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Hi everyone

Besides Joe driving her a little before moving to Melbourne, Alyce has been pretty much taking a well-earned rest in the garage. I took her for a spin a couple of Sundays a go and she behaved perfectly. But the other day I went to start her and she nearly started first time, turned over well enough but couldn't get anything form her after that.

Normally our Piazza might need a couple of goes starting (especially on a cold Tassie morning) but usually it kicks to life sooner rather than later. All I get now is the ticking. The battery is fine. I tried looking for the solanoid thingy and giving that a bit of a tap but didn't seem to work, either that or I was tapping the rear tail light (Joe and I unfortunately don't know a lot about cars). Some advice I received was that I give it a bit of a push whilst engaged in 4th to try and move the position of the starter motor then give it a go. I haven't tried push starting it yet either. Any ideas, anyone had a problem similar before? It's just something that appears to be between the batt and starter motor, not enough of a charge being delivered to turn Alyce over.

Cheers

Chris

If the starter is jammed rocking back and forwards in gear may loosen it you might hear a click as it drops back. One fault common to all pre engaged starters is gumming up of the works and it may just be a sticky solenoid, if it doesn't throw back far enough the contact plates dont touch and no spin thing happens. The starter itsef could be toast but unlikely if it worked okay last time. You might have to take the starter out for a look see, keep the bandaids ready to plug all the holes in your knuckles and its a shit load easier if you remove most of the wires and hoses around the place.

If not confident about skimming the armature and soldering in new brushes or don't have access to the gear to do it find an auto electrician who owes you a favour or send in a dumb blonde with real short skirt to ask for assistance.

wedgenut wrote:send in a dumb blonde with real short skirt to ask for assistance.

HMMMMM! NOICE

Thanks wedgenut

I had a problem like that three times. Here are the solutions.
Trying to start the car and just ticks:

1> Was the starter motor - they get jammed quite easily. I grabbed a broomstick and got a mate to belt the starter with the end while I tried to start it. Second try the car started nicely and worked ok since.

2> Was the fuel pump relay. In the black box in the engine bay. Change it.

3> This one had me going for hours. It seemed electrics were working since my dash lights were on etc. But it turned out after a lot of fiddling as soon as I tightened the battery terminals a lot more the car started again without a problem. Im no electrician so im not sure why, but I think there may have been only a small surface area contacing the terminal and for small scale power such as dash etc. that was enough, but to crank start the car it wasnt...

Did you get it going yet Chris????

You say the battery is all right. Is that because its fairly new??? Reason i say is because people think its the volts in the battery that start the car. Its actually the amps, a battery can still hold 12v but not have enough amps in it to crank.

Cheers, Bob

Even if it has the volts and it has all the amps if the little cross links between the plates are all corroded down to fuse wire thickness then they can't get out. When the links finally give up the ghost that's when you have a truly DEAD battery.

Blonde " My battery has gone flat"

Mechanic with oily rag "What shape should it be luv?" or " do you want me to inflate it for you?"

Thanks boys for the responses. I'm afraid we'll have to wait until the weekend to see if I can solve the problem, but at least I'll be armed with some ideas.

She's up and running again nicely. Spot on Bob!