor).
If the starter motor is ok it should spin if you touch a jumper lead from the battery + terminal to the inner terminal.
The larger of the other 2 spade type terminal is where the power is supplied to the solenoid (to energise the solenoid and close the contact) brown wire with red stripe. The small spade terminal has a white wire with purple stripe that runs to the ignition coil.
If the solenoid is ok, the starter motor should spin if you touch a jumper lead from the battery + terminal to the larger spade terminal. When you do this, if you hear the solenoid click in, but starter motor does not spin, the contacts inside the solenoid are faulty - usually high resistance from corrosion of copper contacts which can often be cleaned with a file if you pull it apart.
The brown wire with red stripe (that energises the solenoid) comes from the starter relay - on early rangies the relay (unpainted metal cover) is in the engine bay, on the firewall, to the left of the engine. There are 4 terminals on the relay. A black wire to earth, a white with red stripe from the ignition switch. A brown that is power from the battery terminal on the starter solenoid and a large brown wire with a red stripe that runs from the relay to energise the starter solenoid (spade connector). Later models than my 84 may be a little different.
Check the connections on the starter relay. Sometimes the wired dont have a good electrical contact on the spade terminals - often pull them off and refit will fix this.
With a multi-meter you should be able to measure voltage at the white/red and brown/red terminals of the starter relay when key is switched to start. The smaller brown wire from the battery terminal on the starter solenoid should have power all the time (while battery is connected).
Good luck.
